Film / The Sad Sack

1962 lobby card.

Everybody calls me Sad Sack, I hear it all day long
Though I try to do the right thing, it always turns out wrong
Everybody calls me Sad Sack, Sad Sack, including my best gal
I drop my ashes all over her clothes, and I misplace her keys
Then for forgiveness, I send her a rose, and roses always make her sneeze
The lamps are so bright I pull out the plug
Her arms then open to give me a hug
I run to kiss her and trip on the rug
I’m the genuine original first edition copy of the Sad Sack, Sad Sack

— Opening theme song

Based upon the eponymous comic strip created by Geroge Baker, The Sad Sack is a 1957 comedy film from Paramount, directed by George Marshall and starring Jerry Lewis (in his second feature without Dean Martin) as Private Meredith Bixby, an inept soldier (and not far from a Lethal Klutz) despite a year and a half of military training.

The supporting cast includes Phyllis Kirk, Peter Lorre, and David Wayne.

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Tropes appearing in this film:

• Armed Farces
• Femme Fatale: Zita, played by Liliane Montevecchi.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Much like a homing device, if there’s something anyone of significance is holding, chances are Sack’s bullet is going to find it.
• Peeling Potatoes: Sack’s punishment in the final scene of the movie, in response to the shooting of the full drinking glasses the General and two French officers, are having their toast in.
• Photographic Memory: The only thing Sack is remotely good at. Indicated in his assembly of a stolen cannon.
• The Sad Sack: A downplayed example, though named for the comic strip on which he was based.
• Sneeze of Doom: A habit of Sack. In the final scene of the film, where he is on KP duty, it causes an avalanche of potatoes.