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The Odd Couple

DVD Release

  • Release Date: 2000
  • Widescreen version enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs
  • English subtitles
  • Interactive menus
  • Scene selection
  • Theatrical trailer

  • Rating: StarStarStarStar
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Movie Type: Odd Couple Film, Buddy Film
  • Themes: Faltering Friendships, Unlikely Friendships, Crumbling Marriages
  • Director: Gene Saks
  • Main Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fiedler, Herb Edelman, David Sheiner
  • Release Year: 1968
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 106 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: G

Plot

Compulsive neatnik Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) is thrown out of his house by his divorce-bound wife. He wanders aimlessly through the streets of New York, toying with the idea of suicide, before gravitating to the apartment of his best friend, incorrigibly sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau). Worried that Felix will try something desperate, Oscar, himself in the process of being divorced by his wife, invites Felix to move in with him. Within a few days, this mismatched pair is on the verge of mutual murder: Felix cannot abide Oscar's slovenliness, while Oscar is driven insane by Felix's obsession with cleanliness. A potentially passionate evening with Oscar's neighbors, the "coo-coo" Pigeon sisters (Monica Evans and Carole Shelley) is ruined when Felix, ruminating over his wife and children, reduces the two ladies to remorseful tears. Pushed to the brink, Oscar stalks around the apartment making as big a mess as possible. Comes the next week's poker game, and the previously vengeful Oscar is worried that Felix might have attempted to do away with himself again. Instead, a surprisingly self-confident Felix shows up to collect his belongings, then announces that he's temporarily moving upstairs with the toothsome Pigeon sisters! There's a laugh a second in this faithful movie adaptation of Neil Simon's hit Broadway play. A foolproof comic situation (allegedly based on a chapter in the life of Simon's brother Danny) is kept alive and healthy by some of the funniest dialogue ever written. The Odd Couple was later adapted into a long-running TV sitcom starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

Perhaps the funniest film version of a Neil Simon play, The Odd Couple benefits from the superb comic interaction of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. It was Matthau and Lemmon's second movie together (following 1966's similar Fortune Cookie), though it would not be their last. Adapted for the screen by the playwright and helmed by Broadway director Gene Saks, the film successfully walked a fine line between sheer comedy and sincere drama. Matthau and Lemmon would re-team for the rest of their careers, but never with the vitality that they exhibited in this film. The Odd Couple was later a popular, long-running television show, with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman in the Lemmon and Matthau roles. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

Cast


Larry Haines - Speed; Monica Evans - Cecily; Carole Shelley - Gwendolyn; Iris Adrian - Waitress; John C. Becher - Hotel Clerk; Heywood Hale Broun - Sportswriter; Roberto Clemente; Bud Harrelson; Maury Wills

Credit

Ray Moyer - Set Designer; Robert R. Benton - Set Designer; Frank Bracht - Editor; Neal Hefti - Composer (Music Score); Howard W. Koch - Producer; Paul K. Lerpae - Special Effects; Hank Moonjean - First Assistant Director; Hal Pereira - Art Director; Jack Petty - Makeup; Gene Saks - Director; Neil Simon - Screenwriter; Neil Simon - Play Author; Walter Tyler - Art Director; Wally Westmore - Makeup; Robert B. Hauser - Cinematographer; Harry Ray - Makeup; Jack Bear - Costume Designer; John R. Carter - Sound/Sound Designer; Charles Grenzbach - Sound/Sound Designer

Similar Movies

Buddy Buddy; The Fortune Cookie; The Lonely Guy; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; The Sunshine Boys; Helpmates; Grumpy Old Men; Roommates; Grumpier Old Men
 
 
Wikipedia: The Odd Couple (film)
The Odd Couple
The_Odd_Couple_title.JPG
Directed by Gene Saks
Produced by Howard W. Koch
Written by Neil Simon
Starring Jack Lemmon
Walter Matthau
Music by Neal Hefti
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) 2 May 1968 (USA)
Running time 106 min.
Language English
Followed by The Odd Couple II
IMDb profile

The Odd Couple is a 1968 film written by Neil Simon, based on his play of the same name, and directed by Gene Saks. 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 cause distinctive clashes.

History

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 plot of the film is simply having to deal with Felix, who was just thrown out of his house by his wife Frances, having nowhere to turn but to his good friend Oscar's house. Oscar asks Felix to stay with him for awhile, as Felix was near suicide at his plight with his crumbling marriage. It would soon comedically be a decision that Oscar would regret.

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.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in a scene from the film
Enlarge
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in a scene from the film

Plot

The film starts in sportswriter Oscar Madison's Upper-West Side New York apartment on a hot evening. The apartment is a testament to a man who is separated; the place is a pig sty, and Oscar doesn't mind at all. Oscar and his buddies Speed, Roy, Vinnie, and Murray the cop 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 had spent most of the night wandering around, going to a bar to get drunk (he pinches his neck trying to down a drink), and then trying to commit suicide by throwing himself out of a hotel window (he throws out his back trying to open the window).

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. 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 (the Pigeon sisters, who actually "coo" when they laugh!) who live in the building. Felix reluctantly agrees.

As the date commences, Oscar tries to get Felix to loosen up by leaving him alone for a while with the two attractive, and somewhat frisky, sisters. Instead, he winds up talking about Frances, and breaks down weeping. When Oscar returns, 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 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

Trivia

  • Based on the experiences of Neil Simon's brother when he got divorced.
  • The play starred Walter Matthau as Oscar, and Art Carney playing Felix. When they were making it into a movie, they felt Carney didn't have enough box office punch, so they cast Jack Lemmon instead.
  • Despite the fact that a number of key scenes involve poker games, and the fact that the five male lead characters are all poker buddies, Felix is never seen actually playing poker.

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.[1]

Production notes

The scene at Shea Stadium 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 outside scenes in the film involves Felix shopping at a supermarket called Bohack. Bohack was 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.[2]

References

  1. ^ http://www.cfhf.net/lyrics/odd.htm
  2. ^ http://www.groceteria.com/stores/bohack.html

External links


 
 

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