Starring
Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, Gene Saks, Elizabeth Wilson, Florence
Stanley, Maxine Stuart, Sylvester Stallone, M. Emmet Walsh, F. Murray
Abraham. Directed by Melvin Frank. (1975/98 min).
On
Blu-ray from
Review
by Mr. Pawsđ¸
Unless
your name is Stephen King, writers generally don’t have much
marquee value these days. Sure, your book might be the talk of
Hollywood, but you are just another name among the credits. And as
far as screenwriters go, forget about it. More often than not, your
lowly status means you’re sharing credit with a guy hired to
rewrite your hard work.
It
wasn’t always this way. In the '60s & '70s, Neil Simon was an inescapable brand name on both Broadway and the screen. Prolific
and popular, his name was featured above a film’s title right along
with its stars, maybe because people generally knew what to expect:
Congenial, character-driven comedy that may have never been all that
deep, but was usually perceptive, intelligent and occasionally
uproarious. Kind of like Woody Allen without the neurosis.
1975’s
The Prisoner of Second Avenue – adapted from his own play –
is a prime example of vintage Simon, perhaps just a tad bleaker than
his usual oeuvre. Jack Lemmon is in typically fine form as Mel
Edison, a tightly-wound, middle-aged New Yorker living in a cramped
apartment with his beleaguered wife, Edna (Anne Bancroft). He’s
miserable even before he loses his job and their place is
robbed. Out of work and feeling useless, Mel wallows in resentment
and self-pity, which puts a strain on the marriage, especially after
Edna manages to find work. Soon after, he suffers a nervous
breakdown.
 |
| Jack spots Walter Matthau. |
The
film isn’t nearly as downbeat and depressing as the plot
suggests. It’s frequently very funny, even during Mel’s paranoia-fueled
meltdown. The comic highlight, however, has to be Mel’s run-in with
a suspected mugger (a very young Sylvester Stallone).
Lemmon’s played high-strung characters plenty of times, so he’s
not really stretching here. But since he’s so adept at it, who
cares? Bancroft is an amusing foil, no small task considering much of
her performance is reactionary.
Like
most of Neil Simon’s work from the ‘70s, The Prisoner of
Second Avenue isn’t a timeless classic. But despite the dreary
narrative underpinnings, it’s an affably enjoyable, loosely
structured film with a lot of laughs and fun performances by the
entire cast (including a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him appearance by F.
Murray Abraham as a cab driver). And if nothing else, it might make
you feel better about your own problems.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
VINTAGE
MAKING-OF FEATURETTE
"DINAH!”
- Anne Bancroft appears on the popular 70s’ talk show, schmoozing
it up with Dinah Shore. I forgot how bad afternoon talk shows really were.
TRAILER
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS.
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