Speaker 1: It's night side with Dan Ray w bsy. He constant's
Speaker 1: me radio.
Speaker 2: Mister Kirkby. I don't like to complain, but you were
Speaker 2: supposed to be out of here by eight. I know,
Speaker 2: buddy boy, I know, but those things don't always run
Speaker 2: on schedule, like a greyhound bus.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't mind in the summer. It's on a
Speaker 3: rainy night. I haven't had any dinner yet.
Speaker 2: When we were on Rio Rancho, who was the top man?
Speaker 4: Half of what old?
Speaker 1: Two months? Three months?
Speaker 5: How about eight months? For three years in a row?
Speaker 4: Huh?
Speaker 1: I know what bluck?
Speaker 6: Was that?
Speaker 2: It?
Speaker 1: John or Purloin?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 4: It was talent?
Speaker 1: Yes, door to door. It's called cold calling. John.
Speaker 3: I'll let me see if you can find out where
Speaker 3: that gun animal is coming from.
Speaker 2: Wherever it's coming from, we got to get rid of it.
Speaker 2: Look at this did.
Speaker 3: Oh hey, Bernie yo open fourteen and fifteen. You can't
Speaker 3: do that, Jack open and Bernie, Jack, you can't do
Speaker 3: what the book says you can't do.
Speaker 2: We're almost up to the steam lines.
Speaker 3: No, I got this. My ears are filling up. I
Speaker 3: got this sinus conditions, changing temperature I was getting from
Speaker 3: their conditioning. Maybe no, no, It's all part of my allergies.
Speaker 3: I get him in the summers.
Speaker 2: I listen to me. You put me on my board,
Speaker 2: and I want three promising leads for the day. And
Speaker 2: I don't want any book about him, and I want
Speaker 2: them close together because I am going to close them all.
Speaker 2: And that's all I have to say to you.
Speaker 4: The amazing Jack Lemon. Amazing. Now.
Speaker 5: I know we're changing gears big time because we've gone
Speaker 5: from a family feud with the demolers to murder on
Speaker 5: the high seas to courtroom drama, and now we're going
Speaker 5: to have some fun. And joining me right now is
Speaker 5: Odie Henderson for the Boston Globe.
Speaker 4: Odie W.
Speaker 5: Jack Lemon died in two thousand and one, and I
Speaker 5: should say it back up six days ago, Odie wrote
Speaker 5: this article appreciating Jack Lemon, who would have been one
Speaker 5: hundred years old. I loved it. I was like a kid.
Speaker 5: I was like, I couldn't believe it. And I need
Speaker 5: to ask you, Odi, how old were you in two
Speaker 5: thousand and one when.
Speaker 4: He passed away?
Speaker 6: Oh? God, thirty one?
Speaker 4: Okay? Really? Oh okay? You know you look much luck,
Speaker 4: you look much younger. Online.
Speaker 5: I will tell you that I thought, I thought you
Speaker 5: were a kid when he passed away. But I just
Speaker 5: appreciated how you appreciated him. And we're going to talk
Speaker 5: about his career. And quite frankly, I think for the
Speaker 5: casual movie guar, I think he's underappreciated. But what made
Speaker 5: you want to write that article.
Speaker 6: Well, they're doing a retrospective New York Stone Forum on
Speaker 6: Jack Lemon and the Doctor. I only liked my favorite director,
Speaker 6: Billy Wilder, used plenty of and when they were doing
Speaker 6: a retrospective, i'd look to see if anything in Boston.
Speaker 6: At the time, they had not been. I pitched the
Speaker 6: paper and I was looking him up. I had no
Speaker 6: idea he was born in Newton. That was kind of
Speaker 6: my angle. You know, he's about him. So we did
Speaker 6: this article. I he made a hundred movies, he made
Speaker 6: a hundred he acted in a hundred roles. I can't
Speaker 6: say he did one hundred movies because accounting, television and
Speaker 6: things like that, but on and on the big screen
Speaker 6: he had done a hundred roles. Last one, unfortunately, was
Speaker 6: a legend of bag of ant. But he had a
Speaker 6: lot of work, and so I wanted to write about him.
