The Odd Couple (1968)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fantastic!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Neil Simon hit it out of the park with "The Odd Couple". It was a very successful Broadway play, a very popular film as well as a long- running (and often imitated) TV series. But for all you folks that are only familiar with the TV versions, the play and movie were very different. While they're all comedies, the play and film were very dark...little like the TV program. The TV show never would tackle issues like suicide and Oscar would never come to a point where he contemplates murdering Felix!!The film begins with Felix (Jack Lemmon) wandering about New York City is a daze. His wife, sick of his incredibly neurotic and irritating behavior has finally tossed him out...and Felix doesn't know what to do with himself. He eventually wanders over to the pig sty where Oscar lives and his poker buddies all just heard about what's happened with Felix...and they are worried he might harm himself. So Oscar asks Felix to stay with him. After all, Felix is a neat freak and Oscar a total slob...and perhaps they could help each other! Well, easier said than done, as Felix is so annoying that instead of helping Oscar, he might just help push Oscar over the edge! How's it all going to end? See the film.As I sad, this film is dark. In the TV show, no matter how angry Oscar got at Felix, you know that down deep they love each other. Here, however, you think that perhaps THIS Oscar (Walter Matthau) might just kill Felix! Overall, a very good film but one that will appeal to a different sort of audience than the TV show...a more adult one that doesn't mind exploring this dark side.

A hallmark Neil Simon comedy shot with Panavision parameter by film/stage director Gene Saks, his second feature film, paired with Lemmon and Matthau, the second out of their 10 collaborations, after their prize-winning bash in Billy Wilder's THE FORTUNE COOKIE (1966).In the main, it is a one-apartment knockabout, the eponymous couple, Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau), are best friends but equipped with diametrical personalities, Felix is a fastidious neat-freak whereas Oscar a congenital slob. In the opening scenes, we follow Felix wandering off a hotel-dotted Manhattan in the night, he checks in a high-story room and decides to kill himself spurred by the unforeseen cessation of his 12-year marriage, only to find the window is jammed.Starting with a suicidal attempt going awry, that's the spirit a quality comedy should have because it heralds that nothing would go more serious than that! So once Felix thinks better of it, he goes to Oscar's place, literally a divorcé's dump littered with garbage, food and permeated with smoke, sweat and other repugnant odor, where he meets their usual poker friends, after a flurry of misunderstanding, Felix moves into Oscar 8-room apartment, that's when the discord begins to ratchet up. It is a time-honored template of mis-matched buddy romp, Neil Simon's script ensures that their disparity runs to the maximum in opposite scales, even to a fault at the expense of its characters' likability, especially Oscar, emblazoned as a macho ingrate, in comparison with Felix's nagging but at least good-natured punctiliousness. Thankfully, the two stars' chemistry gratifyingly hits the right mark (Lemmon is a compelling sprain-prone dynamo and Matthau is in his element with his trademark rakish sloppiness), and leavens the implausible story with trenchant one-liners (that F.U. monogram for instance), including a hilarious double date with the Pigeon sisters (Evans and Shelley) from Britain, where sensuality humbled by sentimentality. In retrospect, THE ODD COUPLE is an archetype of urban bromance (minus the gay undertone), likens the friendship between two men to a married couple (the only missing link is the consummation) when they are shoved under the same roof, and aggrandizes their tough/vulnerable dichotomy for laughter, a thoroughly pleasurable pot-boiler (if not a sharp-edged satire or an irresistibly droll goofball) borne out of an ingenious idea.

The Odd Couple (1968): Dir: Gene Saks / Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Monica Evans, Carole Shelley, Herb Edelman: Easily one of the best comedies of the decade. This is a hilarious film about clashing personalities. Felix is divorced and makes failed suicide attempts. Oscar is divorced but spends evenings playing cards with the boys. Felix is fussy and constantly cleaning up while Oscar is sloppy and leaves things as is. Central plot regards Oscar allowing Felix to move in and driving him up the wall with his constant tidying. Director Gene Saks seems to open up what appears to be the inspiration for sitcoms. It is given two hilarious performances from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Lemmon has sinus issues which also annoys Oscar. Matthau is the straight arrow here who grows irritated when a double date goes sour. Among other roles are two women played by Monica Evans and Carole Shelley who arrive as dates and are swept away with Felix's sob story. They will surface later in the film's final comic payoff. Herb Edelman plays Murray the cop, one of their poker pals who uses his cruiser to search for Felix when the boys worry. Very funny film in that opposites attract or relate manner that most viewers should relate to when being around anyone for lengths of time. The message reflects tolerance of one another and all of our odd traits and habits that conflict with others. Score: 9 / 10

Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) is despondent after his wife left him. He even fails in his suicide attempts. He moves in with his divorced sportswriter friend Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau). Felix is a neat freak and Oscar is a slob. They don't make the best roommate. They are the odd couple. Oscar convinces Felix to go on a double date with the Pigeon sisters. It doesn't go the way Oscar wants which only makes the living situation worst than ever.Jack Lemmon is terrific. His sinus problem is hilarious. The couple has great combative chemistry together. They are some great lines from Neil Simon. The Pigeon sisters send it over the top. In the end, this is the two guys' performances that make it so great.