The Odd Couple (Paramount Pictures) (1968)

Picture Version of Odd oe ee Couple Opens New Vistas SYNOPSIS The supporting cast is merely flawless. John Fiedler, Larry a cle Haines, Herbert Edelman and David Sheiner portray the poker players in Paramount’s “The Odd Couple,” opening ............ at TRE akcaaviies Theatre, cronies of Lemmon and Matthau, who get together every Friday night for card playing and wife talk. Fiedler is the only one of the four who was in the original play. Dejected over a separation from his wife Frances, Felix Ungar (SACK LEMMON), a TV newswriter, rents a cheap hotel room in New York’s mid-forties to attempt suicide, but then he is unable to open the jammed window, and even his final moment is a failure. Meanwhile, the poker game is going strong in the Riverside Drive apartment of Oscar Madison (WALTER MATTHAU), a sportswriter. The host is in the kitchen rustling up some eats while his = mm ab |) All are exciting character actors with total comedy ranges. Two delightful English actresses, Carole Shelley and Monica Evans will recreate their sister roles from the play, that of a widow and a divorcee who are dated by Lemmon and Matthau, a hilarious date that hits the bullseye of comedy and pathos with unerring accuracy. In the legit version of “The Odd Couple” the action was constricted to the confines of a single room. In his screenplay, however, Simon has expanded the physical setups considerably, All of the eight rooms in Matthau’s apartment will not be shown. The restless eye of the motion picture camera was fully utilized with three weeks of location filming in New York. Colorful places like Central Park, Times Square, the Hudson River, Riverside Drive, 47th Street and Shea Stadium were captured by the camera for various location scenes. The New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates staged a triple play for one of the scenes. Of course, all of the marvelous dialogue from the stage play has been retained. Changing it would be like changing the smile on the Mona Lisa’s face. Robert Hauser is the cameraman. 2) STEADY STREAM OF HITS— Neil Simon is certainly one of the great comedy writers in show business history. He has a comic freshness of vision that provides the inner momentum to his works. He rarely tosses a line straight up in the air for an isolated gag; he hits it across a net of personal relationships so that a steady volley of wit builds up out of character and situation, He also knows how to prod a cliché off its bed of banality so that it walks toward the brink of logical absurdity. In 1961, Simon wrote his first theatrical comedy, “Come Blow Your Horn,” which was a Broadway smash and a hit Paramount picture. His record since has been amazing—all hits, no errors: “Little Me,” ‘Barefoot In The Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Sweet Charity” and “The Star Spangled Girl.” Odd Couple, starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon opens .......... Stabe cee Theatre. A Paramount Picture in Technicolor. Still #57 Mat 1A DON’T CRY asks Oscar CWalter Matthau) of Felix (Jack Lemmon), as he puts Felix’s neck back in shape. “THE ODD COUPLE”’ starts Agee at the ...... theatre. A Paramount Picture in Technicolor and Panavision. LAUGHING MATTER—Walter Matthau, discussing the anatomy of comedy with a magazine interviewer on the Paramount set of “The Odd Couple,” opening ............ WO UE ccc cers Theatre pointed out the quotes of the following three men. Casanova: “If you want to make people laugh, your face must remain serious”... “A Comedian,” said Ed Wynn, “is a man who says things funny, as opposed to a comic, who says funny things” . “Tt’s hard to laugh at comedians if you’re a comedian,” Groucho Marx remarked, “especially if they’re getting laughs.” Still #93 Mat 2B THE RELATIONSHIP SEEMS STRAINED. Constant living together begins to tell on the friendship of “THE ODD COUPLE”’. A Paramount Picture in Technicolor it stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Opening ..... at thes: 502 theatre. | | DT ddd dee Nee elle eed Add eedeedeededeededededeeddeddadaedededadededaededededededed deodededededed died buddies, Speed (LARRY HAINES), Murray (HERBERT EDELMAN), Roy (DAVID SHEINER) and Vinnie (JOHN FIEDLER) concentrate on their game, voicing occasional concern over the fact that Felix Ungar—one of their regulars, has not shown up yet. Punctuality is one of Felix’s most outstanding characteristics—along with personal cleanliness. His personality must, therefore, be in direct contrast to Oscar’s. One look at the condition of the messy living room-dining room suggests one helluva sloppy housekeeper, and when Oscar comes loping out of the kitchen with brown (meat) and green (cheese) sandwiches—from a refrigerator that’s been on the blink for two weeks, he quickly confirms this estimate. A telephone call from Oscar to Felix’s wife turns up the fact that all is not well in the Ungar household. Felix and Frances have split up. Oscar himself has been divorced for some months now. His wife, Blanche is living in California with their kids. When Felix does finally show up, the gang disperses leaving Oscar to cope with Felix—since they are, after all, best friends. Oscar suggests that he and Felix become roommates, sharing Oscar’s vast eight-room apartment, which looks like an instant disaster area. By the next time the gang gets together in the Madison apartment for a poker game—what a difference! The place is neat