Speaker 6: My mom liked an after very much. So when I
Speaker 6: was a kid, he would Tom on TV. She would
Speaker 6: tell me who he was. And in fact, the reason
Speaker 6: why I saw Buddy Buddy in the movie Theater was
Speaker 6: because my mom liked Jack Lemon and Valtamathow and they're
Speaker 6: in that. That's the last movie that Billy Wilder made,
Speaker 6: and that's the last movie that they were in that
Speaker 6: he made for them in Terrible. And it's funny that
Speaker 6: Billy Wilder is my favorite director and the first movie
Speaker 6: I saw Buddy Buddy, so apparently I've forgiven him. Buddy
Speaker 6: Buddy is terrible.
Speaker 5: Okay, we have We're going to get another connection with you,
Speaker 5: Rob Let's take a break right now, a few minutes early.
Speaker 5: Then we're gonna get a better phone connection with Odie's.
Speaker 5: We talk about the life of Jack Lemon coming up
Speaker 5: next to WBZ.
Speaker 4: It's Night Side with.
Speaker 1: Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 5: All right, we get a clear line now. Odie Anderson
Speaker 5: film credit for the Boston Globe. He was joining us
Speaker 5: and he wrote a terrific piece on Jack Lemon celebrating
Speaker 5: his birthday.
Speaker 4: I thought it was great.
Speaker 5: So why do you think Billy Wilder and Jack Lemon
Speaker 5: hit it? Off and did so well together as as partners.
Speaker 6: Honestly, I don't know. I think maybe he saw something
Speaker 6: in Jack Lemon and he was able to write for him.
Speaker 6: You know, he Il Diamond will something like a hot
Speaker 6: and the Apartment, among other things, and maybe he saw something.
Speaker 6: And I know that pim perrying baltim Math out with
Speaker 6: him was a stroke a genius.
Speaker 4: There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 5: Because and I do want to get to Mathew in
Speaker 5: a minute, but I want to talk about the Apartment.
Speaker 5: It is a it's it's the perfect movie. It's a
Speaker 5: perfect movie. And Shirley mcl I mean, and Fred McMurray,
Speaker 5: I mean, come on, mister, my three Sons, the dad
Speaker 5: from My Sons plays the jackass who has the mistress
Speaker 5: and the whole bit. And it's a phenomenal movie. And
Speaker 5: mcclean's great in it too. They're both phenomenal in it.
Speaker 5: It's it's the perfect script. It's the perfect movie.
Speaker 6: Well, I think this is Chula mclin's finest hour. You know,
Speaker 6: she lost to a trichyat Andy famously the Oscar, that
Speaker 6: is to Liz Taylor, who was in Butterfield Date, a
Speaker 6: movie that Liz Taylor absolutely hates but Liz Taylor was
Speaker 6: ill and the Academy assumed she was going to kill
Speaker 6: over sty gear for the Oscar. Yeah, but but Cherley
Speaker 6: mcsaying that that's her finest hour on the screen, and
Speaker 6: The Apartment is a fantastic movie. And the funny thing
Speaker 6: is I knew for Big Murray for my Three Sons
Speaker 6: because obviously he was on the repeats when I was
Speaker 6: a kid, and so when I saw Double Indemnity, it
Speaker 6: was a shock. I saw doublin Demity probably before I
Speaker 6: saw The Apartment, and he's a heel, and it was
Speaker 6: just I saw him in Flubber right and my Three Sons.
Speaker 6: This is a Nick Murray Wilder. He always used him
Speaker 6: for evil purposes, the way he used William Holden as
Speaker 6: a cat in Stall of seventeen and Sunset Boulevard. So
Speaker 6: it's interesting what what Wilder would get from his actors,
Speaker 6: you know what roles he put them in.
Speaker 5: Do you think that Jack Lemon was Tom Hanks before
Speaker 5: Tom Hanks?
Speaker 6: Noah, I was joking to say that that Tom Hanks
Speaker 6: was our dar. Jimmy's to my generation is Jimmy Stewart.
Speaker 4: That's a good point.
Speaker 5: Because like Tom Hanks is, he's just a damn likable
Speaker 5: And I would probably say, because I'm a I'm a
Speaker 5: big Hanks fan, I would probably say Lemon, he's I
Speaker 5: would say he's a better actor than Hanks because Lemon
Speaker 5: could also pull off.
Speaker 4: The serious roles, which was really hard to do.
Speaker 5: And the China Syndrome, for example, Yeah, you know where
Speaker 5: all of a sudden he goes from playing this innocent
Speaker 5: sort of buffoon in the apartment, or you know, he's
Speaker 5: playing Felix in the odd couple opposite Mathow or grumpy
Speaker 5: old man, and then you go to the China Syndrome,
Speaker 5: and that dude brings it. I think it's well, I'm
Speaker 5: not gonna say it's I'm not gonna say it's his
Speaker 5: greatest performance for me, but I could see why others
Speaker 5: would say.
