Apparently playing the Jolsen part in "The Jazz Singer" was a lifelong dream of Jerry Lewis'. Dreams die hard.
The critics always hated Jerry and he hated the critics, but to be honest there's not a whole lot to praise about this production, and I'm a big Jerry fan. The story is reworked so Jerry is a singer/comedian named Joey (his real name) instead of a jazz singer, but his comedy isn't particularly sharp and his songs aren;t anything to write home about. It's nice to see Alan Hale (the actor who played Fred Flintstone) as Jerry's Uncle, but that won't hold you through an hour of this. Anna Maria Allbergetti co-starred with Dean Martin in his first film without Jerry, and she would soon play Jerry's love interest in "Cinderfella" but she makes little impact here.
Jerry's music composer Walter Scharf uses "A World That Swings" as some background music in the nightclub scene. He would later add lyrics and Jerry would sing it as Buddy Love in "The Nutty Professor".