as a pin and Felix is serving the players a dainty repast more suitable to a ladies’ bridge club luncheon. By now it is obvious that Felix’s fussiness is driving not only Oscar to distraction, but the rest of the gang as well. They can’t even enjoy a good old-fashioned rowdy, sloppy poker game in the one menage in which their disorderly carryings-on were tolerated. All that is changed now with Felix at the helm. The poker game breaks up early as the players leave in disgust. Felix begins promptly to tidy up after them. It is all getting to be too much for Oscar. Oscar suggests they take a couple of girls out to dinner and bring them up to the apartment afterwards. As a matter of fact, Oscar has a pair in mind—two English girls, sisters, who share an apartment in the same building. They are Cecily (MONICA EVANS) and Gwendolyn (CAROLE SHELLEY) Pigeon, a divorcee and a widow. Oscar met them recently in a stuck elevator. Felix is not happy at the prospect. He is a one-woman man—even though Frances has given him the air. But he reluctantly agrees. The night of the dinner, disaster is in the air. Oscar thinks it is no great consequence that the girls are a half hour late (he himself has arrived home later than he told Felix to expect him)—but the jammed up time schedule has thrown Felix into a tizzy. His meat loaf will be ruined if they don’t hurry up and eat. The girls finally arrive—when Felix announces “Dinner is served,”—but to Felix’s consternation, Oscar delays the start of dinner so he can get the girls a bit oiled with cocktails. Oscar disappears into the kitchen to mix the drinks leaving Felix to keep the conversation going with Cecily and Gwendolyn. Felix goes into the sob story of his broken marriage, starts showing snapshots of his wife and kiddies, and before long has changed the girls from their merry mood to sobbing sadness at recollection of their own unhappy marriages. Oscar is completely shaken to find the three of them in tears when he emerges from the kitchen with drinks. What had started out to be such a promising evening is quickly going up in smoke. The girls take it gamely. They suggest Oscar and Felix come to their apartment. Oscar is quick to recognize opportunity knocking. It is the chance of the year. Oscar tells the girls to go on up. He and Felix will follow. But after the girls have left, Felix waspishly refuses to continue with the evening, pouting because his meat loaf has been ruined. He and Oscar have the same kind of screaming fight they must each have had dozens of times with their spouses during the course of their respective marriages. Oscar is sore, really sore. As a matter of fact, as far as he’s concerned, he and Felix can damn well get a divorce! The next night, Felix—in a conciliatory mood—is chattering nervously while Oscar regards him in glowering silence. When Felix tries to eat a plate of linguine he has cooked for himself, Oscar maliciously sprays deodorant in the air right over his plate of food. Felix makes a nasty remark to Oscar, who takes the plate of linguine and tosses it into the kitchen—so that strings of the pasta are hanging from the kitchen walls. The quarrel has reached the screaming stage again as Oscar chases Felix up to the roof and down again to the apartment. Oscar isn’t kidding. He and Felix are through. Felix can get out. Felix does get out. And once more the gang is apprehensive about what is to become of him. The decision is made to go out and look for Felix. Suddenly, Felix shows up with the two Pigeon Sisters and announces that he is moving in with the two girls temporarily until he gets his life straightened out. Some of Felix has rubbed off on Oscar, because as the poker game resumes without Felix, Oscar, who notices ashes on the table, snarls at the boys, “watch your cigarette ashes, will you? This is my house, not a pig sty.’”’ Both men, obviously, are now able to see themselves more clearly. Perhaps a reconciliation is in the air for them and their wives. Yes, some of Felix has rubbed off on Oscar, and vice-versa—but that’s the way it is in any marriage. CAST PONE CME one JACK LEMMON OC gethies Geeeerirer mn oeneate me DAVID SHEINER Oscar Madison .......... WALTER MATTHAU ROO <6), cataeataa $555 nee LARRY HAINES Vi NG fer sctiercctgimwerevetines JOHN FIEDLER fe | MEV LS Ce Ae ae ie MONICA EVANS Serer HERBERT EDELMAN Gwendolyn .................. CAROLE SHELLEY CREDITS Producer, HOWARD W. KOCH; Director, GENE SAKS; Screenplay by Neil Simon; From The Play By Neil Simon As Produced on the Stage By Saint-Subber; Cinematographer, ROBERT B. HAUSER, A.S.C.; Art Directors, HAL PEREIRA and WALTER TYLER; Set Decorators, ROBERT BENTON and RAY MOYER; Makeup Supervision, WALLY WESTMORE, S.M.A., Makeup Artists, HARRY RAY, S.M.A., and JACK PETTY; Unit Production Manager, WILLIAM C. DAVIDSON; Assistant Director, HANK MOONJEAN; Film Editor, FRANK BRACHT, A.C.E.; Sound Recording By JOHN CARTER and CHARLES GRENZBACH; Costumes Designed By JACK BEAR; Men’s Wardrobe, JOHN ANDERSON; Hair Style Supervision, NELLIE MANLEY, C.H.S.; Script Continuity, LUANNA S. POOLE; Special Photographic Effects, PAUL K. LERPAE, A.S.C.; Music by NEIL HEFTI; Filmed in Panavision; Color By TECHNICOLOR. RUNNING TIME: 105 MINUTES Lm EE EE A EE EE EE A 3 SS L Lkerheereniarirenaaharaiodndhientidondedandadnkadedetdtedk tht LLL LLL TTT ee ne lee lh hc decd echdcdendenddcderdeedecdecderdcderdcderddaderdedhedhecdedededededddededed dddddeddedtddd ddd de edd ee ddd ed