Speaker 6: That, oh, well, he got the awarded can for that
Speaker 6: and for missing And I mentioned in my article that
Speaker 6: my parents took me to see that to drive him
Speaker 6: that's all asleep. So I technically have never seen in
Speaker 6: China Syndrome in its entirety. So I said I would
Speaker 6: put it in the paper so you guys could guilt
Speaker 6: me into watching it. But Even before he did that,
Speaker 6: he was in Days of Wine and Roses. He won
Speaker 6: the Oscar for Save the Tiger. I think he's he
Speaker 6: can play a heel far better than Tom Hanks can.
Speaker 6: You can buy Jack Lemon as a heel despite all
Speaker 6: delightable performances he's given, whereas Tom Hanks is always difficult
Speaker 6: to buy him as the bad guy.
Speaker 4: Do you know?
Speaker 5: Do you know how how did he go from Newton,
Speaker 5: Massachusetts all of a sudden to the success that he had.
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 6: I know, he went to Harvard and then he was
Speaker 6: in the Navy, and then he got out and he
Speaker 6: decided to act on stage. And I think his first
Speaker 6: movie was nineteen forty nine, and he started working there
Speaker 6: and then he was he went the Oscar for mister Roberts.
Speaker 6: He was on stage before, Yeah, mister Roberts. I saw
Speaker 6: that at So and Farm. I'd never seen it on
Speaker 6: the big screen. It's this huge, beautiful CinemaScope movie and
Speaker 6: I'd only seen it on VHS or on television when
Speaker 6: I was a kid, and it just looked gorgeous. And
Speaker 6: you know, there's a whole backstory to all the crazy
Speaker 6: stuff that was going on on the set of mister Roberts.
Speaker 6: But Lemon's great. He's the comedy release and he's really
Speaker 6: broad in that movie. And then you look at something
Speaker 6: like Missing and you can see the scope of his acting,
Speaker 6: you know, something that is like he's bottled up in
Speaker 6: that film, or something like Glengary Glen Ross faced Lley
Speaker 6: Machine Levine where he's just this desperate character and not
Speaker 6: like him at all.
Speaker 5: When you say there's some backstory there with mister Roberts, okay, anything,
Speaker 5: any t you can spell as the kids would.
Speaker 6: Say, oh oh yeah, I mean you know, John Ford
Speaker 6: got fired and discredited to John Ford and Brevon Leroy
Speaker 6: he picked up after he got fired. Ford hated Kimmy Fond,
Speaker 6: but he slugged him on the ship. I think I
Speaker 6: may have been the beginning of the end for John
Speaker 6: Ford directing that movie. So there's a lot of crazy
Speaker 6: stuff going on. That was some of the more famous things.
Speaker 6: Ford being fired, him punching Kenny Fond in the face,
Speaker 6: knocking him out back in.
Speaker 4: The good old days of Hollywood.
Speaker 5: Right, But with Lemon, because I've seen interviews with Lemon
Speaker 5: and there was the same thing with Fonda.
Speaker 4: While they would play.
Speaker 5: Certain in certain situations, I mean Fonda obviously in on
Speaker 5: Golden Pond that was a different, different character, but they
Speaker 5: would play the every man, They would play likable characters.
Speaker 5: There was definitely a sadness in Lemon's life. I would
Speaker 5: see that in interviews.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I suppose so, And I think, you know, you
Speaker 6: can channel that into especially in comedy. They always say
Speaker 6: people that are the funniest people off the off screen
Speaker 6: have a lot of suffering, a lot of tragedy, you know,
Speaker 6: And I kind of believe that. I think you'd be
Speaker 6: really funny like Richard Pryor is a perfect example of that.
Speaker 6: You have to really channel your pain into your performances,
Speaker 6: to your humor. And perhaps that was the case of
Speaker 6: that woman. And when I was that phone for him,
Speaker 6: his kid Chris was there, and his daughter, and his
Speaker 6: grands and grandchildren were there, I mean some of his
Speaker 6: family or actors still, they were all there to introduce
Speaker 6: the some like a ho which is great on the
Speaker 6: big screen. They played with the packed audience. It was fantastic.
