My Friend Irma

My Friend Irma (1949)

Prototype dumb blonde Irma and her slacker, wheeler-dealer boyfriend Al interfere in the love life of Irma's level-headed room mate Jane.

Date of release
1949-10-14
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (26)
Runtime
1h 43m
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Director
George Marshall
Collection
My Friend Irma Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

My Friend Irma is a 1949 American comedy film starring John Lund, Diana Lynn, Don DeFore and Marie Wilson. Directed by George Marshall, it marks the film debut of the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The film is based upon the CBS radio series My Friend Irma that first aired in 1947. Released by Paramount Pictures, the film premiered in New York on September 28, 1949.

Production

My Friend Irma was filmed from February 22 through April 12, 1949. Although production was already under way, producer Hal B. Wallis thought it would be a low-risk introduction of the team of Martin and Lewis to the screen. They had been approached by several film studios before signing a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures.

Lewis was originally cast to play Al, but after the first day of screen tests, it was obvious that he was wrong for the part. Concerned that he would be excluded from the film and that he and Dean Martin were abandoning the formula that had created their success, Lewis quickly devised the idea of playing a comic sidekick to Steve, and the character Seymour was written into the script.

Marie Wilson, Hans Conried and Gloria Gordon portray the same characters in the film as they played on the radio show. Felix Bressart was originally cast in the film as Professor Kropotkin, but he died suddenly during filming, with his completed scenes reshot with Conried.

The film was followed the next year by the sequel My Friend Irma Goes West, directed by Hal Walker, the only sequel that Martin and Lewis ever made.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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