Post-Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis films were a mixed bag. You must totally suspend reality to enjoy the somewhat bizarre visual humor Lewis encompasses in his films. This movie is no exception for some of its gags, but for the most part, many of these bits offer genuine laughs.That future witchy mother-in-law Agnes Moorehead is at her domineering best as department store owner Phoebe Tuttle (even the name is domineering!) as she schemes to keep her beautiful daughter Jill St. John from marrying Lewis, whom Moorehead considers a useless idiot. She has her department store personnel manager Ray Walston hire Lewis and give him the worst jobs possible in hopes of discrediting him with St. John. She doesn't count on Lewis befriending her milquetoast husband (John McGiver), the in-name only president of the firm, as well as succeeding in many of the tasks and somehow escape the others without quitting and proving her right.Lewis is an acquired taste, but how can you not laugh at Lewis pretending to type to the popular instrumental ditty "The Typewriter"? He's also very funny as he finds a way to paint the tip of a 9th story flagpole. Dealing with a lady wrestler (Peggy Mondo) trying to fit into shoes way too small is painfully unfunny as is (sadly) the sequence with the usually delightful Nancy Kulp as a butch big game hunter. Usual Lewis nemesis Kathleen Freeman is wasted as another one of Lewis's customers in basically a walk-in. (Pardon the pun; Her appearance is in the shoe department.) The three most hysterical sequences involve store products-a golf ball, a small boat and a vacuum cleaner. These are all farcial in presentation and lack the violence of the other sequences mentioned above. Dick Wessel is funny in a recurring gag as a traffic cop who is the unfortunate victim of some of Lewis's work assignments gone wrong. Walston is appropriately "effette" as Moorehead's co-conspirator, but it seems odd to giver his character sort of a lothario trait.St. John has nothing to do but be lovely and noble, so she is upstaged by her on-screen parents McGiver and Moorehead. Each of them offers a lot of laughs, especially Moorehead, who is basically indistinguishable from her portrayal of "Bewitched"'s Endora. At least viewers in 1964 could see her ravishing red hair several years before "Bewitched" went to color, not to mention the blue eye shadow. Such familiar classic character comics as Fritz Feld, Mary Treen, Isobel Elsom and Milton Frome also appear in nice bits, although Feld's sequence (as manager of an exotic food shop) is literally, in bad taste.

I have this movie "Who's Minding the Store 1963" on VHS tape, but it's wore out now and is not available on VHS tape to buy anymore. So why is it taking this long to release "Who's Minding the Store" for the first time on DVD? when most of the other Jerry Lewis movies are already out on DVD. this movie would be great to have on DVD.I have this movie "Who's Minding the Store 1963" on VHS tape, but it's wore out now and is not available on VHS tape to buy anymore. So why is it taking this long to release "Who's Minding the Store" for the first time on DVD? when most of the other Jerry Lewis movies are already out on DVD. this movie would be great to have on DVD.

Reasons to watch and enjoy this film have been enumerated by other commentators here. Some others:1) The way Jill St. John's character, against all reason, is ga-ga over Jerry's. Seems like the fantasy of every dorky guy in the world: Just keep pluggin', and eventually a hot babe will develop an unreasoning crush on you.2) An early and egregious example of product placement! After all, the flick IS set in a department store, so we're treated to not-so-subliminal ads for Browning rifles (worked into Jerry's scene with Nancy Kulp), Planter's nuts (in the toasted ants scene), MacGregor outerwear etc. And of course, the star of the film (much like the chandelier in the stage musical "Phantom of the Opera") is really the Hoover vacuum cleaner in the famous appliance department scene. It even has the word HOOVER boldly emblazoned across its bag, and the name only gets bigger and bigger as the bag inflates to Thanksgiving-Day-parade balloon size.3) Already mentioned, but bears repeating: Francesca Bellini is enchantingly gorgeous, and really seems a much more exciting catch than Jill St. John!4) As mentioned, fine performances by the character actors Agnes Moorehead, John McGiver (one of his more interesting outings) and Ray Walston.5) The true inspiration of the film is the way each of the many vignettes or set pieces builds from a pianissimo of silliness all the way up to a triple fortissimo of surreality, leaving sense, taste and every other useless item behind. It is indeed a live action cartoon, and in Jerry Lewis it has a cartoon character come to life.

Jerry Lewis plays Norman Phiffier, a poodle dog walker who is going to marry a rich girl named Barbara Tuttle (Jill St. John) who works as an elevator operator at a department store.Barbara doesn't want Norman to know that she's rich.Barbara's mother Phoebe Tuttle (Agnes Moorehead) doesn't want her daughter to marry such a fool as Norman so she gets Norman a job from the store Barbara works and gets him the worst jobs.Norman has to eat fried ants for example.Frank Tashlin's Who's Minding the Store from 1963 is filled with hilarious situations.Jerry Lewis causes disasters and makes people crack up.It's hard to say the best movie of Jerry Lewis but this must be one of the them.It has everything Jerry Lewis fans need.Watch this movie if you want to get a good laugh a'la Jerry Lewis.