Speaker 6: One of the funniest movies ever made.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: The thing about Lemon is he was also a recovering alcoholic,
Speaker 5: which he announced on the Actors Studio and that that
Speaker 5: had that was like wait a minute, well what and
Speaker 5: he had battled that and the other the other thing
Speaker 5: that he I can't remember who said this, but before
Speaker 5: every scene, before before the act, when they would say action,
Speaker 5: he would whisper magic time.
Speaker 4: That was his thing.
Speaker 6: I don't know, I heard. I heard that. I heard
Speaker 6: that as well. I believe that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I totally do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like magic time, that's what kicked him in. You
Speaker 5: know where there's something that an actor does that sends
Speaker 5: him into that reality or that false reality, and that's
Speaker 5: that's what would work for.
Speaker 4: Him for Lemon.
Speaker 6: Yeah, magic time, Yeah, I heard that magic time.
Speaker 5: Okay, So from the China Syndrome, the glen Garry Glenn
Speaker 5: Ross is Shelley.
Speaker 4: I want to what we can do? Can we play this?
Speaker 4: Can we play this? Rob? Can we play cut number six?
Speaker 6: Hopefully it's censored?
Speaker 2: Rob?
Speaker 4: Can we play cut number six from Glengarry Glen Ross.
Speaker 2: When we were on Rio Rancho who was the top
Speaker 2: man half of what oh.
Speaker 1: Two months, three months? How about eight months for three.
Speaker 5: Years in a row?
Speaker 4: Huh?
Speaker 6: And what luck was that?
Speaker 2: It?
Speaker 1: John or Purloin leads it was talent.
Speaker 3: Yes, door to door It's called cold calling John.
Speaker 4: I don't even know their name.
Speaker 2: They don't want to buy what I've got, soft cells.
Speaker 4: We were doing it before we even had a name
Speaker 4: for it. Am I right?
Speaker 1: Are you right?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 4: You wouldn't know you?
Speaker 1: He doesn't even know what our streak is.
Speaker 2: What the hell are you?
Speaker 6: There?
Speaker 2: Are?
Speaker 5: Are Secretary Few?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my message, So you few.
Speaker 2: And kiss my ass. And if you don't like that, baby,
Speaker 2: I go across the street and I speak to Jerry Grant.
Speaker 6: Period.
Speaker 2: You now listen to me. You put me on my
Speaker 2: board and I want three promising leads for the day,
Speaker 2: and I don't want any book about him, and I
Speaker 2: want them close to get there. He goes, I am
Speaker 2: going to close them all. And that's all I have
Speaker 2: to say to you.
Speaker 4: I love the scene where Alec Baldwin comes in, which wasn't.
Speaker 6: In the original play.
Speaker 4: It was not.
Speaker 5: That is correct, that You're absolutely right it was in
Speaker 5: the film.
Speaker 4: And Baldwin comes in.
Speaker 5: You know you see this, Watch this, watch Cush more
Speaker 5: than the car and then Shelley's over trying to get
Speaker 5: a cup of coffee, and then it's Baldwin's scene. Obviously, yes,
Speaker 5: but the way Lemon just turns around. Is it's just
Speaker 5: it's it's so, it's tremendous. Put that coffee down. What
Speaker 5: are you talking about? Coffee is for closes on?
Speaker 6: Yeah, just he's.
Speaker 5: Just tremendous in this in this film. And then al
Speaker 5: Pacino played that on Broadway, played Shelley on Broadway. I
Speaker 5: can't imagine Odie anybody else playing Shelley but Jack Lemon.
Speaker 6: Bob Odenkirk, who is produced the booking Candle the other
Speaker 6: day and also introduced grin Glaragan Ross a couple of
Speaker 6: days ago. The phone for him is playing, so he
Speaker 6: living on Broadway currently in glen Garigan Ross. And he
Speaker 6: talked about how he had to force himself not to
Speaker 6: mimic Jack Lemon's cadence in his performance, especially in the
Speaker 6: first speech that he has in play. And he talked
Speaker 6: about how he had to basically keep correcting himself because
Speaker 6: he was constantly tapping into Jack Lemon's performance. How great
Speaker 6: Jack Lemen's performance is in that movie. I think he's
Speaker 6: the best performance in the Glenglorygan Ross movie. So it
Speaker 6: was interesting too that you mentioned Matt.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, how can you not how can you
Speaker 5: you know? I mean how can you not try to
Speaker 5: be Jack Lemon? Because the great thing about the Glengarry
Speaker 5: Glenn Ross performance, I remember he's in he's in the rain,
Speaker 5: and he's on the phone in the rain, and I
Speaker 5: believe his daughter needs an operation or needs surgery, and
Speaker 5: he is up against it and he is just ruggling
Speaker 5: trying just I mean, you know, trying to get these
Speaker 5: leads of selling condos in Flora or whatever. Just these despicable,
Speaker 5: just just the worst. And you don't know. And this
Speaker 5: is the magic of a great actor. When the character's gray,
Speaker 5: you don't know whether to feel sorry for him or
Speaker 5: be irritated by him.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, And I can never buy Paccino in that part.
