A FILM TO REMEMBER: “THE ODD COUPLE” (1968)

Before I get into this, I want to make mention “A FILM TO REMEMBER” will be a series about films that have reached a milestone anniversary since their origin in being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The articles will contain the film’s plot outline, director, cast, a compilation of trivialities, various photos, movie trailer, critical reception and more. So, let’s start:

We are here to mark the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Gene Saks’ “The Odd Couple”. Let’s take an inside look at the film:

PLOT OUTLINE:

When a neurotic man’s wife leaves him and he contemplates suicide but his friends sense his depression and his sloven friend volunteers to taking him in until he’s better. The two try sharing an apartment, but their ideas of housekeeping and lifestyles are as different as night and day creating an irritable situation.

STUDIO:

Paramount Pictures

DIRECTOR:

Gene Saks

CAST:

• Jack Lemmon … Felix Ungar
• Walter Matthau … Oscar Madison
• Herb Edelman … Murray
• John Fiedler … Vinnie
• David Sheiner … Roy
• Larry Haines … Speed
• Monica Evans … Cecily Pigeon
• Carole Shelley … Gwendolyn Pigeon
• Billie Bird … Chambermaid
• Iris Adrian … Waitress
• Angelique Pettyjohn … Go-Go dancer
• Ted Beniades … Bartender
• Bill Baldwin … Sports announcer

GENRE(S):

Comedy

TAGLINE:

Wives! Ever wondered how he’d get along without you? Husbands! Ever long for those good old bachelor days?

The film is known for being arguably, the quintessential buddy comedy feature that director Gene Saks provides a faithful translation and a snappy manner of a sitcom-style theatric in finding hilarity in its mature themes with a puissant and deferential act in superb performances from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau at their finest hour. This highly amusing comedy, is sharply scripted in one hilarious situation after another in this benchmark comedic yarn about two polar opposites forced to live together. The film is based from Neil Simon’s play of the same name, it received universal acclaim and quickly became, an instant classic buddy comedy.

Here’s what some of the critical receptions have been for the film over the years:

Dave Kehr from Chicago Reader says: “For all its overfamiliarity, this is a good play, easily Simon’s best, and Matthau and Lemmon inhabit it with grace and style.”

Tom Milne from Time Out says: “An irresistible double act from Lemmon and Matthau.”

Emanuel Levy from EmanuelLevy.com says: “Acting is all: Lemmon and Matthau are terrific in their first teaming in this highly amusing comedy, which is sharply written by Neil Simon but poorly directed by theater helmer Gene Saks.”

TIME Magazine Staff from TIME Magazine says: “The Neil Simon comedy that lit up Broadway for more than two years shines again in this flawed but still funny screen adaptation.”

Mark Bourne from Film.com says: “…A durable classic, the sort of comedy that doesn’t try to yank laughs by cramming its fist down our throats.”

As you can tell by the critical reactions, it’s a film that got an unanimously positive response as Saks flexes his muscles and insists on a genuinely cinematic treatment in constructing a convincingly un-stagey film that improves on the theatre original in using smart writing and adult themes that still makes for an entertainingly fun evening. Its comic dramatics at its best in the Simon school of comedy with Lemmon and Matthau capturing the essence of the characters and story, as the dialogue is witty; the characterizations are wonderfully stereotypical; and comic timing is everything in this least bit risqué, but a really charmingly and graceful comicality classic. But I’ll let you decide…

So, to get a better look at the film, here’s a link to the movie trailer of Gene Saks’ “The Odd Couple”:

Here I have provided 12 interesting and intriguing trivia facts (I wanted to keep it limited) about “The Odd Couple”:

• According to former Paramount production chief Robert Evans in his memoir “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” producer Howard W. Koch originally wanted to use the Broadway cast, Walter Matthau (Oscar) and Art Carney (Felix) in the film. However, they felt Carney didn’t have enough box office punch. Evans pushed for Jack Lemmon for Felix. Evans also wanted Billy Wilder, who directed Lemmon and Matthau in “The Fortune Cookie” (1966), as writer-director. The cost for the Lemmon-Matthau-Wilder package was $3 million plus 50% of the profits. Paramount owner Charlie Bluhdorn balked at the demands and personally took over negotiations. Wilder eventually dropped out. Lemmon was signed for $1 million against 10% of the gross and Matthau got a straight salary of $300,000.
• Monica Evans and Carole Shelley reprise their roles in Disney’s “The Aristocats” (1970) as a pair of English geese on a walking tour of France.
• Walter Matthau, who played Oscar in both the original Broadway play and the movie, asked the play’s author, Neil Simon, if he could play Felix instead. This was because Matthau thought Oscar’s personality was too similar to his own and the role would be too easy; whereas playing the persnickety Felix would be a real acting challenge. Simon replied, “Walter, go and be an actor in somebody else’s play. Please be Oscar in mine.” Matthau finally agreed to it.
• While the names of the sisters — Cecily and Gwendolyn — are the same as the female leads in Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Neil Simon claimed in interviews that it was unconscious and the coincidence didn’t occur to him until years later.
• Neil Simon based the character of Felix on his older brother, Danny Simon.
• The baseball sequence was filmed at Shea Stadium before a regularly scheduled contest between the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates on June 27, 1967. Originally, Roberto Clemente was supposed to hit into the triple play. However, the fleet-footed Pirate kept beating the throw to first base. After several takes, Clemente slowed so much he appeared to be walking. Bill Mazeroski, a more lead-footed athlete, was offered the part instead.

• Actors Tony Randall and Jack Klugman were considered for the film roles of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, roles that they would later portray in the television series adaptation.
• At one point in the story (set in New York), Oscar says “Getting a clear picture on Channel 2” is not his idea of a fun evening. For years through the mid- to late 70s and early 80s, this movie was a staple of WCBS Channel 2’s “Late Show” movie in New York City.
• John Fiedler, Carole Shelley and Monica Evans are the only actors to appear in both the film and television series.
• Despite the fact that a number of key scenes involve poker games, and the fact that the 5 male lead characters are all poker buddies, Felix is never seen actually playing poker.
• When Felix is upset over his impending divorce, Oscar offers him a box of Mallomars to make him feel better. Since Mallomars are only “in season” from September to March, it’s unlikely that there were any in the apartment since the scene took place on a hot summer day. Of course, considering Oscar still has his Christmas decorations up in July, and serves “green” sandwiches that might be very fresh cheese, or very old meat, one can safely assume he keeps Mallomars for well past their best before date.
• This was reportedly Paramount’s biggest hit (at the time) since “The Ten Commandments” (1956).

To conclude, Gene Saks’ “The Odd Couple” remains fresh, as amazingly the many one-liners and the jocular situation still works as Gene Saks lays out an imposing comedic “opposites” setup, but the film takes it as a starting point, not a focal point in this obsessive-compulsive, anxiety-ridden, slattern bumpkin and poker playing, comedic deuce of a dueling hallmark. When pundits discuss chemistry, that onscreen magic that occurs between perfectly paired actors, the electricity is exemplified by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau which is a textbook illustration of same, as the term “the odd couple” due to Felix and Oscar (Lemmon and Matthau, respectively) are now part of the American mythos in making this film a criterion of the classic buddy comedy.

NOTE: The article contains sources from IMDb and Wikipedia.

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