Jack Lemmon - George Kellerman
Sandy Dennis - Gwen Kellerman
Robert Nichols - Man in Airplane
Philip Bruns - Officer Meyers
Johnny Brown - Waiter on Train
Billy Dee Williams - Clifford Robinson
Anne Meara - Woman in Police Station
Sandy Baron - Lenny Moyers
The two best things that the 1970 comedy, "The Out-of-Towners" has going for it is that it's written by comedy playwright, Neil Simon, and it stars Jack Lemmon. Double win! Or is it?
I think "The Out-of-Towners" story best simplifies Neil Simon's comedic style.
Comedy happens amidst the most mundane of human activity, and even amidst the frustrations of common activities.
Traveling encompasses both the mundane and frustrative. The light at the end of that tunnel is the final destination. Everyone can relate to the stress of travelling. And I mean everyone! It's one of those necessary evils where travelers just know before setting out that something is surely going to go wrong. Simon certainly knew that and used the comedy within to write "The Out-of-Towners."
This movie is the kind of scenario that matches Simon's knack for seeing the comedy in everyday life amidst ordinary and truly relatable characters. As far as I'm concerned, Neil Simon is a titan among comedy writers. I've praised him quite a bit already in previous posts.
In this movie, George Kellerman (Jack Lemmon) is heading to New York City as his job invited him to interview for a promotion. He takes his wife Gwen (Sandy Dennis) along so they can make the business trip into a getaway for the both of them.
Beginning with their flight out of Ohio to New York, their trip turns into a situation where issue after issue ruins all their plans.
Heavy fog causes their flight to JFK Airport to circle around the city for hours before landing at Logan Airport in Boston. That reroute ruins their fancy dinner plans in the city. And, as expected, their luggage gets lost. Of course, the airline is going to lose their luggage! Unfortunately, George's ulcer medication is in his suitcase.
Regardless, the couple still has to get to New York City. So, they book it to Boston's South Station only to just miss the train. Of course!
They get a cab and try to outrun the train before it gets to the next station. They make it and are able to board. However, the train is overcrowded. George and Gwen have to wait two hours just for a table in the dining car.
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| Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon as Gwen and George Kellerman in Neil Simon's "The Out-of-Towners." |
With a belly full of peanut butter and an olive pit, they get to Grand Central Station at 2 am. However, they can't get to their reserved room at the Waldorf-Astoria because subway, bus and taxi drivers are all on strike. So are the city's sanitation workers. George and Gwen have to walk eight blocks to get to the hotel in the pouring rain. They don't have an umbrella. Garbage is piled all along the wet city streets, stinking to high heaven.
They make it to the hotel. Their smelly eight-block trek in the pouring rain is met with the hotel giving their reserved room to someone else. The reservation was guaranteed until 10 pm. It's now 3 am. And on top of that, the hotel is booked solid thanks to all the strikes in New York.
Nothing continues to go as planned through the night. It's the worst luck New York has to offer versus George and Gwen Kellerman of Twin Oaks, Ohio.
The comedy in this movie is running on rinse and repeat. Travel plans are thwarted by unforeseen issues that can't be helped, as Gwen often puts it.
Each mishap has the same pay off. George flies off the handle as only Jack Lemmon knows how, swearing with more and more sincerity that he's not going to take it anymore, until the next mishap falls in his path. And his wife Gwen is there to just take it and be the voice of reason that her husband can't hear because he's too busy not taking it anymore. It does become too monotonous by the final act.
He's even kicked out of a church by a camera crew setting up to film some upcoming Easter services just after his wife suggests he go in to pray for relief.
The laughs are there. And the premise isn't unreasonable. What is unrelatable are the bad decisions of Jack Lemmon, such as refusing to stick around the lobby of the Waldorf when his room is given away, after the clerk offers him a room that won't be available until 7 am. But then again, good and logical decisions don't get the laughs. 
The movie is a sophisticated slapstick comedy. It's good for a laugh and some reassurance that no matter how bad our travel plans go, or any of our plans for any situation, at least we're not that guy!
I think Lemmon's performance is hilarious and it's really easy to garner a lot of sympathy for George Kellerman. It's impossible not to connect to these two characters. All they want is a nice trip together while George's situation is about change for the better. We've all been there. We can all laugh.
It gets to the point where Jack Lemmon's character anticipates something to go wrong, which it does. Expectations are met.
The comedy ends with it continuing on when he, like the audience, thinks all that bad luck has got to have run out by now.
So, it shows that travelling can actually be a form of eternal punishment. Just ask the staff at Frontier Airlines. They won't hesitate to tell you how the experience of travelling can be a veritable hell, all while arguing with you and charging you multiple fees along the way unsympathetic of the obstacles airlines like Frontier callously toss into your travel plans.
Director Arthur Hiller has some truly notable titles on his resume, including one film titled "W. C. Fields and Me" (1976) which is something I'm interested in finding.
He's also directed other comedies such as Disney's "Miracle of the White Stallions" (1963), "Love Story" (1970) for which he was nominated for best director, "Man of La Mancha" (1972), and "Silver Streak" (1976) with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.
Hiller also directed Pryor and Wilder in their 1989 comedy, "See No Evil, Hear No Evil."
"The Out-of-Towners" managed to get a remake in 1999 with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. I haven't seen it, but reading the synopsis on Wikipedia, it sounds like the remake makes one or two more logically outcomes when compared to those in this movie. For instance, in the remake, the couple are kicked out of the hotel instead of leaving and venturing back out onto the stinky and wet city streets because of George's principle. The remake also has John Cleese in a supporting role. I might have to check it out despite its poor reception.
Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis are perfectly cast in their respective roles. Both are fantastic and entertaining actors. Their chemistry together, though, is faint. That is, it's not solid enough. But that's not to say their performances are terrible. I will say that Dennis struggles to keep up with Lemmon's energetic performance. Sometimes, her comedic performance doesn't match well enough against Lemmon's. It feels a tad mismatched. Even so, their collective pain is keenly felt with the audience.
I still manage to find this movie entertaining, and it gives me just enough laughs. Still, perhaps it's a victim of its own repetitious humor.
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