NipkowDisc Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 (edited) on last nite at ten. always watch it even though not quite as funny as the out-of-towners. I had mentioned before in another thread that when mel enters the building where he works directly in front of him is this young babe with red hair and a skimpy green halter top... but I just wanna say that years ago when this movie was syndicated nationally the station in my area would show a print with some of the dialogue replaced with dubbing. like when mel comes home to be informed by edna they they've been robbed. in the dubbed version he rushes out on to his porch and yells "it's a rip-off!!!" in the tcm print it's "you dirty rotten ****!!! also when he's arguing with the guy in 15b above him, jacoby played by ed peck who for some reason has his lines dubbed. mel starts talking about his rear end and how that's all anyone respects. he then says "respect my **** and gets the water bucket emptied down on him. well, I'm sorry but the dubbed dialogue from the older print sounds much, much funnier with "respect my can!" Edited January 29, 2019 by TCMModerator1 Edited for Language 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonCole Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 I'm reading your post while accompanied by music by Dave Brubeck, namely Take Five and it really works with your post just like Dark Side of the Moon by Floyd works with The Wizard of Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayban Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" is a very dark comedy - not your typical Neil Simon vehicle. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt_Markoff Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Script is available online free. It amuses even as lines on the page. There's one scene in the flick which for me, is hold-my-ribcage funny, the bit where Lemmon is moping along the sidewalk (in a state of near clinical depression, raking the sidewalk with his eyes) and a fellow pedestrian accidentally bumps into him. Lemmon barely registers this until a block later when it suddenly strikes him that he can't find his wallet when he pats his pockets. He spins on one heel and stares down the street at the pickpocket with mounting anger; that distant figure coincidentally having the misfortune just then to have glanced back at Lemmon at that very moment, thus looking extremely guilty. Lemmon bursts into a pell-mell pursuit after him. Runs him down the street. Blocks later, he finally leaps off a raised flowerbed and downs the guy with a flying tackle, and pins him to the sidewalk. He pats him down and snatches his wallet back. Snarling a warning at him. I kinda think the pickpocket is a young Sly Stallone. Anyway Lemmon strides off with hugely uplifted spirits until he gets home and finds his own wallet still on his bureau. He left that morning without it. This is actually a very old vaudeville gag that Simon borrowed but Lemmon makes it sing. What a massive talent Lemmon was. The guts to take scenes like that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayban Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Jack Lemmon's performance cuts very deeply into the supposedly comic material. And Anne Bancroft's performance bubbles over with suppressed anger 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 I don't see HOW you can take a script by Neil Simon, cast someone with sharp comic instincts like JACK LEMMON, and a highly talented actress( and not to mention MEL BROOKS' wife!) like ANN BANCROFT, and NOT succeed! Sepiatone 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CinemaInternational Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 It is a good film, and both leads excel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 I wasn't impressed with it. At all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NipkowDisc Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 it has finally taken years for me to figure how nutty mel's snow shovel idea is. he's gonna wait for the winter snow and at approximately six on the dot he's gonna drop a sheetful of snow off his porch to coincide with jacoby coming home from work? he's nuts! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayban Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 He needs a job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NipkowDisc Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 I think mixing in some serious drama in spots hurts this movie. it shoulda been a comedy straight throughout. and then we get this awkward punchline with edna mimicking mel at the end. I turn it off rather than sit through that. and what are mel and edna struggling in nyc in a cramped 14th floor apartment when his brother and wife are living in a big country home like that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayban Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 His brother does want Mel to move to the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoyCronin Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 On 1/28/2019 at 11:27 PM, rayban said: Jack Lemmon's performance cuts very deeply into the supposedly comic material. And Anne Bancroft's performance bubbles over with suppressed anger Yes, Anne was very good at suppressed rage and anger bubbling over, particularly in some of her later work; I'm thinking of Garbo Talks, 'night Mother and How to Make an American Quilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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