Hardly Working

1980 film by Jerry Lewis
the makers of the short film "Hardly Workin'"

Hardly Working is a 1980 American comedy film directed by, co written by and starring Jerry Lewis and Susan Oliver, filmed in 1979, released in Europe in 1980 and then in the United States on April 3, 1981 through 20th Century Fox. This film marks the final theatrical release for Oliver, as the rest of her career only featured on several television movies and series, before her death in 1990.

Bo Hooper, a clown, finds himself unemployed when the circus where he works suddenly closes. He winds up living with his sister, against the wishes of her husband Robert. From there he goes from job to job, wreaking havoc along the way. He finally finds some stability as a postal worker, until he finds out that his boss is his girlfriend's father. The father hates all mail carriers because his daughter's ex husband was one, so he tries to wreck Bo's life, but Bo overcomes the odds and succeeds not only at work, but at impressing the father.

Joseph Proctor set up a production company to produce his first film, based on a Michael Janover script, which Lewis agreed to direct and star in. This was Lewis' "comeback" film, as it was his first released film since 1970's Which Way to the Front?. In between, he filmed The Day the Clown Cried, which, to date, remains unreleased. Lewis set up a studio like complex in 23 rooms at the Palm Aire Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and became a joint owner of the production and placed his salary in escrow. Lewis' future wife, Sandee "Sam" Pitnick, has a cameo as a disco dancer. Lewis also played the part of the 'Little Ol' Lady' dressed in drag. During the closing credits this part was credited to "Joseph Levitch", which Lewis claimed to be his birth name. The clown makeup worn by Lewis in this film was designed by him for 1954's 3 Ring Circus and later reused in 1965's The Family Jewels.

The producers struggled to find a U. S. distributor and the film was released in West Germany on January 31, 1980. by around 20 minutes. and was number one on Variety'''s weekly film chart. It went on to gross $24 million in the United States. Both Ebert and Gene Siskel included the film in their list of the worst movies of 1981, referring to it as “one of worst, most incompetent, most chaotically constructed comedies I’ve ever seen”, agreeing that the only reason it wasn't the very worst film of the year (Siskel gave that nod to Billy Wilder's flop final film Buddy Buddy and Ebert singled out Heaven's Gate) was because those other films were more ambitious and therefore more brutal failures than a film as amateurish and poorly made as Hardly Working was. In his Movie Guide'', Leonard Maltin gave it two stars out of four with this comment: "Not a very good movie; the opening montage [ ] is much funnier than anything that follows." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 9% rating based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 4.00/10.