The Odd Couple
Two friends try sharing an apartment, but their ideas of housekeeping and lifestyles are as different as night and day.
- Director: Gene Saks
- Genre:Comedy / Romance
- Runtime:101 minutes
Cast
Jack Lemmon : Felix Ungar
Walter Matthau : Oscar Madison
John Fiedler : Vinnie
Herb Edelman : Murray (as Herbert Edelman)
David Sheiner : Roy
Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) checks into a fleabag hotel room and attempts to kill himself by jumping out the window, but he can’t get the window open and ends up pulling a muscle in his back. Limping back on the street he tries to get drunk and ends up hurting his neck when he throws down a shot. Finally, he stands on a bridge, contemplating jumping into the river.
Meanwhile, in the pig-sty Upper West Side Manhattan apartment of divorced sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) on a hot and sticky evening, Oscar and his buddies Speed (Larry Haines), Roy (David Sheiner), Vinnie (John Fiedler), and Murray the cop (Herb Edelman) are playing poker and discussing their friend, Felix Ungar, who is unusually late to the game. Murray’s wife calls and tells him that Felix and his wife Frances have split up. As they are discussing what to do, and worried that Felix might try to commit suicide, Felix arrives not knowing that his friends already know that his wife has kicked him out of the house.
Felix eventually breaks down crying and his friends try to console him. Oscar then suggests that Felix move in with him, since Oscar has lived alone since he split up with his own wife, Blanche, several months earlier. Felix agrees, and urges Oscar to not be shy about letting him know if he gets on Oscar’s nerves.
Within a week, Oscar is going nuts. Felix is a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive nut, who runs around the apartment cleaning, picking up after Oscar, and berating him for being such a slob. He also refuses to have any fun, spending most of his time thinking about Frances. Felix at one point telephones Oscar at Shea Stadium to ask what he would like cooked for dinner; this distraction causes Oscar to miss seeing a rare triple-play at the Mets game on which he is reporting. The two men are shown bowling, shooting pool, and walking the city streets. Felix has a sinus attack, making loud obnoxious noises while seated in a coffee shop. Finally, after Felix drives everyone at the weekly poker game crazy, Oscar convinces Felix to lighten up and join him on a double-date with two English girls who live in the building – the Pigeon sisters, Cecily (Monica Evans) and Gwendolyn (Carole Shelley), who actually “coo” when they laugh. Read more
