Top 5: Favorite Jack Lemmon Films
by John NolteA five “best” list of Lemmon films would look a little different than this, especially 4 & 5, but “favorite” is more fun. Besides, no one has a corner on taste.
1. The Days of Wine and Roses (1962) – There have been countless films since dramatizing the horrors of drug and alcohol addiction, many of them more explicit and visceral, but none ever as emotionally agonizing as this tragic love story of two alcoholics. The first act could be any early 60’s, meet-cute, oh Miss Halbersham you’re beautiful without your glasses romantic comedy. At first, Jack Lemmon plays Jack Lemmon wooing the lovely Lee Remick but then the two martini lunch turns into a living nightmare that ends so sadly it takes your breath away.
“Wine and Roses” brings together the very best of Lemmon; the everyday guy just trying to get a little ahead and the dramatic actor who could use that screen persona to break your heart.
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2. The Apartment (1960) – Anyone who’s ever been a drone trying to get out of the hive of a big corporation should be able to relate to Lemmon’s hapless C.C. Baxter, a nobody in an ocean of perfectly squared desks who lends out his bachelor pad to middle management in the hopes his making it possible for their adulterous trysts will land him an office and key to the executive washroom.
We shouldn’t like Baxter. He’s pathetic, weak, and enabling the worst kind of betrayal, but rather than play the role for pathos, Lemmon portrays Baxter as a man fully and humorously aware of his own failings.
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3. Mister Roberts (1955) – James Cagney must have been in shock watching this for the first time. No one had ever stolen a film from Cagney before and here’s Lemmon, a relative unknown at the time, walking away with the picture and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
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4. The Out-of-Towners (1970) – The picture that made me a forever Jack Lemmon fan. The scene where he’s oblivious to how close that manhole cover comes to killing him is one of the funniest things ever. Leonard Maltin’s otherwise authoritative “Movie Guide” rates “Towners” with a star and a half. What’s wrong with Leonard Maltin?
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5. Grumpy Old Men (1993) – Probably not the best of the Lemmon/Matthau canon, but the one that most frequently finds its way into my DVD player. Lemmon and Matthau were wonderful together and their late career revival was one of the great cinematic pleasures of the nineties. “Grumpy Old Men” (and its equally pleasant sequel) doesn’t represent genius filmmaking, but there’s a nice holiday vibe and you can never tire of watching a couple veterans squeeze big laughs from every line and plenty of warmth from the expected wrap up.
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44 Comments
Where’s “Some Like It Hot”?
Yeah, I know it’s an obvious choice, but still …
My 13yo daughter can’t stop watching “the odd couple”.
What? No “How to Murder Your Wife”? Great flick.
Mister Roberts is one of the greatest non-traditional WW2 movies ever made and he is perfect in it.
Glengarry Glen Ross is another great role, also the inspiration for the ultimate loser ‘Gil’ on the Simpsons.
‘Save the Tiger’ (1973)
Best Actor/Academy Award.
Great script by Steve Shagan with a wonderful supporting cast.
One of my all time favorite films.
oh jesus can you people get nothing right.
Wow. Even on a non-political thread you can’t manage to keep yourself from insulting everyone.
I adore Jack Lemmon! I’ll watch any movie he is in, even if it’s not that great. He, alone, is worth watching it. Too bad he was a lefty. Oh well…nobody’s perfect.
Another good one: It Should Happen To You, with Judy Holiday.
1. The Apartment (duh)
2. Glengarry Glen Ross (heartbreaking work)
3. The Odd Couple (very funny)
4. The China Syndrome (as much as I loathe this movie’s politics, he was brilliant in it)
5. My Fellow Americans (hey, you asked for my favorites)
You can’t forget how good Shirley Maclaine looked in “The Apartment”.
John:
In a thread on Lemmon, let me agree on MacMurry. I’ll always remember him in “The Caine Mutiny.” A sleazy bad guy with a smile and a handshake!
I still can’t believe Mathau and Lemmon are gone.
Watching the abortion that was the “Bad News Bears” remake and seeing Billy Bob try to ape Mathau’s act, I appreciate him more than ever.
No “Some Like it Hot”?
For shame!
1) The Great Race… easily (IMO) should be considered as his top movie
2) My Fellow Americans … I don’t think anyone could have the chemistry that Lemmon/Matthau had, but Lemmon and Garner did very well together.
3) Out-of-Towners: It’s actualy shown up on Charter a few times in the past couple of months.
4) The Odd Couple – Again, the chemistry between Lemmon and Mathau just has YET to be touched by any on-screen pair, except for Hope and Crosby
5) Some Like it Hot.
Have to admit, I’ve never seen Glengary Glen Ross… so I can’t grade that one.
