Martin’s Movie Career Available On Video

Dean Martin, who died Christmas morning at age 78, had a long and diverse film career. Martin and his comedy partner, Jerry Lewis, took Hollywood by storm in the early 1950s, starring in several successful farces. After the duo broke up in 1956, Martin surprised everyone with his versatility in Westerns, action films, comedies and musicals, many of which are available on video.

Martin and Lewis made their film debuts as juice-bar operators in “My Friend Irma” (Paramount), a lightweight 1949 comedy based on a popular radio show about a dumb blonde (Marie Wilson).

Martin introduced the Oscar-nominated tune “That’s Amore” in the above-par 1953 comedy “The Caddy.” Martin plays a smooth-as-silk golfer. Lewis is his goofy caddy.

Although many people didn’t give Martin much of a chance at film stardom without Lewis, Martin proved his dramatic ability with his second post-Lewis film: the gritty 1958 World War II drama “The Young Lions” (FoxVideo). Martin and Montgomery Clift play U.S. soldiers.

Martin is equally fine as Frank Sinatra’s boozy gambler buddy in the 1958 melodrama “Some Came Running” (MGM). Shirley MacLaine also stars.

In 1959, Martin co-starred with John Wayne in “Rio Bravo” (Warner), Howard Hawks’ cult classic Western about a sheriff who takes a brutal killer into custody only to discover a group of gunmen have been hired to spring the murderer from jail. Martin more than holds his own with Wayne as the Duke’s drunken former deputy.

Martin returned to his musical-comedy roots with 1960’s zippy “Bells Are Ringing” (MGM/UA). Judy Holliday reprises her Broadway role as a lonely answering service operator. Martin is the charming client she has fallen in love with over the phone. Directed by Vincente Minnelli.

That same year, Martin teamed up with Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford for the best Rat Pack flick, “Ocean’s Eleven” (Warner), a fun caper set in Las Vegas, Nev.

Six years after “Rio Bravo,” Martin and John Wayne rode the range together in the box-office hit “The Sons of Katie Elder” (Paramount). Martin, Wayne, Michael Anderson Jr. and Earl Holliman play four brothers who reunite after their mother’s death.

Martin played a married womanizing airplane pilot who discovers he really loves his pregnant flight attendant mistress (Jacqueline Bisset) in 1970’s “Airport” (MCA/ Universal), a delectably juicy old-fashioned disaster film based on Arthur Hailey’s best seller. Burt Lancaster, Helen Hayes (who received an Oscar as a charming stowaway), Maureen Stapleton, Van Heflin, Jean Seberg and George Kennedy co-star. George Seaton wrote and directed. Nominated for numerous Oscars, including best film.