Gar-Ron Productions Screen Tests

1951–56. With Jerry Lewis, Milton Berle, Jan Murray, Jack Carter, Sophie Tucker. Anticipating Andy Warhol by a decade, Jerry Lewis would often subject visitors to his Pacific Palisades home to “screen tests,” a ritual more in the line of a somewhat sadistic party game than test footage for any actual films. As with most everything Jerry shot away from the Paramount Studios in the 1950s, these screen tests were made under the Gar-Ron Productions umbrella. Also on the program is Jerry’s very first actual screen test, for the 1949 My Friend Irma, as well as some tests made during the 1960s at Paramount Studios when Jerry was at the height of his solo film career. The program concludes with the 10-minute short Nightmare, with Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.