# In praise of Jack Lemmon **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113 "2008-02-25T20:08:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/21 "2008-02-26T11:14:03Z")
Surely the best thing he did late in life was the Henry Fonda role, Juror #8, in the telemovie of _12 Angry Men_. In some ways I preferred it to the much beloved original. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/22 "2008-02-26T12:48:57Z")
[QUOTE=don’t ask] Surely the best thing he did late in life was the Henry Fonda role, Juror #8, in the telemovie of _12 Angry Men_. In some ways I preferred it to the much beloved original. [/QUOTE] I prefer it to the original, and I’m not afraid to say it. He’s great in it. JL – Hilarious in **Odd Couple**. Great in **The Apartment**. Absolutely tragic in **Glengarry Glen Ross**. Seeing him go through the gamut of emotions in that movie is priceless. He goes from being so browbeaten, and then after closing, pulls off the “cock of the walk”, talking up his sales stories. He’s still got it!!! Then, Kevin Spacey says, “how did you know about \” and it is the biggest balloon bursting since the Hindenburg. You can feel his insides crumple. One of the best performances in any movie ever, if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/23 "2008-02-26T13:04:08Z")
I’d add [The Out of Towners](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066193/) , one of Jack Lemmon’s funniest roles. (The remake was dire beyond belief). ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/24 "2008-02-26T15:10:06Z")
[QUOTE=Mahaloth] Was it set in the 60’s? It was released in 1973. [Save the Tiger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_tiger) [/QUOTE] Well, is my face red. I’ll have to watch it again (Dang! See one of my favourite films again!) to see if it is in fact set any earlier than Dec. 31, 1969, but you’re right. My sole defense is that for some of us, the sixties lasted for longer than for others… ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/25 "2008-02-26T17:59:03Z")
I really like everything I’ve seen with Jack Lemmon, but I fell in love him with his role in Mr. Roberts. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/26 "2008-02-26T20:04:41Z")
After coming back and re-reading all the additional entries, one has to ask, did Jack Lemmon ever deliver a bad performance? If so, I have yet to see it. When he was in a good movie, he made it great, and when he was in a so-so movie, he still made it worth watching. They broke the mold, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Ryle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8dc957/32.png) [@Mark\_Ryle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Ryle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/27 "2008-02-27T15:20:54Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] … did Jack Lemmon ever deliver a bad performance? [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=TWDuke] Feel free to skip the 17-hour\* version of Hamlet. Jack should have. [/QUOTE] Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 _Hamlet_, the only unabridged film version, does indeed have an embarrassingly bad Jack Lemmon appearance, as Marcellus. The film is superlative and should not be missed on any account. One thing you will notice right away is the shocking inadequacy of American actors in actual side-by-side matchups with British. Of the Americans only Charleton Heston acquits himself manfully. He is the full equal of the Brits. Lemmon, as I recall, is in only one very early and mercifully short part. I literally winced through it. You will too, I guarantee. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/28 "2008-02-27T16:18:49Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] After coming back and re-reading all the additional entries, one has to ask, did Jack Lemmon ever deliver a bad performance? If so, I have yet to see it. When he was in a good movie, he made it great, and when he was in a so-so movie, he still made it worth watching. [/QUOTE] Well, because you asked–I would say most of his stuff in the 80s and beyond was subpar, with \*Buddy Buddy, Hamlet, That’s Life! \*and _Dad_ being the grossest offenders. He gives the worst performance in _Short Cuts_ and _JFK_, and he’s strictly phoning it in with everything he did with Matthau in the 90s. I think one of the things that made _Glengarry Glen Ross_ so revelatory (because it is a truly magnificent performance) was that it was so far removed from the pure hambone we’d been seeing from him for the previous decade. He’s also just been brazenly miscast in some movies (_Cowboy, Airport '77_) and seriously overrated in others (_Tribute_, all the TV movie remakes). That said, he is heartbreaking in _DoW&R_, brilliant in _Some Like it Hot_, extremely well-suited for _Missing_ & _China_, irresistable in _The Great Race_, and and very funny in his supporting stuff from the 50s. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/29 "2008-03-26T03:23:36Z")
[QUOTE=Mark Ryle] Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 _Hamlet_, the only unabridged film version, does indeed have an embarrassingly bad Jack Lemmon appearance, as Marcellus. The film is superlative and should not be missed on any account. One thing you will notice right away is the shocking inadequacy of American actors in actual side-by-side matchups with British. Of the Americans only Charleton Heston acquits himself manfully. He is the full equal of the Brits. Lemmon, as I recall, is in only one very early and mercifully short part. I literally winced through it. You will too, I guarantee. [/QUOTE] I’ll agree with this. Lemmon just seemed, very unusually, under prepared. He’s clearly reciting lines instead of making them sound natural. Totally unusual from him, who is such a natural actor. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/30 "2008-03-26T03:44:10Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti] I’d add [The Out of Towners](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066193/) , one of Jack Lemmon’s funniest roles. (The remake was dire beyond belief). [/QUOTE] Yes! You beat me to it. Do you hear a whistle? _Mister Rogers_ and _Some Like it Hot_ are also faves of mine. Great, heartbreaking performance in _Missing_, as well. Wow, I just checked out his IMDB filmography and I had no idea he was as productive as he apparently has been. Genius comedian with some real dramatic depth. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/31 "2008-03-26T08:26:22Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] 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] I think **Pocketa-pocketa** was Walter Mitty. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/32 "2008-03-26T12:33:14Z")
[QUOTE=TPWombat] I think **Pocketa-pocketa** was Walter Mitty. [/QUOTE] Actually that was **onomatopoem** ’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/33 "2008-03-26T12:49:51Z")
I have seen \*It Should Happen to You \* perhaps 10 times, and Lemmon is completely disarming in it. He sings “Let’s Fall in Love” with Judy Holliday and I’m just gone. Also make sure to see _It Happened to Jane with Doris Day_, in which Lemmon wears Boy Scout shorts through half the picture. (It has at least three alternate titles.) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113/34 "2008-03-26T13:50:45Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Actually that was **onomatopoem** ’s post. [/QUOTE] Which for some reason, I don’t see. 😕 I see the quotes but not the post the quotes come from. Anyway the cartoonist in that film is based upon James Thurber, who also wrote _The Secret Life of Walter Mitty_. I just read a book writted by Thurber and EB White (Charlotte’s Web) that was a spoof on the sex/psychology books coming out in the late '20s. \*Is Sex Necessary \* is hysterically funny and I frequently imagined Jack Lemmon’s voice reading it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-praise-of-jack-lemmon/439113.md?page=1)