Classic 60s Movie: The Odd Couple
January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from John Henderson.
Movie Title: The Odd Couple
Year: 1968
Writer: Neil Simon, based on his play
Lead Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Director: Gene Saks
Plot Summary: Two friends (neat, fussy Felix Ungar and messy, laidback Oscar Madison) try sharing an apartment, but their lifestyles are as different as night and day.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 60s Movie: The set-up is simple: a neat freak moves in with a slob and, despite all good intentions, they end up driving each other crazy. Despite dealing with issues of divorce and loneliness and even featuring a failed suicide attempt, The Odd Couple is an enormously funny movie full of great one-liners (“I know him. He’s too nervous to kill himself. Wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie”), sight gags (Oscar holding a pile of sandwiches under his arm as he reads his cards), and a pair of great comedic performances by Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Lemmon was a major star at the time after appearing in classics such as Some Like It Hot, Mister Roberts and The Apartment, the last two earning him Academy Awards. Matthau had won a Tony for his performance in the stage version of The Odd Couple and also an Academy Award for his work alongside Lemmon in The Fortune Cookie two years earlier.
The screenplay is by Neil Simon who, in the 1960s, became one of Broadway’s most successful playwrights. In one year that decade, he had four shows, including The Odd Couple, on Broadway at the same time. He has also adapted many of his own plays (Barefoot in the Park, Sweet Charity) for the screen. One of Simon’s main themes in his works is relationships and the capacity for change (See also: The Goodbye Girl). The Odd Couple epitomizes this theme by having Oscar and Felix realize they both have to change their ways, not only to live together, but to be better men. The movie ends with Felix a little less high-strung and Oscar chiding his smoking poker buddies for not using the ashtray.
The Odd Couple was a massive hit when released in 1968, earning over $40 million and making it the fourth highest-grossing movie that year. Simon’s script for the movie was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay award at that year’s Oscars.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: The opening card game in Oscar’s apartment. In one ten minute scene, we learn about Oscar: his slovenly apartment, his bad food (“it’s either very new cheese or very old meat”), his approach to fashion (sweat-stained clothes), and his current marriage status (divorced, late on alimony payments). This is all done through dialogue with his poker buddies who also shed more light on the character of Felix who we’ve only seen in montage during the opening credits. By the time Felix enters the apartment, the set-up of the characters is complete and the story is set to begin.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie
Oscar: “I can’t take it anymore, Felix, I’m cracking up. Everything you do irritates me. And when you’re not here, the things I know you’re gonna do when you come in irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. Told you 158 times I can’t stand little notes on my pillow. “We’re all out of cornflakes. F.U.” Took me three hours to figure out F.U. was Felix Ungar!”
After it is discovered Felix didn’t write his wife a suicide note but sent a telegram instead:
Murray: “A suicide telegram? Who sends a suicide telegram?”
Oscar: “Felix, the nut, that’s who! Can you imagine getting a thing like that? She even had to tip the kid a quarter.”
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: While The Odd Couple is a filmed version of a play, it never feels like we’re watching a filmed play. While the play took place entirely in Oscar’s apartment, a few scenes for the movie were reset outside. This, along with the widescreen photography, gives the movie just enough expanse to give it its own identity away from the play.
Monica Evans and Carole Shelley, who play Oscar’s chatty upstairs neighbors the Pigeon sisters (Cecily and Gwendolyn), reunited for Disney’s The Aristocats as the voices of the equally chatty Amelia and Abigail, the Goose sisters.
The Odd Couple has been made into several television series:
The first debuted in 1970 and starred Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar. The show, executive produced by Garry Marshall, ran for five seasons and earned multiple Emmys.
The New Odd Couple premiered in 1982 and starred Ron Glass (Barney Miller) and Demond Wilson (Sanford & Son).
The Oddball Couple was an animated TV show from 1975 featuring a dog (Fleabag) in the Oscar role and a cat (Spiffy) in the Felix role.
The Odd Couple is set to return to television yet again this year with Matthew Perry (Friends) as Oscar and Thomas Lennon (Night at the Museum screenwriter, Reno 911,) as Felix.
In 1998, Matthau and Lemmon reprised their roles in The Odd Couple II. Written by Simon, it marked the tenth and final onscreen pairing of Matthau and Lemmon who passed away in 2000 and 2001, respectively.
Thanks, John. To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Twitter: @hendersonjohnm.
We already have a set of classic 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 60s Movies.
We have 31 volunteers. I have put in bold those who have already sent their guest post to me.
Ipsita Barik — Rosemary’s Baby
Ipsita Barik — Bonnie and Clyde
Mike Dobbins — The Sound of Music
Brandnewusedcar — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Markham Cook — Jules et Jim
Steve Cook — The Blue Max
JasperLamarCrab — 2001: A Space Odyssey
N D — Lonely are the Brave
Drew Dorenfest — Easy Rider
Rick Dyke — Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Rick Dyke — Fail Safe
Felicity Flesher — The Music Man
PaulG — Lawrence of Arabia
D.L. Gill — Zulu
Jeff Guenther — Cool Hand Luke
Kate Hagen — Repulsion
John Henderson — Night of the Living Dead
John Henderson — The Odd Couple
John Hörnschemeyer — The Graduate
Zach Jansen — They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Will King — The Pink Panther
William Leitch — If…
Lisaisfunny — Blow Up
Jack McDonald — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Nick — Lonely are the Brave
Daryl Powell — The Apartment
jprichard — Persona
Ally Shina — The Jungle Book
Mark Twain — The Loved One
Liz Warner — The Manchurian Candidate
Michael Waters — Dr. No
For those who have signed up, but have yet to email me your post, please do so ASAP.
Thanks in advance!
For the original post explaining the series, go here.