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"One reason it ends up being one of his most fully satisfying films, is its sweet and sour tendency to find a cosmic relationship between utter chaos and insistent stasis." – Slant
Sometimes cited as the beginning of Jerry Lewis' fall from favour with American audiences (it was listed in 1978's ignoble Fifty Worst Movies of All Time), his seventh outing as director has since found deserved critical reappraisal for its fascinating split personality and curious place within the comedian's filmography.
Parodying the domestic capers of the era, Lewis plays an American artist who wins the chance to work in Paris, only to learn that his psychiatrist fiancée (Janet Leigh) can't leave her three troubled, man-hating female patients in the lurch. It's up to Lewis to woo his girl's patients and cure them of their hatred for men, which naturally involves him assuming multiple comedic personae to hasten their therapy. The result is one of Lewis' most impressive comic set-pieces: an extended, climactic party in which he cuts wildly between his many selves, director and star collapsing in surreal performance.
"Three on a Couch follows Jerry's deliberate divorce from the ‘kid' aspects of his persona, already announced in many ways with The Family Jewels. A work of disconcerting containment." – Cinema Scope
