Oscar Madison:
I can't take it anymore, Felix, I'm cracking up. Everything you do irritates me. And when you're not here, the things I know you're gonna do when you come in irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. Told you 158 times I can't stand little notes on my pillow. "We're all out of cornflakes. F.U." Took me three hours to figure out F.U. was Felix Ungar!
Valentine's Day is a good day to make a pot of spaghetti (or was that linguine?) and spend time with my favorite couple; The Odd Couple.
This is my absolute favorite, warm fuzzy, feel good movie.
Jack Lemmon plays Felix Ungar and Walter Matthau plays Oscar Maddison
Oscar is a simple man with a big heart and some great friends to go with it. Unfortunately Oscar's marriage failed. Divorced, Oscar rambles around in a big apartment full of things left by the wife and child.
Felix is a complicated man with some great friends and many emotional and physical difficulties.
The movie begins on the night Felix's wife asks for a divorce. After tinkering with suicide a distraught Felix eventually arrives at Oscar's door and into the care of friends. As the friends go home Oscar takes up suicide watch on his own.
Oscar's house is too big for him and he is not interested in cleaning it. His kitchen is a bio hazard.
Felix is now homeless is a cleaning fanatic. Sharing a home seemed like a good idea at the time.
But Oscar's casual approach to housekeeping and life quickly clash with Felix's agonizingly picky standards. Another blowup was inevitable for him.
My grandmother used to say you could tell a lot about people if you knew what made them laugh. This movie makes me laugh and I have no idea what that says about me.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Pat and Mike, 1952
Spencer Tracy stars as sports promoter Mike Conovan and Katharine Hepburn as Pat Pemberton, a diversely talented athlete..
William Ching plays Collier Weld, the man Pat is engaged to marry.
A college administrator, Collier has big plans for his future. Collier hopes to finagle a large donation for the college from a wealthy couple during a game of golf. The talented Pat is to partner with the wife assuring her of a win. The wealthy couple will then presumably be in a generous mood.
But Collier has no confidence in Pat’s talent. He dogged her around the course pressing her to “do better”. . To make things worse, the wealthy wife gave Pat non-stop pointers and free advice. As people tend to do under that kind of pressure, Pat preforms poorly and disappoints Collier’s ambitions.
Pat is at a crossroads. She fancies having a “50-50" partnership with her man. Her self respect and confidence hinges on her athletic ability. But she cant preform well when Collier is around. Pat decides to prove to herself that she has what it takes to preform (and hold up her end?)
Here comes Mike Conovan, sports promoter. Recognizing Pats ability he takes her on as a client. Both Mike and Collier intend to profit from Pat’s ability. But Mike truly believes in her. Where Collier would say: “don’t screw up”, Mike says “well done”. Not hard to see where this is going.
But what about Pat’s goal of a 50-50 partnership? In one scene Pat saves Mike from a young Charles Bronson and a couple of other tough guy types. Mike was none too happy about being protected by a woman and brooded about it.
I wonder, is 50-50 really achievable? In any partnership one will always be the smarter, stronger, kinder and so on. The balance is always shifting. If you cant shift with it you end up brooding or worse.
William Ching plays Collier Weld, the man Pat is engaged to marry.
A college administrator, Collier has big plans for his future. Collier hopes to finagle a large donation for the college from a wealthy couple during a game of golf. The talented Pat is to partner with the wife assuring her of a win. The wealthy couple will then presumably be in a generous mood.
But Collier has no confidence in Pat’s talent. He dogged her around the course pressing her to “do better”. . To make things worse, the wealthy wife gave Pat non-stop pointers and free advice. As people tend to do under that kind of pressure, Pat preforms poorly and disappoints Collier’s ambitions.
Pat is at a crossroads. She fancies having a “50-50" partnership with her man. Her self respect and confidence hinges on her athletic ability. But she cant preform well when Collier is around. Pat decides to prove to herself that she has what it takes to preform (and hold up her end?)
Here comes Mike Conovan, sports promoter. Recognizing Pats ability he takes her on as a client. Both Mike and Collier intend to profit from Pat’s ability. But Mike truly believes in her. Where Collier would say: “don’t screw up”, Mike says “well done”. Not hard to see where this is going.
But what about Pat’s goal of a 50-50 partnership? In one scene Pat saves Mike from a young Charles Bronson and a couple of other tough guy types. Mike was none too happy about being protected by a woman and brooded about it.
I wonder, is 50-50 really achievable? In any partnership one will always be the smarter, stronger, kinder and so on. The balance is always shifting. If you cant shift with it you end up brooding or worse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
