Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon discovered they had great chemistry while working together on Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie. They took that chemistry and mixed it to perfection in their next film The Odd Couple.
The movie The Odd Couple was adapted from Neil Simon's hit Broadway play. It is probably Neil Simon's best work, with rapid fire jokes and a true understanding of how difficult it is to live with another person. Jack Lemmon is no surprise as Felix Ungar. he has always played a bit of a nervous, uptight everyman in his films. It's Matthau, who takes his hangdog looks and delivers a comic performance that is superb. The movie has some of the best comic lines ever written and most of them belong to Matthau. You think the deli scene in When Harry Met Sally was funny? Watch the expression on Matthau's face as Lemmon tries to clear his ears in a restaurant.
By now everyone knows the set up, two best friends, both divorced, agree to share an apartment. But their styles are so different that they are soon at each other's throats. It's a perfect comic situation, made even funnier by a great supporting cast.
Most people when they think of The Odd Couple think of the great TV series with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. These two actors embodied the roles to there fullest, but they worked in the mold already established by Matthau and Lemon. If you have not seen this film in a while it's time to take another look.
At the Movie House rating **** stars. A classic.
Note - I also love this film because this is how I remember NYC from my youth. The Bohack Supermarket, the big green buses, the old police cars. They all remind me of new York as I remember it growing up.
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon appeared in eight films together:
The Fortune Cookie
The Odd Couple
The Front Page
Buddy Buddy
Grumpy Old Men
The Grass Harp
Grumpier Old Men
Out To Sea
The Odd Couple II
They also had seperate cameos in the film JFK and did not share a scene.
Lemmon also directed Matthau in the 1971 film Kotch. It was Lemmon's only outing in the director's chair. Lemmon made an uncredited cameo appearance in that film as a sleeping bus passenger. Matthau received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the film
2 comments:
Tied with the original "In Laws" for the funniest movie ever made...Great movie, and a 4 star review..."Franks and Beans, are you out of your mind!!!!"...American Classic and on the Expanded Desert Island List
I saw this movie with my friend Johnny and his Father in the Marine Theater (Flatlands Brooklyn) when it first came out...I am fairly certain my younger brother was with me though I am not sure
How about a review of Glen Gary Glen Ross...Lemon's finest role and probably the greatest pure dialogue movie ever made...when Lemon tries to pretend he is not listening to Spacey near the end is a masterpiece of acting
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