The Odd Couple

The Odd Couple

A great writer has the ability to take a potentially tragic occurrence, a suicide attempt or a failed marriage, and create a touching story involving supportive friendship and personal growth. A truly skillful writer can add unpleasant occurrences, sinus congestion and burnt meatloaf, to the mix and create a great comedy exploring man‘s foibles and endearments.

Playwright Neil Simon has done just that in The Odd Couple, a 1968 film starring two great comedic actors, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The movie becomes even funnier when two English female characters join the twosome.

Foregoing the weekly poker game, Felix Ungar (Lemmon) checks into a dingy hotel. We guess by his doleful expression and his request for a room higher than the third floor that he is contemplating a disproportionate remedy to his troubles - suicide.

Felix unlocks the window and attempts to raise it. But it is stuck. Instead of breaking the glass, he applies more pressure again and again until he wrenches his back. Moaning, he falls upon the bed. This pernickety middle-aged man, who faithfully adheres to his sacrosanct plans, is discombobulated and walks out in frustration.

Ordinarily, suicide attempts and backaches are not laughing matters, but Lemmon’s facial expressions of “oh, that’s just my lousy luck” when the window refuses to budge, combined with the ridiculousness of Felix’s persistence have us chuckling before the opening credits finish rolling.

Oscar Madison (Matthau) emerges from the kitchen with brown sandwiches and green sandwiches, the green ones being either “old meat or new cheese.” His refrigerator has been on the fritz for two weeks. Oscar doesn’t allow minor concerns to interrupt his fun. Opening the beer cans, he squirts beer across the poker table and onto his friends’ shirts. He mops up the table with a slice of bread. Oscar is an unrepentant slob.

Felix drags himself up to Oscar’s apartment where his friends hover over him with encouragement and a watchful eye. After the buddies leave, Oscar takes Felix out for a late night snack.

Felix babbles on about Frances, his wife, and his concerns for her. Oscar flirts with the waitress. On the way home they stop for a rest but not before Felix wipes the bench with his handkerchief. Felix is a tedious neatnik.

In this scene Felix and Oscar itemize the reasons why their wives kicked them out. To recognize the cause of a conflict is half the solution. The question is - can these two friends learn to temper their excessive compulsions?

Oscar, having a spontaneous nature and generous spirit, proposes that his best friend move in with him. Felix agrees, but before retiring for the night, he insists on cleaning up the dishes.

When the poker game resumes the next Friday night, the flat is spotlessly clean and the Christmas tree has been removed. After all, it is July. The sandwiches are unbelievably delicious. But Felix doesn’t know when to call a halt to the domestic duties. He insists that his friends use coasters under their glasses. The cards smell of disinfectant. Felix is beginning to get on Oscar’s nerves.

Sure, Oscar is saving lots of money. Felix’s thriftiness has enabled him to catch up on his alimony payments. But Oscar is suffering from lack of fun. He convinces Felix to join him for some bowling. Of course, what’s really on his mind is women. Oscar wants them to double date with two English girls (that’s what grown women were called back in that era - no disrespect intended for the most part). He met these girls when he was stuck in the elevator with them.

Felix insists on cooking dinner. Just think of the money they will save. The date and time are set. But Oscar stops to drink beer after work and doesn‘t call home. An hour late, Oscar strolls in the door in cheerful anticipation of a promising evening. The meatloaf is ready, but Felix has been stewing for an hour. Felix becomes hysterical just as “the coo-coo Pigeon sisters,” Cecily (Monica Evans) and Gwendolyn (Carole Shelley), arrive.

The girls from Chelsea display infectious giggles, but when Oscar goes into the kitchen to mix the drinks, Felix pours out his sad story. Oscar returns to finds all three crying. Through chitchat and tears Felix’s meatloaf has burned to a smoking crisp. The girls, who think Felix is so sensitive and wonderful, invite the hosts to their flat for potluck.

The ruined meatloaf has added to Felix‘s discontent. Besides, he has run out of conversational topics. He refuses to go. That’s the last straw for Oscar.

In this scene we see the friends’ personality compulsions taken to the extreme and the unavoidable consequences thereof. Oscar’s rude tardiness shows a distain for Felix’s perfectionism and a lack of consideration for Felix’s sensitivity. Felix has allowed his obsession with details and worries, large and small, to progress from anxiety into hysteria, thereby missing the point of the evening. The point being to relax with two fun-loving women - not to serve the perfect MEATLOAF!

The next evening Oscar tries to ignore Felix. When he throws Felix’s pasta at the kitchen wall each tries to have the last word. Was that spaghetti or linguine? They argue about who is not going to clean up the mess. Oscar wants an annulment. He tells Felix to get out.

It seems that roommates are no more tolerant of obsessive behavior than wives. Fortunately, Oscar and Felix realize one important area in which they can agree - just in time for another poker game.

Neil Simon adapted the screenplay from his play of the same title and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. The Odd Couple also received an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing. Lemmon and Matthau deliver absurdly funny lines and facial expressions with precision timing, making it a classic sure to entertain the most finicky viewer.


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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