Speaker 6: And I don't think it's good Ken and they cast
Speaker 6: them right as as with your roll mind the movie,
Speaker 6: I don't buy him as a showy ravine at all.
Speaker 6: I haven't seen the performance, but just thinking about it,
Speaker 6: it just wouldn't work.
Speaker 5: Have you seen the current Broadway produce. I don't even
Speaker 5: know if it's still running with Glengarry.
Speaker 4: Have you seen it?
Speaker 6: Because I have it's it's I liked it. I liked it.
Speaker 6: I think it's probably it's not as good as the movie. That.
Speaker 6: I think Odenkirk is very goodn't it. You know, it's
Speaker 6: on its al and him, and then it's it's hard
Speaker 6: to shake the movie out of your memory. So when
Speaker 6: you're watching and I didn't see to play initially, you know,
Speaker 6: so I by my first encounter with Gungary and Ross
Speaker 6: was the movie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, just the man. I think it's I
Speaker 5: think it's ma'am. It's best work quite frankly. I mean
Speaker 5: it's just somebody say American Buffalo, but like it's just unbelievable.
Speaker 5: And the cast, my guy Kevin Spacey, well he's had
Speaker 5: his own issues, but I mean Kevin Spacey's like a
Speaker 5: supported character in that thing. And the cast is just
Speaker 5: I heard Bill Burr, Massachusetts own Bill Burr does pretty
Speaker 5: well is pretty well there too.
Speaker 6: Yes, you know it's being Kevin Spacey has that that
Speaker 6: lineout dat women says you know why, and he has
Speaker 6: because I don't like you, right.
Speaker 5: It's it's it's awesome. Culkin got panned, though I was Culkin.
Speaker 6: He wasn't terrible. I mean, he wasn't terrible. I again,
Speaker 6: I wonder if he was the right choice.
Speaker 5: He's not terrible, well probably not, but he's riding high.
Speaker 5: You know, I I didn't think he deserved the oscar. Myself,
Speaker 5: I would have gone other ways.
Speaker 6: I would he deserved it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, we disagreed on that. You loved that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we disagreed.
Speaker 4: Ye, Yeah, we disagreed. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I love the guy Pierce and this also, he hasn't
Speaker 5: done a lot of stage work from what I understand.
Speaker 6: Culkin, No, I don't think he has no. And you
Speaker 6: can tell. You can tell who's the you know, the
Speaker 6: expert on stage and who's the newbie. You're not necessarily
Speaker 6: the mowbe, but the best experienced. If you're up against
Speaker 6: that kind of someone like Bob wooden Kirk for example,
Speaker 6: you know, not that they're you know, beating each other
Speaker 6: up on the stage, but you can usually tell, you know,
Speaker 6: they haven't gotten the cowboys out. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: Well, you know the I mean after I played Lieutenant
Speaker 5: Shrank and West Side Story in the Portsmouth Academy of
Speaker 5: Performing Arts presentation of the you know, I know the
Speaker 5: stage that was a joke. Okay, No, I did play it.
Speaker 5: You don't want to hear my own theater? Yeah, I'll
Speaker 5: tell your theory story. We put on a play in
Speaker 5: a motel. It was called Motel six. You know why
Speaker 5: because it was off of exit six off the Spaulding Turnpike.
Speaker 6: Hence because Motel six the chain it was actually.
Speaker 5: No, it was maybe maybe it was a different number,
Speaker 5: but no, it was the number of the exit off
Speaker 5: the turnpike. We rented the ballroom, we rented the stage,
Speaker 5: and we put on a show. My friend, that's all
Speaker 5: I can tell you. That's how much we wanted to
Speaker 5: do it, and friends and family came. I don't know
Speaker 5: if we were any good, but we had a really
Speaker 5: good time. All Right, we still have more I want
Speaker 5: to talk about. I want to talk about lemon of
Speaker 5: math out and then Alway's going to tell us what's
Speaker 5: hot coming out and what we should be looking four.
