Jack Lemmon: The Out Of Towners April 12, 2008
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , trackbackFive years before THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE, Jack Lemmon appeared in another Neil Simon-penned movie, THE OUT OF TOWNERS. It would share, with the later film, the setting of New York, but from a different perspective, as the title suggests. Whereas in the superior 1975 film Lemmon and Bancroft played a New york couple who stay in the city in the face of crisis, in THE OUT OF TOWNERS the protaganists are the Kellermans, outsiders from Ohio for whom New York simply is the crisis. Jack Lemmon plays George Kellerman, due for a life-changing job interview in New York whose plans unravel into a chaos of diverted airflights, lost luggage, being mugged, losing their Hotel room, getting soaked in a rainstorm, caught in the midst of a robbery… It’s one of those days/nights in which everything goes wrong.
Although it is one of his lesser films, Lemmon nevertheless shines with a comic timing that is typically natural and seemingly effortless. He had a gift for comedy so great that he would perhaps always be frustrated, as an actor, that he was famous as being first a comedy actor above all else. This was unfortunate and patently untrue, as other films so greatly demonstrated, but in the case of very average films like THE OUT OF TOWNERS, that great comedic talent could save a film from mediocrity. In truth, the Neil Simon screenplay is basically one joke stretched over the length of the film, but it is saved by Lemmon’s performance. I really can’t imagine anyone but Lemmon succeeding in the role of George Kellerman - compare the flawed original to the vastly inferior 1999 remake starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn and you’ll appreciate what Lemmon brings to the original.
Lemmon had been in far better films before and would many times after, but THE OUT OF TOWNERS stands as a testament to his talent at comedy and ability to raise material above it’s own limitations. Even a poor Jack Lemmon film is still a good way to pass away a few hours, and the film guarantees a good few laughs. The DVD is predictably poor, since we’ll never see a Special Edition for a film like this, but on the whole the picture is fair and the widescreen format makes it superior to the usual pan-and-scan television airing.
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