I’ll probably get blasted, but I enjoyed Lemmon in the TV-version of 12 angry men… admittedly, it’ll NEVER match up with the original..
Can anyone that has ever been stuck on a hellish flight not laugh at Lemmons 4 decade old argument with a Flight Attendant on the differnce between Flying and Circling and thus why he cant get a cup of hot joe in the “Out of Towners”
If you haven’t seen Glengarry Glen Ross, rent it. Some top-notch acting, not just by Lemmon, but by Pacino, Ed Harris, and Alec Baldwin’s classic 15-minute cameo. Not one to watch with mom.
How do you leave The Odd Couple off of the list?
Mr. Roberts of course.
Haven’t seen The Apartment, will put in in my Netflix queue.
Since I’m from Cleveland my favorite has always been “The Fortune Cookie”.
The ironic thing about “My Fellow Americans”, is if you look at the George H.W. Bush-Bill Clinton dynamic Lemmon and Garner were playing out in the movie, the two guys are pretty much doing it in real life now, in an example of life imitating art.
Lemon’s greatness was the ability to turn on a dime within a role from drama to comedy, seen best in “Roses” but also apparent at the end of “Mr. Roberts” (and as far as the Lemmon-Matthau teaming, Wilder’s “The Fortune Cookie” is also a great pairing of the two).
“The Fortune Cookie” – although Matthau stole the show, and got a statue, IIRC.
“How To Murder Your Wife” – Virna Lisi!
My personal favorite was “The Prisoner of Second Avenue”. Revolutionary Road could arguably be defined as a modern day version set in the suburbs.
The funniest line ever. The Odd Couple: We’re out of cornflakes…FU. It took me 2 hour to figure out that FU is Felix Unger.
Can’t help repeating people but:
1) “Some Like It Hot” – should be in the list of any top ten comedies
2) “The Apartment” – one of the few times Best Picture actually went to the best picture of the year
3) “Mister Roberts” – all due respect to Kevin Bacon and the sadly under used Robert Walker Jr., but there is only one Ens. Frank Pulver (the Academy got it right this time, too)
4) “Glengarry Glen Ross” – stands out in a great cast (though Baldwin is close)
5) “Missing” – yeah, it’s lefty prop. but he is very good in this
now I’m in the mood for a jack lemmon movie. can use a little less jack black and more jack lemmon.
I agree with most of the comments about Jack Lemmon.He had,early on,as in Mr Roberts, a manic energy that verged sometimes on being hard to take,but in Some like it Hot with Marilyn in the railway sleeper his daffy rendition of sexualdeception and arousal occurring simultaneously is explosively funny.
.Tony Curtis,somehat more grounded in reality,(well so to speak) was great too.
I agree with the comments about Fred Macmurray whoe’s art concealed art.Like Spencer Tracy you could never see the “safety pins”
.
As Lemmon aged his rendition of a sad and broken man as in Glegarry Glen Ross became so painfully insightful as to be almost unwatchable.
You feared that his haunted face spoke of an inner anguish that perhaps persisted even after another great performance was in the can..A pain that the slightly ferocious energy of his earlier performances had seemed able to conceal.The hangdog expression of Walter Matthau never raised THAT level of anxiety.
I would like to imagine that Jack Lemmon enjoyed the pleasure he had brought us ,and was happier than he looked,in later years.Though I would be the first to admit that when the greatness of an actor is the topic
you are probably succumbing to yet another manifestation of his ability to blurr the distinction between reel and real life.
I guess thats just what the “illusion of reality”.actually means.and what acting is all about.
Brian Hanna
Jack Lemmon in anything by Neil Simon is a winner. Really, Jack Lemmon in anything. I love The Apartment, but I also love The Great Race and The Fortune Cookie. Anything and everything Jack Lemmon. Even that stupid Out to Sea was great with he and Matthau.
Some like it hot was a great film. but whenever Grumpy Old Men comes on the tv i can not stop watching it. those two are so good together in that movie. just cracks me up. and from the look of some of these comments and the lists put together i really need to do some catching up on my Jack Lemmon movies.
He and Matthau sure had a chemistry. They were like a catalyst together. I’ll vote for Grumpy Old Men.
1 The Apartment – The epitome of the Lemmon character.Warm, caring and an all around good guy that wins out in the end.
2. Mister Roberts – “Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinkin’ palm tree overboard! Now what’s all this crud about no movie tonight?”
3. Some Like It Hot – Can anything beat the scene where Lemmon tells TC that he’s engaged and is talking about where to go for the honeymoon?
4. It should Happen To You – He played off JH so well. Another nice guy that took the perfect approach toward Judy and her crazy idea.
5. How To Murder Your Wife – A soft spot in my heart for this one since it was the first Lemmon movie I can remember seeing. Plus it had Virna Lisi – hubba hubba!
