The Odd Couple is a 1968 comedy film written by Neil Simon, based on his play of the same name, directed by Gene Saks, and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. It is the story of two divorced men – Felix Ungar, the neurotic neatfreak, and Oscar Madison, the fun-loving slob – who decide to live together, even though their personalities clash. Simon based the story on the observations of Mel Brooks living with a friend after his first divorce.
Plot
Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) checks into a fleabag hotel room and attempts to kill himself by jumping out the window, but he can't get the window open and ends up pulling a muscle in his back. Limping back on the street he tries to get drunk and ends up hurting his neck when he throws down a shot. Finally, he stands on a bridge, contemplating jumping into the river.
Meanwhile, in the pig-sty Upper West Side Manhattan apartment of divorced sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) on a hot and sticky evening, Oscar and his buddies Speed (Larry Haines), Roy (David Sheiner), Vinnie (John Fiedler), and Murray the cop (Herb Edelman) are playing poker and discussing their friend, Felix Unger, who is unusually late to the game. Murray's wife calls and tells him that Felix and his wife Frances have split up. As they are discussing what to do, and worried that Felix might try to commit suicide, Felix arrives not knowing that his friends already know that his wife has kicked him out of the house.
Felix eventually breaks down crying and his friends try to console him. Oscar then suggests that Felix move in with him, since Oscar has lived alone since he split up with his own wife, Blanche, several months earlier. Felix agrees, and urges Oscar to not be shy about letting him know if he gets on Oscar's nerves.
Within a week, Oscar is going nuts. Felix is a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive nut, who runs around the apartment cleaning, picking up after Oscar, and berating him for being such a slob. He also refuses to have any fun, spending most of his time thinking about Frances. Felix at one point telephones Oscar at Shea Stadium to ask what he would like cooked for dinner; this distraction causes Oscar to miss seeing a rare triple-play at the Mets game on which he is reporting. The two men are shown bowling, shooting pool, and walking the city streets. Felix has a sinus attack, making loud obnoxious noises while seated in a coffee shop. Finally, after Felix drives everyone at the weekly poker game crazy, Oscar convinces Felix to lighten up and join him on a double-date with two English girls who live in the building – the Pigeon sisters, Cecily (Monica Evans) and Gwendolyn (Carole Shelley), who actually "coo" when they laugh.
As the date commences, Oscar tries to get Felix to loosen up by leaving him alone for a while in their living room with the two attractive, and somewhat frisky, sisters. Instead, he winds up talking about Frances, and breaks down weeping. When Oscar returns from their kitchen, the Pigeon sisters, one a divorcee, the other widowed, are sobbing as uncontrollably as Felix. Oscar cheers them up and they invite the boys upstairs for what should be a wild night. Instead, Felix, who realizes that he is still too attached to his wife, refuses to go, opting to wash his hair instead. Oscar joins the sisters in their apartment, but winds up spending the night telling them all about Felix.
Furious about Felix's ruining the date, Oscar resorts to giving Felix the silent treatment and torturing him by messing up the apartment as much as possible. Felix retaliates by just being himself, driving Oscar insane with his endless cleaning and neurotic behavior. Eventually, the tension explodes into an argument that results in Oscar demanding that Felix move out. Felix complies, but leaves Oscar with a major-league guilt trip for having abandoned his still-in-need friend.
Feeling awful about throwing Felix out, and not knowing where he has gone, Oscar assembles his poker buddies to search New York City for Felix in Murray's police car. After searching for hours, they return to Oscar's apartment to find out that Felix has moved in with the Pigeon sisters. Oscar and Felix apologize to each other, and realize that a bit of each has rubbed off on the other, with each being a better person for it.
Cast
Production
The Odd Couple was originally produced for Broadway and the original cast starred Art Carney as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar. For the film version, Matthau reprised his role as Oscar, but Carney turned the film down. Felix was played by Jack Lemmon who had not played the character before. Most of the script from the play is the same, although the setting is expanded: instead of taking place entirely in Oscar's apartment, Simon also wrote some scenes that take place at various outdoor New York City locations (most notably one at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York).
Oscar's poker player friends also made up the cast, they were Roy (David Sheiner), Vinnie (John Fiedler), Speed (Larry Haines) and Murray the Cop (Herb Edelman). The film made its debut at Radio City Music Hall in 1968. The critics were divided, most had positive things to say about Matthau's performance, they were less amicable about Lemmon.[citation needed] The film nonetheless was a hit and earned Neil Simon a nomination for the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. The film was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Lemmon and Matthau were both nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
The film also eventually spawned a television series spinoff in 1970, also titled The Odd Couple. A sequel, The Odd Couple II was released 30 years later.
Production notes
The scene at Shea Stadium, which also featured Heywood Hale Broun, was filmed right before a real game between the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 27, 1967. Roberto Clemente was asked to hit into the triple play that Oscar misses, but he refused to do it and Bill Mazeroski took his place.
One of the outdoor scenes in the film involved Felix shopping at Bohack, a Maspeth, Queens-based supermarket chain ubiquitous in the New York City area during the mid-20th century. The last Bohack supermarket closed in 1977.[1]
Theme music
The award-winning jazz instrumental theme was composed by Neal Hefti. The theme was adapted for the TV series, again used over the opening credits. The song also has seldom-heard lyrics, written by Sammy Cahn.[2]
Awards and honors
American Film Institute recognition
Quotations
- Matthau: "I got brown sandwiches and green sandwiches. Which one do you want?' Edelman: "What's the green?" Matthau: "It's either very new cheese or very old meat."
- "Hello? Divorced, Broke, and Sloppy." (Matthau, answering the phone)
- "You make the same sounds for pain or happiness." (Matthau to Lemmon)
- "You can't spend the rest of your life crying. It annoys people in the movies." (Matthau to Lemmon)
- "It took me three hours to figure out 'F.U.' was Felix Ungar. It's not your fault, Felix; it's a rotten combination, that's all." (Matthau to Lemmon)
- Lemmon: It's not spaghetti. It's linguini!" Matthau (throws it against the wall): "Now it's garbage."
- "The marriage may come and go, but the game must go on." (Lemmon to Matthau, about their poker game)
Notes
External links
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The films of Gene Saks |
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| 1960s |
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| 1970s |
Last of the Red Hot Lovers • Mame
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| 1980s |
Brighton Beach Memoirs
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| 1990s |
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| Television |
Bye Bye Birdie (1995)
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