In praise of Jack Lemmon

Cafe Society
1

**Jack Lemmon ** has long been one of my favorite actors. While watching the Acadamy Awards last night, my fiancee and I were discussing his work and how great it was to see the different clips of him throughout the years. I made the offhand comment that we should try and watch every film of his, in order… which she enthusiastically took me up on.

So I’ve added his first film, ***It Should Happen to You ** * (1954), to our Netflix queue and after discovering that his next two films (***Phffft ** * (1954) and ***Three for the Show ** * (1955)) were not available, we also added ***Mister Roberts ** * (1955) for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

We’ll see how far we get into this undertaking. I should mention that my favorite films of his are The Apartment, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Avanti. Of course, this project means that I’ll have to end my run w/ The Legend of Bagger Vance, but I think I can handle it.

2

That’s a great idea – following an actor in chronological order – and Jack Lemmon is a good one to start with.

I might do that with directors – I think I’ve only seen two of Scorsese’s films.

3

My favorite is The Great Race.

4

Wait until you see him & Glen Ford in Cowboy. Gay so thick you could drive a nail in it and hang your hat.

5

Irma La Duce was great. Skip Luv.

6

I also loved him in The China Syndrome and Grumpy Old Men and, of course, The Odd Couple.

7

Some Like it Hot is my favorite.

8

Another vote for The China Syndrome.

9

In addition to the faves already listed, he’s terrific in “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Fortune Cookie” and “The Odd Couple.”

Some of his “second tier” films are very worthwhile. I like “The Notorious Landlady,” “Good Neighbor Sam,” and “The April Fools.”

10

For me, ‘Save the Tiger’ is the quintessential '60s movie

11

Grumpy Old Men will be fun.
The Odd Couple II, not so much.

12

Some Like It Hot and The Odd Couple are two of my favorite movies. Feel free to skip the 17-hour* version of Hamlet. Jack should have.

*Slight exaggeration

13

One more obscure movie Lemmon did was Mass Appeal, in which he played a complacent priest of an middle to upper class parish, taking on an idealistic young seminarian.

14

Anyone mention “Bell Book and Candle”? He was excellent in that.

“Mr. Roberts” is my favorite though.

I guess I like him better as a supporting actor.

[QUOTE=onomatopoem]
One Lemon film I loved that nobody remembers is How To Murder Your Wife, with Virna Lisi.
He’s a caroonist who marries while drunk, sketches getting rid of his wife by putting her into the wet cement being laid in the street outside, and then she disappears.

In his drawings the intrusive cement mixing machine is called the Pocketa-pocketa machine for the noise it makes.
[/QUOTE]

Great little known movie. One of his best roles.

15

[QUOTE=onomatopoem]
In his drawings the intrusive cement mixing machine is called the Pocketa-pocketa machine for the noise it makes.
[/QUOTE]
Good post/username match! I always heard that as ‘glopeta-glopeta’ – you know, a thicker sound.

16

I’ve always liked Jack Lemmon in just about anything he did.
He made a great TV movie entitled The Entertainer (similar to the earlier Lawrence Olivier film) and Jack does a standout acting job.

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[QUOTE=Le Ministre de l’au-delà]
For me, ‘Save the Tiger’ is the quintessential '60s movie
[/QUOTE]

Was it set in the 60’s? It was released in 1973.

Save the Tiger

18

Another vote for The Great Race! One of my all time favourite movies.

Push the button, Max!

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[QUOTE=Cazzle]

Push the button, Max!
[/QUOTE]

One of our family’s most-used quotes, for anything from locking the car door to turning on the DVD player. Followed closely by, “That’s a quarter of a century. Makes a girl think.” Can you tell which movies we like best?

I really like the Odd Couple, and I’ve been trying to introduce the kids to The Apartment for several years now.

20

Does anyone think that Bryan Cranston (Hal from Malcolm in the Middle) was trying to ape Lemmon in his performance?