The Apartment
Glengarry Glen Ross
Grumpy Old Men
The Odd Couple
and my favorite Jack Lemmon-The Out of Towners
Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn should have been swallowed up in Central Park for remaking this movie. Jack and Sandi Dennis were absolutely brilliant. Leonard Maltin is an idiot.
[...] the good DVD. I’ve also got several big projects underway right now. No too much I can say Top 5: Favorite Jack Lemmon Films – bighollywood.breitbart.com 01/29/2009 by John Nolte A five “best” list of Lemmon films would [...]
Lemmon didn’t have a big enough role to have Mister Roberts rank as his top 5 in my book. I loved the movie but it should be on a Cagney or Fonda list. Heres my favorites from Lemmon.
1) Glenngary Glenross (it’s so true to a commission salesperson’s life)
2) The Odd Couple
3) The Fortune Cookie
4) The Great Race
5) Save The Tiger (he won an Oscar in that one)
I agree with Maltin about The Out Of Towners, it was on the other night and I had to turn the channel, I’ve seen it through and its one long running joke that wears thin fast.
The Great Race – Mr. Lemmon plays four and a half characters and is hysterical; who else could have stolen the show from Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood?
Can anyone forget Ving Rhames all but giving his Golden Globe to Mr. Lemmon in 1998? Stunning. My favorites – “The Apartment”, “Out of Towners”, and who can forget “Tuesday with Morrie”?
One film that was made better than it had a right to be, thanks to JL’s presence, was “Mass Appeal”. I don’t know how he managed to not be “Jack Lemmon, the actor” and become a play it safe Catholic priest, but he did. I had several priest friends, and some seminary friends, as well. They were universal in praising JL’s portrait of a good guy who had nonetheless sold out any ideals he may have once had.
I’m not arguing this was a Top 5 JL film; only that it is overlooked.
It does my old heart good to see “Mr. Roberts” on so many lists. Good stuff.
Gotta be “The Great Race” if for no other reason, his turn as the Prince/pie fight scene.
How about a great movie with just a little bit of Jack Lemmon?
The four hour “Hamlet.” There was a laugh of surprise and recognition all over the theater when the guard finally said a word with a recognizable Jack Lemmon tone. Before that moment I had assumed it was Ian Bannen or some other great actor from the British Isles.
The Academy Awards lost all credibility when Jack Lemmon didn’t win Best
Actor for Days of Wine and Roses, and Paul Newman didn’t win Best Actor
for The Hustler.
Can anybody even remember the guys who did win it in those two Years?
Right, I thought so…
The Prisoner Of Second Avenue
I really enjoyed “Under the YumYum Tree” (1963) with Disney star Dean Jones and Carol Lynley with Edie Adams in support. Not Oscar material, obviously, but enjoyably funny. Quintesential dirty old (young?) apartment manager and a dirty old man seduction apartment to go along with it.
Lemmon did some TV work early on in his career. In one of his pieces, he was a newly-arrived Marine lieutenant in Korea. One night he and his men are on patrol, and some shelling takes place near them. He asks the squad sergeant what’s up, and the sergeant says, “Those guys open up nearly every night, usually just before the enemy probes our position.” Lemmon says, “Oh, the late, late show, huh? Well, let’s get out of here before were late, late Marines.” I’ve always liked that line and the way he delivered it.
1. Some Like it Hot
2. The Odd Couple
3. The Notorious Landlady
4. Mister Roberts
5. My Fellow Americans
What can I say? I’m a sucker for comedies…
The Apartment is in my top 5 of all time. And I have read that Billy Wilder was not fond of it. For shame. I cannot imagine a more despicable character than Mr. Sheldrake (a name used in Sunset Boulevard, for the readers’ boss, but seen only once), and MacMurry plays great off Lemmon, as most actors did. I love Jack Lemmon, and one of the highlights of my life was watching him on the street outside the Mayan porno palace in LA, while I was lowly law student skipping classes across the street. I only wish could have been a good Republican. But then again “Nobody’s perfect”.
A little late for this, but TCM just featured Jack Lemmon as their “Star of the Month” in January and a lot of the films mentioned here were aired.
For me, The Great Race isn’t just my favorite Lemmon film, it’s my favorite film…period.
And since no one else has mentioned it, I always enjoyed the movie “Tribute”, especially the incredibly cool bar his character had hidden behind the faux bookcase. As he tells (a very young) Kim Catrall, “Just pull out the third book from the right and you’ll find yourself in the middle of ‘Lost Weekend’”
Lots of good choices, Some Like it Hot & The Out-of-Towners would definitely be in my top 5. Surprised no one mentioned Missing, which is my favorite Jack Lemmon movie.
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