The Odd Couple (1968)

Director: Gene Saks

Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fielder, Herb Edelman

Have I Seen It Before: Sad to confess, never. Growing up doing speech tournaments, I probably saw scenes from this—and from other Simon plays—far too many times to think of it as anything other than the blandest possible material for generally untalented performers.

I understand those might be fighting words.

Did I like It: I always get a little leery of movies based on stage plays. Sure, converting a musical into a film can work, the visual flourishes and the otherworldly quality of the production practically yearns to become a film. But down-to-earth stories about two people talking in a room is going to have a hard time justifying itself beyond just a taped performance of the play itself. Even the classic theatrical adaptations that immediately come to mind struggle with this problem. Something like A Few Good Men (1992) still feels like a story that could be told with the barest of sets, and Dracula (1931)* never feels like anything other than a stage play.

So, you can imagine my utter surprise when I come away from The Odd Couple marveling at how good it looks. With some real photography skill behind it, and shooting on real film, the rather pedestrian setting of Oscar Madison’s (Matthau) apartment has light and depth and shadow. I mourn for the droves of comedies now shot on digital (even the above average ones) that all look like their only visual ambition is to meet Netflix’s technical standards.

You’re probably wondering by this point if I ever managed to get over the photography and actually learn to enjoy Simon’s work. I laughed more than a few times, and it was probably nice to see the whole thing come together, as opposed to just the scenes adolescents needed to try to remember so they could get an A in what they had always assumed would be a blow-off class. That might read as damning with faint praise, but that might be all I have for it, writing wise. It’s more than I thought I would have, going in.

*Which is much more of an adaptation of the ubiquitous theatrical play originally by Hamilton Deane than of anything written by Bram Stoker.

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Director: Billy Wilder

Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft

Have I Seen it Before: Yes. Do people still take in movies for the first time on Turner Classic Movies? Do I still have TCM in my cable package? These are all depressing questions I’m not prepared to wrestle with yet.

Did I Like It: A modern audience who hasn’t seen this film might not have any patience for it. A litany of comedies have followed it with nearly identical structures. Some number of benign charlatans run afoul of truly bad characters, go into a an unusual situation* (there will often be costumes—although a nun’s habit seems to be a recurring trend), try to extend the scheme to comedic results, to only then re-run afoul of the badniks, after which all of the misunderstandings are aired. One of minimum experience might be forgiven for being unimpressed.

None of those subsequent movies has Marilyn Monroe in them, however. Beautiful, certainly, and a gifted enough comedian (although the real laughs in the movie come from Lemmon, a little bit Curtis, and most consistently the guileless Joe E. Brown) but how many people are drawn to the film after all these years without the draw of Monroe.

And if the Monroe’s legend was one of a perpetually troubled, ultimately tragic icon, would we be that drawn to the film? Had Monroe lived longer and indeed possibly live long enough to survive her most potent fame, would the film be as iconic? Is Monroe the only thing that keeps the film relevant?

Here’s the thing: during the entire runtime of the film, I didn’t at all dwell on the sadness that inevitably comes with Monroe’s magnetism. The film just works, and she’s good enough to surpass her own legend. If that’s not a recommendation, I don’t know what is.

*Positively Campbellian, when one thinks about it. No wonder so many screenwriters without any other ideas keep going back to the well.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Director: James Foley

Cast: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris

Have I Seen It Before?: Yes. I may have had the DVD on my shelf for the better part of twenty years, and I’m reasonably sure I haven’t watched it since buying it.

Did I like it?: That’s not to say that the film has no quality! I’m thinking the main reason I haven’t watched it in the last few years because the prospect of watching anything with Kevin Spacey in it is pretty icky. Thankfully his character, Williamson, may not be the villain of the piece, but he certainly gets berated for being subhuman by literally every other human being in the film. We’re not supposed to like anybody in this film, I’d imagine, but there’s something right about people repeatedly telling Spacey to go fuck himself.

Cinematically, the film is flimsy in the extreme. Stylistically stuck in the early nineties, the opening credits almost feel like they belong to a movie made for cable TV. The rest of the film is stagey and practically frozen.

I’m probably tempted to forgive the film for those missteps. While there could have certainly been a bit more adaptation (other than Alec Baldwin’s work in the film’s early minutes, which bewilders me that the play could survive without it), but anything that strayed too far from Mamet’s play would have probably missed the point. We’re not here for camera acrobatics. We’re here to see great actors shout at each other at the top of their lungs and ultimately be made into chumps by fate, Roma included. Honestly, is there anyone in the film who ends up with anything resembling dignity? Even Baldwin’s character is relegated to vain attempts to motivate people he clearly thinks are beyond help. Roma’s (Pacino) lost the Cadillac and may only just barely make it with the steak knives. They’re going to catch Moss (Harris) before too long, especially when Shelley (Lemmon) gives him up to weasel out of the trouble he’s found himself in*.

Is it possible that, at the end of the day that Spacey is the only one who got out ahead? Is he really Keyser Soze? Ugh. I really could do without watching him ever again. Anyone got a bead on grafting Christopher Plummer into the movie?

*I’m now honestly wondering if Moss, despite all of his talk, had anything to do with the theft of the Glengarry leads. Shelley took the opportunity, finally, and it likely destroyed most of them.