Shut Up and Vote: The Jack Lemmon Poll

the apartment over mister roberts

I like Some Like It Hot okay, but it's not a favourite, so for me it comes down to The Apartment, The China Syndrome, or Short Cuts. Just in terms of the film, that is--Lemmon's performance in Short Cuts is probably on the wrong side of the histrionics divide (I don't mind him; Kael hated what he did there), so for performance, either The Apartment or Short Cuts. I also, as I've mentioned before, have a lot of nostalgia for Save the Tiger, which I watched many times on TV as a teenager. Stepping back a bit, I realize it encapsulates some of the most heavy-handed tendencies of its era.

voted mister roberts; i think the hiccuping collar-tightening shtick is a lil better-integrated than in the apartment. much prefer the latter otherwise. considered the china syndrome and glengarry. he's spectacularly bad in hamlet.

The Apartment is his most Lemmon-scented film, but I'll take his "serious" work in Days of Wine and Roses (he and Lee Remick are good together) over Save the Tiger and The China Syndrome (in which everyone, particularly Jane Fonda is miscast). Glengarry the best of the later work.

Might just throw my vote to Short Cuts, because a) i love his scene (and it basically is just one scene), and b) I know from previous discussions 'round here that the film/performance has some detractors. Or maybe I'll wuss out and vote The Apartment.

i still love some like it hot (i know it's gotten some weird blowback in recent years, i guess from too frequently being called the greatest comedy ever made or whatever) but i have to admit *takes deep breath* i prefer tony curtis in it.

^^^ I do too. He's more naturally effeminate than Lemmon, and the Cary Grant spoof works.

You left out The April Fools (1969) with Catherine Denueve, but that's OK because it's not good

*Deneuve

That perennial poll dark-horse Buddy Buddy, at 500-1 odds.

The April Fools was one of three or four I cut--I just hadn't heard of it. Part of my previous post doesn't make sense; it should read, "so for performance, either The Apartment or The China Syndrome." Don't feel he's miscast in the latter at all (and while I understand the Kael argument that they were starting to domesticate and dumb-down Fonda in the late '70s, I think she's really good too).

really tempted to vote for Days of Wine and Roses because he's great. really tempted to vote for Glengarry just for the lulz but not really - an elite few actors get to have a cartoon archetype based on them that never references them by name tho.

honesty might compel me to vote for The Odd Couple tho

hard to vote for anything besides The Apartment, performance-wise

Odd Couple and easily

the apartment over mister roberts

Mister Roberts

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Some Like It Hot" -although I agree with those who prefer Tony in it- followed by "Glengarry Glen Ross" for being painful on purpose.

he's real good in the two before Nister Roberts

Avanti! a better middle-aged crisis movie than Save the Tiger

He's kind of proto-manic pixie dream guy in It Should Happen To You.

What about Buddy, Buddy, Morbs?

never seen it

"Odd Couple and easily" x2

No one's mentioned The Fortune Cookie. Matthau's great, and he's what you remember, but Lemmon conveys disgust very well in the non-comic role.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Only one for Some Like It Hot? Thought it'd be closer, vote-wise.

Think I forgot to vote, didn't notice the closing so it should have been two.

wtf @ Grumpier Old Men and Airport '77?

Airport '77 is fun. can only assume that GOM isn't

Lemmon's solo Glengarry commentary track.

Phffft! is one of two comedies he made with Judy Holliday in '54 (his first starring roles), and it's a relatively acidic divorced-til-they're-not variation on The Awful Truth. Their rhumba scene is a keeper.

also Kim Novak is hilarious as a "good time girl" that Jack and his skeevy roommate (Jack Carson) both date. I had no idea she could be that intentionally funny.

Centenary Today

"Magic Time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-n-ybKQ_X0

Save the Tiger: really good film, or was I just glad to be watching a New Hollywood character study? Regardless, I found Lemmon compelling almost all the way through. (The hippie hitchhiker plotline lost me.)

Posted this a decade ago, and I'm sure I'd feel the same if I watched it tonight:

I...have a lot of nostalgia for Save the Tiger, which I watched many times on TV as a teenager. Stepping back a bit, I realize it encapsulates some of the most heavy-handed tendencies of its era.

Which would include the scene where Lemmon harangues the hippie hitchiker when they play their famous-names game, and also when Lemmon has the breakdown at the podium. But I like it too, and I'd definitely take it over John G. Avildsen's big commercial breakthrough, Rocky. Love Thayer David as the arsonist: "The screen, Harry--watch the screen."

I bought the breakdown while giving his speech, but didn't really buy the scene around it - there's really not more of a reaction from the assembled crowd? Retail clothes-buying reps in the 70s must have been really hung up on politeness.

There’s a big retro at the Film Forum right now

Haha, that's where I just saw Save the Tiger! And then on the way out, ran into friends in line for Glengarry Glen Ross. Good vibes. As with so many FF series, when it was first announced I figured I'd get to check off five or six blind spots, but in reality life gets in the way...

I hear that

Once I while I go and see as much as I can of a series, but usually I’m lucky if I see one or two.