The Odd Couple (1968)

Directed by Gene Saks. Starring Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Herb Edelman, David Sheiner, John Fiedler, Larry Haines, Carole Shelley, Monica Evans. [G]

Film version of Neil Simon play where fussy, neurotic Felix Ungar (Lemmon) stays with his divorced pal, the sloppy, slobbish Oscar Madison (Matthau), and they discover quickly how incompatible they are as roommates. A television series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman would, of course, follow in the early-70s, a transition that must have been a piece of cake since the movie already feels like a handful of episodes strung together (poker night at Oscar’s, the boys have a disastrous double date, etc.), with the three-camera sitcom setup matching the blocking of the stage show from which it originated. Not quite as good as its sterling reputation suggests—a few sequences are slack instead of economical, and belabor the joke/point—but it’s still a most enjoyable comedy, profiting from lots of inspired dialogue and candid humor, a willingness to let sadness creep in, and the chemistry between Matthau and Lemmon, which is as good here as it ever was (and they made a whopping nine movies together, ten if you count their minor roles in JFK). Followed nearly thirty years later by a sequel almost no one was clamoring for.

78/100