Speaker 4: As we continue on WBC's Night Side.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3: What's the matter now, No, I got this. My ears
Speaker 3: are filling up. I got this sinus condition. It's the
Speaker 3: change in temperature I was getting from your conditioning. Maybe
Speaker 3: you don't know, Way, No, it's all part of my allergies.
Speaker 2: I get him in the summer, only in the summer.
Speaker 3: Man in the winter too. I get them all year long,
Speaker 3: allergic to foods and pillows and curtains and perfumes. Can
Speaker 3: you imagine that? Allergic to perfumes? I used to drive
Speaker 3: Francis crazy.
Speaker 5: Jack Levin the odd couple with the Greg Walter mattho
Speaker 5: Odie Henderson Jordan, guess you're talking about the career of
Speaker 5: Jack Lemon, born in Newton, Massachusetts in nineteen twenty five.
Speaker 5: Is there a better combo than those two?
Speaker 6: You know, baby wille would already a earlier error.
Speaker 4: Their magic.
Speaker 5: And when I look at the casting for that, because
Speaker 5: when I've talked to casting directors many times they'll say
Speaker 5: what directors film directors will say, The key isn't in
Speaker 5: the directing of the film. The key is in the
Speaker 5: casting of the film. And that is the perfectly cash movie.
Speaker 5: Now do we know what Jack Lemon was really like?
Speaker 5: As I mentioned, I think there was some sadness. Who
Speaker 5: was an alcoholic. He battled alcoholism. He wasn't Felix under
Speaker 5: I don't think off the screen and Math I'm sure
Speaker 5: had his issues, but their personas you would think, they
Speaker 5: just fit that role perfectly. And I liked Klugman and Randall,
Speaker 5: but those two just fit that role perfectly, like casting.
Speaker 4: Was on The Money.
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I got introduced to a couple from
Speaker 6: the TV show, which is still wrong when I was
Speaker 6: a kid. You know, I mentioned this in a many times.
Speaker 6: My mother loves Neil Simon. I can't stand him, uh
Speaker 6: and the Odd Couple is one of the few things
Speaker 6: of his I can actually tolerate. And so I didn't
Speaker 6: see The Odd Couple until many, many years that I
Speaker 6: knew that Baltim math All and Jack Women were in it.
Speaker 6: I think the first thing I saw on the Men
Speaker 6: was probably the front page, but the Fortune Cooking, which
Speaker 6: is where Mathew got his oscar. It was the first
Speaker 6: pairing of Wilder of Jack Women and WALTI math All
Speaker 6: in any movie. This was Billy Wilder's film. This is
Speaker 6: a couple of years before The Odd Couple. But you
Speaker 6: can't you can't really think of as much as I
Speaker 6: love Jack Clubman, and when I saw WALTI. Mathow, it's
Speaker 6: kind of a perfect It's almost like there are roles
Speaker 6: that were killer made for him, and that's one of them.
Speaker 6: The Bad News Bears another one that taken the problem
Speaker 6: one to three is another one great also quite versatile
Speaker 6: comic and dramatic actor like his partner Jack Women. But yeah,
Speaker 6: they made so many movies together. Someone were pretty bad,
Speaker 6: but the commissary between them was always unmistakable. I mean,
Speaker 6: you could say the movie was bad, but you could
Speaker 6: never say that they didn't work well together in that movie,
Speaker 6: in any of their movies.
Speaker 4: Do you think Mathow had ranged?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 6: I do absolutely. It's und of like Charlie Varreck and
Speaker 6: look at you know, him being the villain like Charade
Speaker 6: or something like later on when he's doing a much
Speaker 6: broader kind of comedy. Yeah, I think he had considerable range.
Speaker 6: He just you always think of him as kind of
Speaker 6: the grumpy old New York commergion, you know, And that's
Speaker 6: kind of a lot of what is persona. And it's
Speaker 6: just like how Jack Lemon is kind of fussiest persona.
Speaker 6: But that's not necessarily all they could do. I mean again,
Speaker 6: Charlie Varreck is probably the best example I can think
Speaker 6: of besides taking a toll of one ty three, but
Speaker 6: is a different Mathow but still Walter math Ow.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I need to get into that more because I
Speaker 5: haven't seen enough of it the way I have with Lemon.
Speaker 5: So I wouldn't know, but and forgive me if this is.
Speaker 5: And now you've questioned, why do you like Billy Wilder
Speaker 5: but not Neil Simon.
