Directed by: Gene Saks
Rating: I Loved It
I group up in an era where Lemon and Matthau were working together in their later years in life, doing movies like Grumpy Old Men, Out to Sea, and the sequel to the movie in this review, The Odd Couple II. I learned to love the humor they presented through they're bickering, fighting, and clever quips at one another, but to be honest, each of these movies was just a clone trying to recapture the magic of The Odd Couple.
Lemmon and Matthua worked together on a number of films together, a total of ten that they each appeared in, nine of which had them sharing starring roles. Of those ten, Oliver Stone's JFK was the one exclusion to their shared starring roles. While Lemmon had a leading role in the film, Matthua portrayed a senator that appeared in a much smaller capacity. Though, The Odd Couple wasn't the duo's first film together, their first pairing occurred two years earlier in 1966 with The Fortune Cookie, it was the film that cemented the roles they would take on when working together from there out.
Each actor had successes outside of their work together for sure. Lemmon had big hits with Some Like It Hot before his pairing with Matthua and received critical acclaim for his work in Glengarry Glen Ross after having done sever films with his comedic partner. Matthua had an extensive career before pairing with Lemmon, among other roles, starring opposite Elvis Presley in King Creole and had one of his biggest hits, The Bad News Bears ten years after starring with Lemmon in their first work together.
Regardless of their separate successes, the duo had more luck with audiences working together than they ever did alone. They worked in this style pairing together, because the viewer could really see them as an old married couple, despising sides of each others personalities, while at the the same time, caring deeply for one another. They were as much a comedy team as Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy.
Proving this even more, for me, was one attempt at pairing Lemmon with another actor for one of his later movies, My Fellow Americans. Here, Lemmon stars opposite James Garner, and though I did enjoy the movie, I couldn't help but compare it to the chemistry you experience when he worked with Walter. It's obvious why they went with Garner instead; I'm not sure many people could see Matthua playing an ex-president...
Lemmon and Matthua made their last movie together in 1998, reprising their roles as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, respectively, in The Odd Couple II. Lemmon was 73 at the time, creating the same neurotic headcase he had thirty years ago, while his counterpart, who was five years his senior, was the same old slob. Lemmon passed away in 2001; the next year after Hollywood lost Matthua.
The movie itself was excellent. The story and writing were great, and I'm sure the directing pointed the actors in the right direction, but it was the two actors who really made the film. The duo created two characters who were so well paired together that it spawned a TV series that followed and ran for five seasons, though, Tony Randal and Jack Klugman put their own spin on the characters for sure.
A great supporting cast helped to create some of the funniest moments ever that you didn't see coming. Lemmon and Matthau created the majority of the best humor through their subtle nuances. Lemmon makes the strangest ticks seem natural while Matthau spins lines like "You've just been invited to a two-bedroom hot house with the coo coo Pidgeon sisters" with the greatest sincerity. You can also appreciate their later performances in Grumpy Old Men better after seeing them be not so grumpy.
The film flows so well that you hardly realize how much has actually happened. It even holds up great by today's standards, even while avoiding crude humor and, obviously, the use of any computer help. It's from a time when movies were much more like plays that were filmed and replayed for audiences. It was just the actors telling their story. Even more importantly, it shows the strength of friendship and that though love is sometimes exactly what people need. I highly recommend the film.
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