The Jerk (1979) on Netflix
Navin Johnson grows up in Mississippi, adopted into a family of black sharecroppers. On his birthday he learns he is adopted and heads for St. Louis, where everyone exploits his naivety.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.1/1069,409 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Navin Johnson sleeps in a stairwell in Los Angeles and tells the camera the story of his life. Raised by black sharecroppers in Mississippi, he grows up unaware that he is adopted; his mother breaks the news on his birthday. He dances badly to his family's folk songs but perfectly to a tune on the radio, and he takes that as a sign to leave for St. Louis, the city the broadcast came from. At a gas station he works as an attendant, then tries to stop some thieves and wrecks a church. A stranger picks his name out of the telephone book and sets out to kill him, and an inventor named Stan Fox promises to market a small device Navin has made.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Jerk (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Steve Martin based his film proposal on a line from his act - "It wasn't always easy for me; I was born a poor black child" - and fleshed out his ideas into a series of notes he intended to deliver to studios.
- Martin's favorite moment, as he detailed in his 2007 memoir Born Standing Up, was singing "Tonight You Belong to Me" with Peters; he waited in anticipation at the premiere in St. Louis, and much of the audience left during the scene to buy more popcorn.
- Christiane Kubrick hailed The Jerk as one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films of all time, and it led to Kubrick meeting with Martin to discuss working together on his film Eyes Wide Shut.
- Martin initially chose Mike Nichols to direct, but Nichols "bowed out" of the project in 1978, and Martin's next choice was Carl Reiner, famous for his work on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
- Principal photography took 45 days using 85 locations in Greater Los Angeles on a $4.6 million budget, including Mohammed al Fassi's mansion in Beverly Hills and Devonshire Downs in Northridge.
- A scene in which Bill Murray was to have made a cameo was cut from the final film, as was an alternate comic introduction of Marie, played by Peters, shot near the train ride Navin was running at the carnival.
