The Odd Couple (Paramount Pictures) (1968)

Odd Couple's Poker Cronies Get Expert Advice They call him Mr. Fingers over at Paramount Pictures, and he wins the title of Hollywood’s strangest technical adviser, hands down. Mr. Fingers, of course, is an alias, as he prefers to remain strictly anonymous in view of his past reputation of being one of the smoothest card sharks to ever charm a wealthy group of train or boat passengers into a “friendly” poker game. Still #89 Mat 2D A GROUP CRY-IN ends what could have been a lovely evening. Felix tells his woeful tale to the Pigeon sisters and starts a crying session. “THE ODD COUPLE” stars Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. A Paramount Picture, in Technicolor, it opens sigs cate atthe ...... theatre. Lemmon A Hit Even with His Name Jack Lemmon was reminiscing about his career on the Paramount set of ‘“‘The Odd Couple,” which opens ................ at the PRPS SE > Theatre in which he and Walter Matthau play the title roles. In Technicolor and Panavision. “Let’s face it,” grinned Lemmon, “T didn’t make it in Hollywood on the strength of Jack Armstrong looks. I just don’t have the cleanlimbed, square-jawed, simpleminded magnetism that elicits an avalanche of fan mail from kids— or whatever it is that makes them squeal and holler. I don’t even have a sincere-sounding square-jawed, All-American name like Hunter or Hudson.” Lemmon went on to talk about his refusal to be a Hollywood name-dropper at the start of his brilliant career. “I remember.” he said, “when I came out to Hollywood to make my first picture, “It Should Happen To You,” the late Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, called me into his office and told me he didn’t like my name, and he wanted to change it. He was giving me all kinds of arguments. “The critics will use it like a ball bat. ‘They’ll hit ya with it.’ ‘Let ’em,’ I said. ‘How can I have a name like Lemmon up there? They’ll laugh it off the screen,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to change it,’ I told him. ‘You gotta change it,’ he said. ‘To what?’ I asked. ‘To Lennon,’ he said. ‘They’l] think I’m a Russian revolutionary,’ I told him. ‘No,’ he said, ‘That’s Leneen, I looked it up.’ Well, I fell off the chair, and he got mad because I was laughing at him. But I didn’t change it—and things seem to have worked out all right anyway!” Lemmon says if the day comes when he starts worrying about his public concept as an actor, he’ll be in serious trouble. “Because then,” he states, “I will start performing not as an individual, not as a guy playing a part; I’ll be trying to create some hypocritical image. I’d be a complete liar. If the all-American boy comes over, and maybe it does, I really couldn’t give a damn. But if the performance is good, there I care a great deal. I’m going to be around when I’m 60—if I’m not hit by a producer or a car—but only if ’m a good actor, not a ‘personality.’ ” SHAYING A MOUTHFUL—Divrector Gene Saks was interviewing a group of actors at Paramount in a search to find one to fill the role of a fast-talker for a scene in “The Odd Couple,” opening ............ at the sete Theatre with Jack Lemmon. and Walter Matthau. “Listen to this,” one of the thesps said to Saks. “Swim, Sam, swim. Sam swim. Show them you are some swimmer, Swim like the snow-white swan swam. A well-swum swim is a swim well-swum. So swim, Sam, swim.” Saks gave him the role. In Technicolor, Currently the respectable proprietor of a thriving shoe store somewhere in California, Mr. Fingers acted in an advisory capacity for the hilarious poker game sequences involving Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and a group of card-playing buddies at Paramount in “The Odd Couple,” which OPENS ...4e044: Bb AINE hs dase Theatre. Having thoroughly learned from the law a long time ago that crime doesn’t pay, Mr. Fingers only uses his unorthodox sleight-of-hand talent to entertain friends at parties. Before the picture began, Mr. Fingers taught Lemmon and Matthau all the card tricks of that tricky trade. Not that Lemmon and Matthau cheat in the movie scenes, but basically how to handle the pasteboards like an expert. Mr. Fingers threw in the other things as a matter of demonstration. How to conceal an extra ace, how to palm a card, and how to read the backs of a marked deck. Mr. Fingers is living proof that the hand is quicker than the eye. He told Lemmon and Matthau that he has pulled in more pots than a secullery maid and raked in more money than a croupier at Monte Carlo. Mr. Fingers revealed to the actors the strange jargon used by card sharks. A wallet is “the okus,” policemen are called “the works,” a crowd of suckers is “the tip” and an arrest is a “sneeze.” Mr. Fingers claims it takes as much skill to be a card sharp as it does to be a surgeon or a violinist. Still HOCR-452 Spec 1 A Triple Play For the Odd Couple Four of the Pittsburgh Pirates leading stars were the “victims” of a triple play by the New York Mets on June 27 at Shea Stadium. The fielding feat was staged for Paramount Pic tures’ “The Odd Couple,” opening iS Mat 1B “THIS IS WHAT I CALL SOFT Still #34 and warm” declares Osear. “THE ODD COUPLE” stars Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. This Paramount Picture Opens” .j:. at Une Se eee theatre. In Technicolor and Panavision. You have to have a touch lighter than a butterfly’s wings, he says, and a highly-skilled poker artist is born and not made. He is very proud of pupils Lemmon and Matthau. phat Sy 217) at the ............ Theatre. The four Pirates selected for the dubious distinction were Roberto Clemente, the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1966. Matty Alou, last year’s batting champion; Maury Wills, one of the leading baserunners of all time, and pitcher Vernon Law, 1966 Comeback Player of the Year. Executing the rare fielding play for the Mets were the team’s regular infielders—Ken Boyer, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Buchek and Ed Kranepool. The regularly-scheduled umpires for the day’s game also appeared in “The Odd Couple.” Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who star in the motion picture, were in attendance at the Stadium for the filming. Matthau plays a sportswriter in “The Odd Couple” and Lemmon is cast as a TV newswriter. Additional scenes for “The Odd Couple” were shot in the Shea pressbox and featured Matthau with well-known baseball writers. “The Odd Couple,” based on Neil Simon’s smash Broadway comedy, was filmed on New York City locations. The motion picture is directed by Gene Saks and produced by Koch in Panavision and Technicolor from a screenplay by Simon. ODD COUPLE TRANSITION from stage to screen is a great success. The Paramount Picture in TechniCOLOTMOPeNS tthact AUC GRR. hese theatre. It stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Mat 3A THE ODD COUPLE is more than a story of two men sharing an apartment. It is the biggest funniest story about thrown out husbands. A Paramount Picture in Technicolor it opens theatre. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau star. Copyright © 1967 by Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for newspaper and magazine reproduction. (Made in U.S.A.)