Neil Simon has a special genius for finding the great hilarity in ordinary people doing everyday things. Like two divorced men who decide to share a New York apartment. That's the premise of The Odd Couple, though there's nothing odd in the casting of two Oscar-winning talents like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The two veteran funnymen work together with the precision timing of a vaudeville team, but always with bright spontaneity. Lemmon plays fussy Felix, fastidious to a fault. He proves that cleanliness is next to insanity. Matthau is Oscar, who wreaks havoc on a tidy room with the speed and thoroughness of a tornado. An enduring and endearing picture, with the intelligence one usually misses in comedies.
Directed by
Gene Saks
Written by
Neil Simon (play) Neil Simon (screenplay)
Starring
Jack Lemmon (Felix Ungar); Walter Matthau (Oscar Madison); John Fiedler (Vinnie); Herb Edelman (Murray (as Herbert Edelman)); David Sheiner (Roy); Larry Haines (Speed); Monica Evans (Cecily Pigeon); Carole Shelley (Gwendolyn Pigeon). Please contact SFC to add other cast members and characters.
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