The Turner Classic Movies Film Festival concludes today in Hollywood. Friday evening, I took Amber — who had never seen the film (or for that matter, the play or TV show) — to see The Odd Couple. Yes, I've viewed it many, many times on home video but this was only my second opportunity to enjoy it on a big screen with a live, laughing-out-loud audience. The first was around half a century ago when it played at the old Palms Theater in Culver City.
I was struck by how different it was to see it in a movie theater — in this case, a module of the now-mutiplexed Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. And I do remember seeing another Jack Lemmon movie — How to Murder Your Wife — there in 1965, back when the place only had one screen. Lemmon and Matthau were actors who were acting with their faces every second they were on the screen. Unless you have a TV the size of a billboard, you can't see how good they were on home video.
You also miss something else. This movie is filled with funny lines and because most of its cast performed them in the Broadway version, they knew the timing. They say something hilarious and not until the laugh from it dies down do they say the next line. Matthau on screen takes all the same pauses he took on stage and they're the proper length without the editor inserting them by cutting to another shot.
The Odd Couple is basically an eight-character play and movie. (One of the few other people with a line is Joe Palma, the legendary actor who played Fake Shemp in some Three Stooges shorts. He's the butcher when Felix goes out to buy meat.) All eight main players are terrific and two of them were present for the screening. For those of you curious about such things, one other principal — David Sheiner, who played Roy the Accountant — is still with us.
My longtime pal Michael Uslan did the intro at the Turnerfest. After the pic, film historian Eddie Muller interviewed Carole Shelley and Monica Evans who in 1965 were the first actresses to play The Pigeon Sisters. That was for the play and they later reprised their roles for the film and even played them a few times on the Tony Randall-Jack Klugman TV version. The audience was thrilled to be able to applaud them in person and moved to hear that it was the first time they'd seen each other in 19 years. Carole lives in New York and still acts. Monica is retired from acting and residing in Great Britain.
Both spoke of the honor/joy of being in such a fine play with such fine co-stars. Carole said that during the shooting of the film, Jack Lemmon — the only one of the eight who'd never done it as a play — kept asking how certain Felix lines were delivered on stage and how long a laugh they got.
It may not be generally known that the Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon sorta saved the play. In outta-town preview performances, the first act was hilarious, the second act was even funnier and the third act sent the audience out sullen and unamused. Playwright Neil Simon rewrote furiously. Director Mike Nichols staged new scenes several times a week. Nothing worked…
…until in Boston, those two men, Matthau and Art Carney (Felix on the stage) appeared on a local TV show hosted by local theater critic Elliot Norton. Simon, preoccupied with why his play wasn't working, didn't really want to do it and was paying only partial attention when Norton said something like, "I really loved the Pigeon Sisters in Act Two and wondered why you didn't bring them back in Act Three." Simon later explained it lit up a giant neon sign in his head and sent him dashing for the typewriter. Cecily and Gwen hadn't been in the third act but within a few days, the play had a new ending where they were and The Odd Couple was finally a success.
It's still a success. It certainly was with all those at the screening, Amber included. She's still chuckling over the scene where Oscar flings Felix's pasta into the kitchen. You can see it and other highlights here in the trailer for the film. I'm pretty sure Lemmon's line here — "It's not spaghetti, it's linguine" — is from an alternate take. That's how well I know this movie. If you've only seen it on home video, try someday to see it they way God intended it to be viewed: With a lot of other human beings around.