TechnoFILE is copyright and a registered trademark © ® of
Pandemonium Productions.
All rights reserved.
E-mail us Here!

Neil Simon Classics on DVD


The Out-of-towners
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
Plaza Suite The Out-of-towners

Neil Simon was at his peak when he wrote such classics as “The Odd Couple” “Barefoot in the Park,” “the Goodbye Girl” and many more. If you’ve never seen his stuff, his writing is classified as basically comedic, but there’s a lot more to it than that; his characters are living and breathing, with all-too-human foibles, and his situations are grounded in real life.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released a trio of Simon’s classic titles, new to DVD. They’re a good cross section of his work and though none of them will have you rolling on the floor slapping your sides, you’ll at least be nodding at the screen in acknowledgment or sympathy for the characters and the trials they’re facing.

The Out-of-towners, remade in the 1990’s as a Steve Martin/Goldie Hawn vehicle, is arguably the best of these three titles. It stars Jack Lemmon as a tightly-wrapped man who with his wife (wonderfully played by Sandy Dennis), travels to New York City for an important job interview.

This could be George Kellerman’s (Lemmon) big chance. He’s the top candidate for a great gig in the Big Apple - all he has to do is show up and go through the formality of an interview and it will undoubtedly be in the bag.

George is understandably nervous, but he’s also brimming with confidence: he’s taken care of everything, hotel reservations, the works.

But of course this is the trip from Hell, and anyone who has experienced such a journey can readily identify with this voyage into darkness.

Directed by Arthur Hiller, The Out-of-towners follows the Kellermans through everything that can go wrong, and does. First up, their arrival is delayed because New York’s airport is socked in. They circle, and circle, and circle, George getting more tightly wrapped with each go around. When they finally land, it’s in Boston - and rather than spend the night there (George’s meeting is first thing in the morning and he wants to be fresh) they choose to take the train, but only have a few minutes to make it.

They miss it, then catch it, then wish they’d missed it….

Naturally, they reach New York, but that’s really only the beginning of “Phase Two” of the trip from Hell. Their luggage has disappeared; since they were late and didn’t phone ahead their hotel room has been given away; they get mugged; George breaks a tooth (and then whistles when he speaks); a couple of run-ins in Central Park. You name it, if it can fall under the umbrella of Murphy’s Law, it happens here.

In the end, George makes it to his meeting, of course, much the worse for wear.

Lemmon is terrific as the increasingly nuts George, and Dennis is marvelous as his devoted wife, managing to keep her head in the face of all predicaments - or most, anyway.

It’s easy to empathize with George and Gwen, and you’re almost embarrassed to be enjoying their predicaments because you know that if it were you having to live through the ordeal it wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining.

The supporting cast includes a host of familiar faces including Sandy Baron, Anne Meara, Ann Prentiss, Ron Carey, Graham Jarvis, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Libertini and Paul Dooley.

The DVD’s good, though very sparse. Paramount presents it in anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) and the picture is very good overall. There’s some grain, and some softness in places, but for the most part it’s sharp and bright and with very good color (though some of that’s not as readily enjoyable since a lot of the movie takes place at night).

Audio is Dolby Digital mono and there’s nothing wrong with it. Audio wasn’t much of a concern back when this film was made - unlike today when even small movies throw lots of digital surround at you - but it doesn’t matter. What there is is fine.

What there isn’t is extras: there are none.

The Out-of-towners, from Paramount Home Entertainment
97 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Jack Lemmon, Sandy Dennis
Produced by Paul Nathan
Written by Neil Simon, Directed by Arthur Hiller

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

In Last of the Red Hot Lovers, balding and middle aged restaurateur Barney Cashman (Alan Arkin) is suffering from a raging mid-life crisis. He figures he can recapture his fading manhood by carrying on with some other women - in his mother’s apartment while she’s away.

The movie really unfolds in three episodes, covering each of his clumsy attempts at conquest. Unfortunately, his conquests - a fiery woman who knows exactly why she’s there, a strange but attractive actress and the repressed wife of a close friend - don’t work out as he had planned (otherwise there’d be no movie, eh?).

But the ending is perfect. After discovering that playing around on your wife isn’t nearly as easy - or as pleasurable - as he’d hoped, he discovers a simple truth and a simple pleasure that was right in front of him all the time.

One of Neil Simon’s skills is his ability to draw out the ridiculous from common, real-life situations with which most people can identify. And while we undoubtedly haven’t all tried to do what Barney does here, we can certainly identify with his thoughts and even his motivations, if not his actions.

Arkin is at his best as Cashman. He’s depressed, nervous, quick to anger, confused - all at once!

