Posted on 05/01/2018 12:21:23 PM PDT by Twotone
Fifty years ago this coming week - May 2nd 1968 - the world heard for the first time one of the great instrumental movie themes of all time, composed by Neal Hefti to accompany Jack Lemmon as he pads through a seedy Times Square at night and checks into a fleabag hotel to hurl himself to death from his bedroom window. Instead, he finds the window nailed shut, and, in frantically trying to open it so he can throw himself out, instead throws his back out. He winds up at a go-go bar and, uninterested in the dancers, throws back a shot, thereby adding a cricked neck to his back problems. Etc.
I'm not sure how interesting any of this somewhat labored shtick by Lemmon would be without Hefti's groovy, urbane musical accompaniment. But, with it, it holds the screen until Lemmon finds himself interrupting the poker game amid the discarded beer cans, ash mountains and other debris at the apartment of his old friend Walter Matthau. And thus begins the film that made Neil Simon a superstar writer for the next three decades. Indeed, The Odd Couple is what we would now call a franchise: The Broadway play was adapted into a film that led to a long-running TV sitcom that spawned an animated spin-off, and a sequel, and an updated rewrite, and on and on. Likewise the eponymous odd couple, a mismatched brace of white males called Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau), have been transmogrified over the years into a feminized version, an African-Americanization, and a cartoon about a neatnik cat and a slobbo dog.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Isn’t Neal Hefti the same guy who wrote the theme for the “Batman” TV show in the ‘60s?
One of my favorite movies of all time! Loved the TV version with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman even more!
LOVED the movie! Hated the TV show. The song is great.
No better comedy duo than Lemmon and Matthau.
The only “Neal” in the credits I can recall is “Neal Hamilton”.
“No better comedy duo than Lemmon and Matthau.”
Agree.
Yeah, that last remake with one of the "Friends" guys was (is?) horrible.
My mother was an extra in that movie. You can see her over Lemmon’s shoulder in the supermarket, talking to the butcher.
Love the movie and can take or leave the series.
Yes, he is the one.
Grumpy Old Men with Lemon, Matheau and Ann Margret was insanely funny. “
Confidential to Michelle Wolf:
You can be ROFL funny without being vulgar.
I liked another one they did called “Out To Sea”.
That reminds of the line Matthau used, in "Out to Sea":
"Where exactly did you go to college, Gordo?"
"Oh, that's a little place called F.U."
That line did make me laugh out loud!
The lyrics to the Batman theme song set a standard that will never be achieved again.
And then Matthau gets up and goes to mix the drinks, and when he returns...
....and then! what happens!
Art Carney who played a sewer technician in “The Honeymooners” plays Felix in the “The Odd Couple”
That was odd casting.
“Loved the TV version with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman even more!”
One of my top faves! I only saw the movie once, a long time ago. This article really made me want to watch it again.
I did this show in HS too, it’s a great one set show. The only problem at the HS level is that it’s a small cast and almost all men. But we did it and it was great.
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