Speaker 6: I think Billy Wilder's meaner for starters, He's more cynical.
Speaker 6: He's more of my type of humor, although he's made
Speaker 6: some pretty bad movies as well as some brilliant ones. Also,
Speaker 6: he made the quintessential noir. You know, Noir is my
Speaker 6: favorite genre of movie, so you know, I could it's
Speaker 6: only ever made. It was Double Indemnity, you know, and
Speaker 6: then Sounds at Boulevard, which is my second favorite movie
Speaker 6: of all time. You know, he would be my favorite
Speaker 6: director in Hitchcock would be number two. But I just
Speaker 6: seem to like the asterbic nature of a lot of
Speaker 6: his films. And he always thought of himself as a
Speaker 6: writer first and less of himself as a director, you know,
Speaker 6: all throughout his entire career, he always thought he was
Speaker 6: a better writer than director, which I always found interesting.
Speaker 6: But no, I mean I grew to love Billy Walder.
Speaker 6: This kind of what I would expect to get from
Speaker 6: his films. There was always humor, and there's always great, great,
Speaker 6: great dialogue, you know, I'm a writer too, so you know,
Speaker 6: when the screenplay is great or whatever, the screenplay or
Speaker 6: something in that draws your attention, that brings you to it.
Speaker 6: I think he does a great job directing his movies,
Speaker 6: even the bad ones.
Speaker 4: So what didn't you What don't you like about Simon?
Speaker 6: I don't think it's funny and I had to deal
Speaker 6: with things that California Sweet and when I was a kid,
Speaker 6: my mom and a Goodbye Girl, which I actually did
Speaker 6: like it, just his human that doesn't do it for me.
Speaker 6: It never really did. I just don't think it's funny.
Speaker 6: I think it's very repetitive in terms of the type
Speaker 6: of humor. Now, my mother's gonna come beat me up
Speaker 6: because I'm speaking ill of Neil Simon.
Speaker 5: You got mommy issues there, kid, you got mommy issues? Uh,
Speaker 5: California Sweet. I was never a fan of either. The
Speaker 5: Goodbye Girl I thought was great, but I never I
Speaker 5: thought that more. I maybe I'm wrong. It's been so
Speaker 5: long since I've seen it. I thought that was more
Speaker 5: of a drama edy. The Goodbye Girl.
Speaker 6: It's I mean, no Richard Dryfers is running around mint
Speaker 6: scene and doing Richard the Third as a flaming homosexual.
Speaker 6: That's not drama.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't. I remember. I remember that.
Speaker 5: I think that's the first time I saw Dryfors in
Speaker 5: a movie, and I remember really wasn't Jaws. No, you
Speaker 5: know something, I am going to tell you. I'm going
Speaker 5: to admit something to you. I've never seen Jaws.
Speaker 6: Well you got an opportunity because they're going to be
Speaker 6: doing it at Mark's Ring and I've been trying to
Speaker 6: get out there that actually cover this thing. I just
Speaker 6: saw it at TCM Film Festival. They ran a beautiful
Speaker 6: ivy technicolor prints from the BSI it looked better than
Speaker 6: it did in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 5: I just you know, there's there's two movies. I love movies.
Speaker 5: There's two movies that I haven't seen. I have no
Speaker 5: interest in seeing Jaws.
Speaker 4: I don't know why.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 5: I don't you know, maybe it's horror. No, I just
Speaker 5: look at the Shark and I go, eh, I'm not
Speaker 5: It's come on, man, it's like twenty twenty five The Shark.
Speaker 6: Three times you see the Shark. The Shark was take
Speaker 6: in nineteen seventy five, so you can't make that excuse.
Speaker 6: But you only see the sh I'm pretty sure three
Speaker 6: or four times. The first time you see him is great.
Speaker 6: I mean that that scene is classic iconic. We're gonna
Speaker 6: need a bigger boat, I mean fake or not. That
Speaker 6: that scene is effective.
Speaker 4: What's the music? I mean, there's music.
Speaker 6: When the shark shows up the first time music. Now
Speaker 6: it is completely silent because it's a jump scare, so uh,
Speaker 6: we're shier. Brodie is down with a shoveling schumb into
Speaker 6: the water and he's complaining the Dreyfist and the show
Speaker 6: and say, why don't you come down and shovel some
Speaker 6: of this expert is And then immediately the shark pops up.
Speaker 6: There's no music, and then the shider backs up into
Speaker 6: the boat, and then he says to we're a sure
Speaker 6: we're going to need a bigger boat.
