Plot
Chick Allen (Dean Martin) is a paratrooper. He invites his former partner, Hap Smith (Jerry Lewis), to help out with a show that he and the other soldiers are preparing. However, the general is unhappy with the quality of past shows and is threatening to eliminate them unless the quality improves, which is why Chick has invited Hap to help.
Hap, who has continued the nightclub act with a new partner, Betsy Carter (Mona Freeman), poses as a soldier so that he can do one performance for Chick with the general in the audience. However, the show impresses the general so much that he arranges for the show (including Hap) to tour other camps. Fearing a court-martial, Chick and the rest of the performers pass Hap off as Private "Dogface" Dolan, while the real "Dogface" (Dick Erdman) goes into hiding.
Hap undergoes paratrooper training to keep up the ruse, but he is very accident prone. However, it works to his benefit as everything he does inadvertently is the 'correct military conduct'. The top sergeant (Robert Strauss) takes notice and praises him.
Understandably, Hap wants to return to civilian life and tries to sneak away at any chance he can get, but Chick always manages to stop him. During one of his escape attempts, during some war maneuvers, Hap destroys a key bridge and captures an enemy general. Hap is eventually exposed as a civilian, but is sworn in as a paratrooper and becomes a hero.
Read more about this topic: Jumping Jacks
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)