The three women are also wonderful. Sally Kellerman plays cynical Elaine Navazio, who shows up in Cashman's mother's immaculate apartment with its paper-thin walls looking for no nonsense lust. She’s done this before and can’t understand Barney's nervousness at all.

Woman Number Two is Paula Pentiss, who isn’t there for sex (though Barney is) but who’s there to thank Barney for helping her out. She gets him stoned on pot, with some very funny consequences.

Woman Number Three is Renee Taylor - and Barney thinks the third time will be the charm. She initially throws herself at him at a party, agrees to meet him at his mom’s apartment, then falls to pieces at the thought of cheating. There’s some very funny stuff here - and some great lines (though Arkin and Kellerman have the best ones in the first sequence).

Don Juan never had it like this, but Barney Cashman’s misadventures will bring a smile to your face even as you shake your head at the lunacy.

The DVD’s pretty good, though as with the other Simon titles reviewed here there are no extras. Still, the picture is presented in anamorphic widescreen, 16x9 TV compatible, and the overall picture quality is very good. The image is sharp and clean, and the colors are very good. Audio is Dolby Digital mono and is unremarkable.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers, from Paramount Home Entertainment
97 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Allan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Paula Prentiss, Renee Taylor
Produced by Howard W. Koch
Written by Neil Simon, Directed by Gene Saks

Plaza Suite

Plaza Suite is a three act play that stars Walter Matthau in a triple role and also stars Suite 719 at New York’s Plaza Hotel. All three stories are set there, but are all very different in tone and situation.

In fact, only the last act is really funny. The first act is bittersweet at best, the second act is, well, not very funny but still entertaining - but the third act alone is worth the price of admission.

Act One sees Matthau playing Sam Nash, driven businessman who’s spending a couple of nights at the Plaza with his wife Karen, (Maureen Stapleton). She’s there to celebrate their wedding anniversary, he’s there to be close to work and, as it turns out, his employee with whom he’s having an affair.

Karen loves Sam and is devoted to him, but he’s cold, distant. And she wants to know why.

The vignette basically lets us watch the collapse of their long marriage and despite the fact that Sam really is trying to do his best by her, he’s still a cad and he knows it. And this, coupled with his male ego and sense of duty is what ultimately causes the split.

But while it’s entertaining and interesting, it’s also downbeat and depressing.

Still, Stapleton is wonderful as Karen and Matthau plays his role (in fact, all three of these roles) to perfection.

Matthau adopts a different look and mien for each character - especially for Act Two, where if we hadn’t been looking for him and expecting him we wouldn’t have recognized him for the first few seconds of his appearance.

This time, Matthau is movie producer, Jesse Kiplinger. In New York for a few days, he pulls out his old black book, trying to find an old flame who’ll spare him a couple of hours of physical activity. Farther down his list he finds old flame Muriel Tate (Barbara Harris, who is outstanding), who in the fifteen years since they had their fling has married and had three children.

She’s a big fan of Jesse’s work (and Jesse), and knows everything about his career that one can get from the tabloids in print and on TV. She doesn’t know why she went to his suite (well, she won’t admit the reason to herself), and she spends most of the time trying to leave, but in the end Jesse breaks her down by finding what it is that’ll turn her from anxious mother to smoldering siren.

It's all about him, isn't it?

The third sequence has Matthau as Roy Hubley, an anxious and fiscally challenged father who, with wife Norma (Lee Grant), is trying desperately to get his nervous daughter to unlock herself from Suite 719’s bathroom and go downstairs to get married.

Episode three features Matthau at his thundering best, as well as some decent slapstick. It’s really the only episode that’s an outright comedy - and it’s a broad one indeed.

Matthau is amazing to watch as he segues from one character to another, proving in one movie that he deserved his status as an "A" list star.

Incidentally, Simon revisited this concept again, later, with California Suite.

Like the other two titles, the DVD of Plaza Suite is very good, though without extras. Video quality (anamorphic widescreen, 16x9 TV compatible) is very good for the most part, though a few sections appeared excessively soft. Still, it’s mostly very sharp and colorful.

Audio is Dolby Digital mono and, like the other titles, is unremarkable.

Plaza Suite, from Paramount Home Entertainment
114 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris, Lee Grant
Produced by Howard W. Koch
Written by Neil Simon, Directed by Arthur Hiller

 

Tell us at TechnoFile what YOU think

Google
 
Web www.technofile.com
 

Home

Audio/Video

Automotive

Blu-rays

Computers

Gadgets

Games

Letters

Miscellaneous

Search

Welcome

Support TechnoFile
via Paypal

TechnoFILE's E-letter
We're pleased to offer
our FREE private,
subscription-based
private E-mail service.
It's the "no brainer"
way to keep informed.

Our Privacy Policy