THE ODD COUPLE

Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau

Paramount; Directed by Gene Saks

Rated G; 106 minutes; 1968

Neil Simon has a special genius for finding the great hilarity in ordinary people doing everyday things. Like two divorced men who decide to share a New York apartment. That's the premise of THE ODD COUPLE, the funniest story this master comedy writer has scripted in all his hit-filled career. Nothing odd in the casting of two Oscar-wining talents like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The two veteran funnymen work together with the precision timing of a vaudeville team, but always with bright spontaneity. Lemmon plays fussy Felix, fastidious to a fault. He proves that cleanliness is next to insanity. Matthau is Oscar, who wreaks havoc on a tidy room with the speed and thoroughness of a tornado. An enduring and endearing picture, with the intelligence one usually misses in comedies.