Artists and Models 1955

Rick Todd, Dean Martin, is a struggling painter and smooth-talking ladies’ man. His goofy young roommate Eugene Fullstack, Jerry Lewis, is an aspiring children’s author who adores comic books, especially those featuring the mysterious and sexy Bat Lady. Each night, Eugene has horrific screams inspired by ultra-violent comics, describing aloud in his sleep the bizarre bird-like superhero Vincent the Vulture, who is the “defender of truth and liberty and a member of the Audubon Society” and is “half-boy, half-man, half-bird with feathers growing out of every pore” and a “tail full of jet propulsion.” Also known as “Vultureman” or more simply “The Vulture,” the golden helmeted hero soars through space from his homogenized space station orbiting the Milky Way to battle his shapely but sadistic purple-eyed archenemy “Zuba the Magnificent,” who hates Vincent because “she’s allergic to his feathers” and who enjoys blasting big “oooozing” holes into his highly resilient flying form with her “atomic pivot gun.”

A neighbor in their apartment building, Abigail Parker, Dorothy Malone, is a professional artist who works for a New York comic company called Murdock Publishing and is the creator of the Bat Lady. Her energetic horoscope-obsessed roommate is Bessie Sparrowbush, Shirley MacLaine, who is secretary to her publisher Mr. Murdock and Abigail’s model for the Bat Lady. Bessie develops a crush on Eugene, who is unaware that she is his beloved “Bat Lady” in the flesh.

Abigail becomes frustrated at work at the increasingly lurid and bloodthirsty stories demanded by the money-hungry Murdock and quits to become an anti-comics activist, dragging Eugene into her crusade as an example of how trashy comic books can warp impressionable minds. Rick attains a new job with the company after pitching the adventures of “Vincent the Vulture” from Eugene’s dreams, and he begins to find success. Yet he keeps this work a secret from both Abigail and Eugene.

Unbeknownst to all, Eugene’s dreams also contain the real top-secret rocket formula “X34 minus 5R1 plus 6-X36” that Rick publishes in his stories. With spies all around them, they manage to entertain at the annual “Artists and Models Ball” and capture the enemy, preserving national security.