The Odd Couple (1968) - Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau movies, with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, or one or the other

“The irony is that unless we come to some other arrangement I'm gonna kill you! That's the irony of it.”

Director

Gene Saks

Cast
Jack Lemmon - Felix Ungar
Walter Matthau - Oscar Madison
Herb Edelman - Murray
John Fiedler - Vinnie
David Sheiner - Roy
Larry Haines - Speed
Carole Shelley - Gwendolyn Pigeon

Monica Evans - Cecily Pigeon

Oh, how I've waited to write a post about Neil Simon's masterpiece, "The Odd Couple." It's the second movie with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau following "The Fortune Cookie," which is a movie I called "perfect" as it establishes the unofficial (or official?) team of Lemmon and Matthau so exquisitely. Chef's kiss!

"The Odd Couple" does something other movies seldom, if ever, do. It solidifies a comedy team even more exquisitely than the first time they appear in together. Normally it takes a little bit of time, and a few films, for any team to really stick with audiences. These guys built themselves up together well in their first flick together. And then they cemented themselves as a pair in their second movie together. I was going to review this, but then had the idea to watch all their films, and then review them in order while throwing in a movie that stars either Lemmon or Matthau between each post.

I first saw "The Odd Couple" at the movie palace that is Oakland, California's Paramount Theater sometime between the mid to late 1990s.

The Paramount Theater used to show movie classics once or twice a month. I'm pretty sure I've talked about Friday night movie classics at the Paramount Theater elsewhere on this blog. 

Anyways, for $5.00 they'd have a night of entertainment, always on a Friday, which began with someone performing on the Wurlitzer, followed by a classic cartoon, a news reel, a raffle, some classic trailers, and then a classic movie normally filmed before 1969 although that changed in the early 2000s as they show some movies made in the last 40 years. Anyways, watching movie classics inside the prestigious Paramount was unforgettable.  

These Paramount movie classics weren't merely a night out at the movies like going to some random Century 8 theater, or an AMC at the mall. It was an event. Movie nights at the Paramount certainly laid foundation for my love of movie classics. 

"The Odd Couple" has stayed with me since I first watched it. It was my introduction to Jack and
Walter, and playwright Neil Simon, all of whom I've been writing about in my reviews of Lemmon and Matthau movies. 

"The Odd Couple" is where it began for me. It's pure lightening in a bottle. 

The movie begins as a morose Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) meanders around downtown Manhattan, contemplating suicide. His wife, Frances, has kicked him out. 

Jack Lemmon as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar in "The Odd Couple."

He checks into a cheap hotel and asks for a room on one of the higher floors. 

Felix tries to open his room window so he can jump but ends up throwing his back out. So, he meanders around town finally planting himself at a bar.  

Meanwhile, sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) is up in his apartment with his poker pals playing cards just as they do every Friday night. Oscar has since been divorced from his wife, Blanche. 

Of course, Felix is the only one not there as he normally would. 

One of the guys, Murray (Herb Edelman) is worried as Felix is unusually late for the game. His concerns increase after Murray's wife calls him asking if Felix is there. She tells him nobody knows where he is. 

Oscar calls Felix's wife and finds out they split up and are getting divorced after 12 years of marriage. She also mentions that Felix went out the kill himself. That's what he told her in the telegram, anyways. 

Naturally, they worry about what Felix. 

But he does show up to the poker game. All the guys play ignorant though they're all on edge until Felix breaks down, cries and all emotion comes out. 

Oscar, who practices organization and cleanliness as about as well as a freshman dorm student invites Felix to move in. 

Felix takes him up on the invitation until he can get his life figured out. His attention to cleanliness, almost to a fault, contrasts Oscar's bachelor-esque disorganized lifestyle. 

It takes about a week before Oscar has had enough of his new and compulsively cleaning roommate. Felix, meanwhile, can't take how much of an irresponsible slob Oscar is. The two are incompatible. 

The chemistry between Matthau and Lemmon, playing two people who can't stand each other yet are living in a New York apartment together is truly, truly, truly comedic gold. No question about it. This is the stuff of cinematic legend. 

"The Odd Couple" establishes the comedy style of Lemmon and Matthau together. 

It seems this one-versus-the-other mentality carries on in their following movies, especially their 1993 movie, "Grumpy Old Men." 

It's remarkable how natural and in-place Lemmon and Matthau are in their respective roles playing off of each other. After seeing "The Odd Couple," I can't watch any other movie with these two guys, whether together or separate, without trying to find Oscar Madison or Felix Unger somewhere in their respective performances. 

This movie officially makes them a duo. There is no other movie that I can think of that introduces the world to an unofficial comedy team better than "The Odd Couple." "Ghostbusters" comes close, but those guys were already making comedy together on SNL. What's more remarkable is that these two guys can act separate from each other and be just as enjoyable and never dull to watch. Each is something to look forward to. And when they star together, it's an experience fans have to watch. 

In the "Hollywood Collection" documentary about Matthau, Lemmon says "The chemistry that happens with Walter and me is something I really don't know how to explain. We are not very much alike in many, many ways, certain in our backgrounds. Yet, the minute we met each other there was a strong connection and it has remained that way. I think it's indestructible." 

In that same documentary, Neil Simon says, "Having Walter and Jack in 'The Odd Couple' was probably the best thing that's ever happened to me in my film career." 

In that same documentary, Lemmon says of himself and Matthau, "When I work with Walter, and it is working, there are three stars. There's me. There's Walter. And there's the two of us. And I think that's right with any good combination."

In regard to making movies with Lemmon, Matthau says, "We seem to bounce off each other and we're different physically. He's short and ugly. I'm tall and handsome."

The year before the release of "The Odd Couple," its director Gene Saks directed another Neil Simon movie, "Barefoot in the Park." He then directed Walter Matthau the year after in "Cactus Flower." And he also directed "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (1972) and "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1986), both written by....wait for it...Neil Simon.

And speaking of Neil Simon, Gene Saks plays Harry Edison alongside Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft in Neil Simon's "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" (1975). I'll be getting to that movie later as I own a copy on DVD.

As for "The Odd Couple" the dialogue is absolutely masterful. The timing is flawless. The acting is perfect. Simply, perfect! It's spot on and flows so naturally, especially when the movie begins with Oscar and his poker pals sitting at the table wondering where Felix is.  

By the way, I didn't know this tidbit of trivia before writing this post, but Neal Hefti, who composed the theme song to the movie that was also used for the TV series of the same name, starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, also composed the theme song for the TV series, "Batman." I thought that's worth highlighting. 

I'm never bored watching "The Odd Couple." And though I know which line, scene, and joke is coming up each time I see it, it's still hysterical.