The Bellboy

The Bellboy (1960) is the silent-slapstick comedy you can watch online on iFILM, and it marks Jerry Lewis' first time in the director's chair. He also plays Stanley, a hopeless bellboy at Miami Beach's lavish Fontainebleau Hotel who barely speaks a single line across the whole picture.

There's no real plot, and that's the point. The film is a string of sketches: Stanley tries to park a fleet of cars at once, hauls impossible luggage, mixes up the guests, and turns every simple errand into a small disaster. The comedy lives entirely in his face and body — mugging, pratfalls, perfectly timed pauses. At one point Jerry Lewis himself checks in, and the staff can't get over how much he looks like Stanley.

Lewis built the whole thing in 72 minutes with no connected script, betting on pure visual gags in the spirit of silent cinema — a gamble later filmmakers from Fellini to the French New Wave would study closely. It clicks for viewers who love wordless slapstick and don't mind a movie carried by mime alone. Stream The Bellboy (1960) online on iFILM.