i’m glad someone noticed jerry took on the female roles in the remakes m&l did!
first in their remake of nothing sacred (1937) with living it up (1954) where jerry fills in carole lombard’s role as the main character dying of radiation poisoning (in nothing sacred, it is radium poisoning). dean plays his childhood friend and physican, who, in the original film, was carole lombard’s romantic interest.
then they did it again in the major and the minor (1942) with you’re never too young (1955), where jerry takes on ginger rogers’ role of the main character dressing up as a kid to get out of a sticky situation. dean, once again, plays the ‘major’ in the title (this time a regular sharp customer) and is playing the role of the male love interest.
surprisingly, scared stiff doesn’t do away with mary carter’s character played by paulette goddard from the bob hope film ghost breakers (1940). instead, they keep mary (carroll)’s role, played by lizabeth scott, and invent a new character for jerry to play—myron mertz, larry’s childhood friend. funnily enough, their scenes in the beginning of the film have homosexual underpinnings, and dean’s character, larry, shirks the girl he is originally seeing to go find and help myron.
additionally, pardners (1956), is very loosely based on bing crosby’s rhythm on the range (1936), and doesn’t have jerry take on a reinterpreted female role—though dean and jerry’s characters have a silly meeting like the main romantic couple do in the 1936 film.
it is clear that there is “unintentional” homoerotic coding in their films—remakes or not. the remakes slot jerry into the female romantic lead’s role, while their original films beat-by-beat make the characters as close as a couple.
additionally, jerry’s characters are generally queer-coded, or in a vaguely problematic 1950s way, stereotypically female (plus he cross-dresses three times—in the stooge (1952), in at war with the army (1950), and in money from home (1953)).
in the friendship between dean and jerry’s characters, he plays the doting, loyal ‘female’ coded roles, usually with strong loving housewife underpinnings. in the caddy (1953), jerry’s character, harvey, patiently cooks dean’s character, joe, dinner. a frilly apron is tied around his waist, and he sweetly greets joe at the door, even fussing with joe’s clothes and nagging at him. in artists and models (1955), their characters are trying to make it big—jerry’s character eugene a writer and dean’s character rick a comic book artist. the two men co-habit together and are very good friends—super sweet and affectionate to the nth degree. in the beginnings of the film, eugene makes dinner for the two of them, apron once again tied around his waist; it doesn’t say if they take turns making dinner, but the way it’s set-up, it’s implied eugene is the usual homemaker. it’s a meager dinner but ricky eats it nonetheless, and even reads a newspaper like a husband would. later, ricky tries to leave—stating they need to get a “divorce”—but falters once he sees eugene’s teary face and decides to stay. eugene’s character is loving and well-intentioned; if this were a straight goofball comedy, one can easily imagine the actress playing jerry’s role as “the wife” or “eventual wife” of the pair.
1940s and 1950s america had clearly caught onto the romantic tension between jerry and dean, and did their best to reflect it onto the screen. the crowds flocking to their shows were wildly permitting for a post-war audience and especially for fans of a comedy duo. they even delighted in the affection dean and jerry showed each other on stage and implied in dirty asides (jerry’s “riding” joke from the radio show comes to mind).
can you imagine how titillating it must’ve been to sit in a movie theater and swiftly realize that your favorite comedy duo acted as they merely did on the screen as they did on stage—in love?
