Reports I've read state that "3 Ring Circus" was a very troubled production, ranging from stars Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis demanding a lot of script changes through filming to the fact that their partnership was at this stage becoming very strained. All of this turmoil may explain why the end results do not manage to be all that humorous. Much of the movie is surprisingly played in a lower key than usual; even Lewis doesn't go all out like he did in other movies. I will say that Lewis all the same is pretty good, especially when he's in clown makeup and performing in front of an audience. Martin does try, but the script for the most part makes him a kind of a heel instead of a humorous straight man, and often doesn't seem to know what to do with his character. There also isn't a heck of a lot of plot on display as well. The movie had potential, but this is definitely one case where everyone involved should have come to some sort of agreement first about how to do the movie - or simply not have done the movie at all.

I always loved Martin and Dean. Who knew that they could do a lot of performances with jumping on ropes or shelves. They must had to have at least 1,000 protein pills to get all the energy and fitness going haha!I have at least two favorite scene's on this, one was when Lewis and Martin had to serve custards to the public but the public were getting out of control that the machine began to malfunction. They were literally covered with Custard and you could hear the audience just laughing their heads off! Then we go onto the second, I loved when Jerry Lewis did a performance as a clown and he was talking of sadness to a little girl because she didn't find him funny. Suddenly he was successful making her laugh, the pair of them were so adorable, they just hugged with delight! It definitely warms your heart 💟This is the best Martin and Lewis film I've seen. Although I found the audio was very low so I missed out on the words on what they were saying. For the heck of it, I enjoyed so I can't complain further!

Jerry Lewis plays Jerome F. 'Jerry' Hotchkiss and Dean Martin is Peter 'Pete' Nelson, two friends who find work at the circus.Jerry's dream is to become a master clown, which he did become in real life.Joseph Pevney's 3 Ring Circus offers something for the Martin and Lewis fans they're asking for.Jerry is as zany and funny as always and Dean is as smooth and wonderful as he ever was.There are also stars like Kathleen Freeman and Zza Zza Gabor in the movie.I saw this movie in 1998 and I would like to see it again, as I would like to see a bunch of other Jerry Lewis films.This is the day when Jerry Lewis turns 80 years old.He still hasn't fully retired.On IMDb it said he's making a cameo in a movie called Horrorween, which comes out next year.He also wrote a book called Dean and Me: A Love Story.You should all read it.I sure would if only I could find it from this country.This grand old man has made so many people laugh over the years that all I can say to him is thank you.Laughter is something we all need these days.

There are some strange echoes of the real life bust up between Martin and Lewis in the script. It's saddled with Jerry's sincere but misguided belief that he is a natural clown and screen heir to Emmett Kelly, who's makeup he closely resembles in some scenes, imitation being flattery I guess. The buddies, newly discharged from the army and penniless head for the circus where Jerry, longing to become a clown instead has to apply to be a trainee lion tamer (as if..) the usual water squirting elephants and disgruntled, drunken clown lead us to the quease-inducing finale when Jerry as the clown succeeds in making a sad little girl (in leg irons, yet)smile at his tears. For 1954 audiences I'm sure it was a pleasure break from post war blues but it's well past it's sell by date. TRIVIA: Unless I'm much mistaken the sequence where Dean Martin does acrobatics on some low bars is doubled by Nick Cravat who appears elsewhere in the film and was an acrobatic partner of Burt Lancaster.