When I eventually saw THE NUTTY PROFESSOR as an adult, I was struck by how unfunny it is. But, it's fascinating.
I had thought that, as Buddy Love, he was supposed to be suave and sophisticated, but he's no such thing. Buddy Love is crude and pushy -- a thuggish lout, and, as I recall, would-be rapist. But, he gets away with everything because he's so aggressively confident and he keeps the patter going so fast that no one has a chance to call him out on his crap.
I didn't get it right away when Buddy is shown to be a singer -- crooner -- but then it finally hit me. Buddy Love is Dean Martin.
If you see any interviews where Jerry talks about the breakup of his partnership with Dean, he slowly talks in circles about, "we mutually agreed to seek other opportunities", or words to that effect. But, it's really obvious that Dean left Jerry and Jerry was deeply hurt. There's an interview with Dean where he says, not in these exact words, but, still, he's pretty blunt, "Jerry was holding me back, so I left."
So, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR is Jerry exercising his issues about Dean; it's not so much a movie as therapy, or an expression of anger and/or despair.
I'm sure everybody knows this; I'm just nervously filling the silence. Oh, wait, the silence is all in my mind. So, never mind.