The Jerk

This article is about the American film. For other uses, see Jerk (disambiguation).

The Jerk
Directed by	Carl Reiner
Written by	Steve Martin Carl Gottlieb Michael Elias
Starring	Steve Martin Bernadette Peters Mabel King Bill Macy M. Emmet Walsh Dick O'Neill Maurice Evans Jackie Mason
Release dates	December 14, 1979
Running time	94 min
Language	English

The Jerk is the 1979 rags-to-riches-to-rags comedy film of belated self-discovery. This was Steve Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also features Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh and Jackie Mason.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted The Jerk the 48th greatest comedy film of all time.

This film is number 20 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies", and number 89 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.

Plot summary

The film begins with Navin Johnson (Martin), a homeless bum, directly addressing the camera and telling his story. He is the adopted white son of black sharecroppers, who grows to adulthood naïvely unaware of his obvious adoption. He stands out in his family not just because of his skin color, but also because of his lack of rhythm. One night, he hears a tune by Lawrence Welk on the radio, and his feet spontaneously begin to move with the urge to dance. He sees this as a calling and decides to hitchhike to St. Louis, where the song was broadcast from. On the way, he stops at a motel, where a dog wakes him up by barking at his door. Navin thinks the dog is trying to tell him there is a fire and decides to name the dog Lifesaver. He wakes up the other hotel guests to rescue them, but when everyone realizes it was a false alarm, one man angrily suggests he call the dog "Shithead", which he does.

Navin gets a job (and a place to sleep) at a gas station owned by Mr. Hartounian (played by Jackie Mason). He soon gets a listing in the local phone book, which excites him, as his name is in "print" for the first time. Not long after, a gun-wielding lunatic (played by M. Emmet Walsh) randomly flips through the phone book and picks Navin R. Johnson as his next victim. As the madman watches through his rifle scope, Navin is fixing the slippery glasses of a customer by adding a handle and a nose brake. The customer offers to split the profits with Navin 50/50 if he can manage to market the invention. The customer leaves, and the crazed gunman tries to kill Navin. The sniper hits oil cans in the station window and a nearby vending machine filled with soda cans. Navin assumes that the gunman is out to shoot the cans — "he hates these cans!"

The lunatic chases him to a traveling carnival. Navin climbs into one of the trucks to hide, but he is taken away by the truck and ends up getting a job with SJM Fiesta Shows as a weight guesser. While employed there, Navin meets a daredevil biker woman named Patti and has a sexual relationship with her, finding out the first time what his "special purpose" (his euphemism for penis) is for. He then meets a woman named Marie (Bernadette Peters) and arranges a date with her. Patti confronts them, but Marie knocks her out cold. While courting, Navin and Marie walk along the beach and sing "Tonight You Belong to Me," with Navin playing the ukulele. Navin and Marie fall in love, but Marie decides to leave him because of his lack of financial security.

Navin soon finds out that his glasses invention, now called the Opti-Grab, is selling big, and he's entitled to half of the profits. His first check is for USD$250,000. He locates and marries Marie, and they hire a live-in butler and chambermaid, despite living in a small apartment. His next check is for $750,000, which he uses to buy an extravagant mansion. Navin does not stay rich for long, though, as director Carl Reiner (playing himself) files a class action lawsuit against Navin, claiming that the invention has made him cross-eyed. Nearly ten million other people have the same complaint and join the lawsuit. Navin is forced to refund $1.09 to every Opti-Grab customer (he is seen hand-writing each check), which bankrupts him.

Depressed, he leaves abruptly wearing his robe and shorts. He claims that the only things he needs to survive are the TV remote control, paddle ball game, matches, and a few other items. He then trades all of these items for a thermos and begins living on the street (catching the story up to where the movie began). Navin's family, who carefully invested the small sums of money he sent to them throughout the film, is contacted by Marie. They find him (in the first place they looked) and pick him up off the street, he moves back with them and Marie in a "bigger house" (literally a larger version of the old shanty, complete with a ten foot tall front door), and they live happily ever after.

An unsuccessful sequel, The Jerk, Too, was made for television with Mark Blankfield.

Miscellanea

• In addition to the main character, Steve Martin also plays the cat juggler & Fred the engineer. Martin was only credited with the latter role and the former role was credited as Pig Eye Jackson.

• One of the film's co-writers (Carl Gottlieb) has a cameo role as Iron Balls McGinty.

• The original title of the film was Easy Money.

• Bill Murray filmed a cameo, but it was cut. On an episode of Saturday Night Live from December 15, 1979, Murray reviewed the film, saying he felt the film was "missing something."

• The mansion yard used in the movie (with three swimming pools and S-shaped hedges) is also used in The Godfather.

• In the Freaks and Geeks episode "The Little Things", Sam Weir takes Cindy Sanders to see The Jerk on their first date together, only to discover she doesn't find it funny. A clip of Navin getting shot at in the gas station is shown.

• Jackie Mason's character in the movie Caddyshack II shares the surname Hartounian, although any connection between the films is never referenced.