The Odd Couple (1968)

When the wife of neat freak Felix (Jack Lemmon) leaves him, he becomes suicidal, causing his poker buddies to worry. He stays with slob Oscar (Walter Matthew) while he gets over the shock. They do not get along.

It is impossible for me to separate the movie from the 1970’s TV show I watched as a kid. I will refrain from contrasting the two works except to say that it is impressive how Tony Randall and Jack Klugman successfully created a personalized but very recognizable version of the same characters.

Ostensibly, The Odd Couple is a film about men’s relationship with women. Oscar and Felix’s ex-wives, who are never seen, and the Pigeon sisters, whom they attempt to engage. Women, or the desire of them, drive much of the action. But in reality, this is a story about men’s relationship with each other. They bicker, but are genuinely concerned when one is in jeopardy. Felix and Oscar cannot stand living together, but grow close through the experience. Closer than what they can comfortably communicate.

Not laugh out loud funny, at least for me, but funny and engaging. Particularly the coo-coo Pigeon sisters, Monica Evans and Carole Shelley, who reprised their roles from the stage play and would again for the TV series. They would also play Maid Marion and Lady Kluck in the Disney version of Robin Hood, a childhood favorite of mine.

The Odd Couple depicts adult male life in a very different and in many ways more realistic way than films to that point. That’s the hallmark of stage to film adaptations. They are not the idealized manly men of some films, but men in a very recognizable and sometimes unflattering way. The crisis forces them to confront a situation they are not capable of handling very well. In the end they learn and grow, play poker, and bicker with each other. AMRU 4.

Irma la Douce (1963)

An honest Parisian cop (Jack Lemmon) is fired for calling a raid on street walkers. He then falls in love with one of them (Shirley MacLaine) and becomes her pimp. It’s the classic love story.

What was originally a musical was adapted into a rather strange film. Themes like crime, prostitution, infidelity, domestic violence, and even murder are treated with a bizarre whimsy. Universal Protagonist Jack Lemmon suffers through all of it. He loves Irma and cannot stand it when she serves her customers, so he concocts a bizarre plan to deal with his jealousy, but no spoilers here.

Marilyn Monroe and Charles Laughton both were set to appear but were totally croak-city come production. A Marilyn Irma (or EAR-ma) would have been an interesting change. Surely she would have highlighted the character’s stupid qualities. Laughton would have played bar owner Moustache, and would have been wonderful but I don’t see how he could have improved on Lou Jacobi. Who wasn’t dead yet was Grace Lee Whitney as Kiki the Cossack, whom geeks will recognize as Yeoman Janice Rand. Also interesting is the the film debut of James Caan and an early appearance of Bill Bixby. Look them up, ya damn millennials!

Very bawdy by early 60’s standards. Unlike another Billy Wilder film made a few earlier (which I will soon cover), the sexuality holds up. Many shots of topless women from the back, MacLaine included. It’s a twelve-year old’s dream. Before the internet, that is. It is a good example of how Hollywood changed during these times. What a difference eight years makes.

MacLaine didn’t think much of the script nor the film, but it earned her an Oscar nom none-the-less. The tone is almost off-putting with it’s flip treatment of dark material, but it doesn’t fail to entertain. The dialog is clever and witty like (almost) all Wilder films, and it is visually appealing. But that’s another story. AMRU 3.5.

“It's a hard way to earn an easy living.”

Bell Book and Candle (1958)

Hot witch Gillian (Kim Novak) is bored and wants to meet her elderly neighbor Shep (James Stewart). When she learns that he is soon to marry a hot mortal, she uses magic to intervene.

Lovers meet, lovers love, lovers part with hard feelings, lovers reunite through grand gesture. Roll credits. The Rom Com formula is like clockwork. You can set your watch by it. The key to its success is how much we believe in the romance, and how much we like the characters. While Novak’s Gillian is mostly emotionless (witches can’t cry, you understand) and her interest in twice-her-age Stewart is somewhat confounding, we do become invested in their story.

Jack Lemmon was at his prime as Gil’s somewhat mischievous brother. Elsa Lanchester was great as her batty aunt. Hermione Granger .. I mean Gringots ...I MEAN GINGOLD was also delightful. Janice Rule played the young woman Gil had to steal Shep away from. I remembered her from a Twilight Zone episode.

One functional complaint of the movie is that we aren’t to sympathize with the undeserving girlfriend. See Susan Hayward’s shrewish and tragic bride-to-be in I Married a Witch. She was both beautiful and wonderfully unsympathetic. Here we are told why Rule’s character isn’t nice, but we don’t actually see it. I felt sorry for her.

Enigmatic comedian Ernie Kovacs was understated as an author of books on witchcraft. His unconventional and sometimes controversial comedic style made him a legend with comedians, but because much of his television work was lost, he is all but forgotten by audiences today. He died in a car accident less than four years later, and ten days before his 43rd birthday.

Beautifully filmed, well acted, visually stunning, very charming, and amusing when it needed to be, Bell Book and Candle (no commas!) is delightful. It was, along with I Married a Witch, a principle inspiration for Bewitched. AMRU 4. Elizabeth Montgomery was hot. Ask your dad.

“Shep, you just never learned to spell.”

The Apartment (1960)

A young insurance company worker C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) loans out his humble apartment to executives for their romantic liaisons. When the director of human resources (Fred MacMurray) finds out, he wants in. C.C. gets ahead in life, but things become complicated.

This movie seems to be about people not knowing what they truly want. C.C. wants success but it doesn't make him happy. Fran the elevator girl (Shirley MacLaine) wants a married man, and that never ends well. Sheldrake wants it all, and see how that comes out. It's only when they realize what's really important that anything is resolved.

Writer/Director Billy Wilder, tired of working with demanding and unprofessional Marilyn Monroe, included a small part of a dumb blond with a baby-doll voice apparently as a dig at her. Fred MacMurray got grief from fans for this very non-family friendly roll. He would do only tripe from that moment on.

Amusing, clever, somewhat dark, absolutely charming, and very satisfying. Billy Wilder is fast becoming my favorite movie maker. Every film I've seen so far has been excellent. The Apartment was so well acted, so well written, and was Best Picture in what was an amazing year for Cinema. And Shirley MacLaine is adorable. AMRU 4.

"That's the way it crumbles... cookie-wise."

Some Like it Hot (1959)

Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) are down on their luck musicians. The only job offered is for an all girls band in Florida. When they become witness to the Valentine's Day massacre, they decide to borrow some dresses and take that gig.

So, on the train they go with a bunch of women trying hard not to stand out. There they meet troubled hottie Sugar Kane, played by troubled hottie Marilyn Monroe. George Raft played a gangster, like in that other movie that featured the Valentine's Day massacre.

Anyhow, they get in and out of trouble, meet strange and interesting people, and find true love, of a sort. Curtis and Lemmon were great, the dialog was crisp, and the hottie was hot. Way to camouflage a pregnancy, Marilyn. She'd be dead in three years.

Monroe, I understand, was an utter train wreck on the set. Always late, couldn't remember her lines, difficult to the end. She wasn't invited to the wrap party. Billy Wilder hated her, though used her notoriety for his own gain. He considered Mitzi Gaynor for the role.

Banned in Kansas and condemned by the Catholic Church, Some Like it Hot was a well written, well made, and wonderfully crafted movie. AMRU 4. By the way, the title refers to how they like their Jazz. Sugar liked it hot.

"Well, nobody's perfect."