Speaker 4: That's a great line. I mean, I just all right, all.
Speaker 6: Right, watch I'll watched the China send if you watch.
Speaker 4: Yours, that's a deal.
Speaker 5: Because the fact that you haven't seen the China syndrome,
Speaker 5: I mean that's blasphemy.
Speaker 6: Well I saw enough of it. I fell asleep not
Speaker 6: see anything.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, well, okay, you don't have to watch
Speaker 5: as much. The other one I said, and I've told
Speaker 5: you this before. I tell people I've sat down to
Speaker 5: start to watch Shindler's List one hundred times and I I.
Speaker 4: Can't do that.
Speaker 6: You've got a Spielberg sing here.
Speaker 4: But you know that's a good point. I mean, I
Speaker 4: love Yeah, I love Spielberg.
Speaker 5: But I just like when I those are two and
Speaker 5: when people say, you know, I love movies, I haven't
Speaker 5: seen those two, I go, yeah, I know it's a little.
Speaker 6: Embarrassing I can see, but Jaws is a surprise.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I gotta do it. I gotta do it. I
Speaker 4: want to Now. I want to ask you about Grumpy
Speaker 4: Old Men. Where you are fa.
Speaker 6: Grumpy Old Men? I did. I liked it. I enjoyed that.
Speaker 6: I like to see also Grumpy Old Man. I didn't
Speaker 6: like the sequel that is, but Grumpy Old Man I liked.
Speaker 6: I like, I'll just see that. I think is that
Speaker 6: the last one they did together. I'm not sure they
Speaker 6: did a sequel to the Couple, which is god awful.
Speaker 4: I bet it is.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that was the last movie that they
Speaker 6: made together, not the rest thing they made a period,
Speaker 6: the last thing they know. Actually it is no, it
Speaker 6: is the Couple I'm looking it up here. The odd
Speaker 6: Couple two is after out to see a year after
Speaker 6: Our Couple two is a ninety eight Well.
Speaker 5: Grumpy Old Man two was a money grab. I mean, yes,
Speaker 5: that's a money grab. That's for the kids. That's definitely
Speaker 5: not for the kids. Hey, do you know what a
Speaker 5: movie I love the Matthewen was Hopscotch.
Speaker 6: How Scotch is good? Hol Scotch with Glenn Grenda Jackson.
Speaker 6: He did a couple of movies that are right. And
Speaker 6: then you know, the women directed math Al in a
Speaker 6: movie called Cotch.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that.
Speaker 6: It's like nineteen seventy two. I think they may be
Speaker 6: the only movie jack women directed.
Speaker 4: Did they hang out on that? Did they socialize?
Speaker 6: I can imagine that they've had to. I mean they
Speaker 6: were in so many movies. But then again, like they said,
Speaker 6: you know, you thought Geene Wald and Richard Pryo so
Speaker 6: slabs little time and he didn't, and they made those
Speaker 6: four movies together. I can't I can't imagine that math
Speaker 6: Allen Lemon didn't hang out together. Yeah, this chemistry is
Speaker 6: just too much for them. Like if they hated each other,
Speaker 6: it'd be a big.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's definitely not true.
Speaker 5: But sometimes you know, you work on so many movies together,
Speaker 5: that's enough, and then they kind of like, go do
Speaker 5: go do their own separate thing.
Speaker 4: Can you hang around it?
Speaker 5: Can you hang around and tell us what's big coming up?
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 5: Okay, Great Odie Henderson is with us from the Globe
Speaker 5: Film Critic. He's gonna tell us what we should look
Speaker 5: out for coming up next to w b Z.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on wb Z
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 4: Talking to some movies.
Speaker 5: Here Odie Henderson, Boston Globe Film Critic talking about the
Speaker 5: Great Jack Lemon. Uh and again it's you can catch
Speaker 5: it on the Globe dot Com. Odie wrote a great
Speaker 5: appreciation piece on Lemon came out about six days ago,
Speaker 5: so just google ittle pop up out there.
Speaker 4: So what do we have to look forward to on
Speaker 4: the screen here, Odie.
Speaker 6: Well, it's summer, and summer is full of remakes and
Speaker 6: sequels and all of that stuff. And this week you
Speaker 6: have Karate Kid Legends. If you are wishing to live
Speaker 6: we live your eighties era adolescens. I saw it, I
Speaker 6: didn't like it, But next week June sixth, one of
Speaker 6: the best movies of the year, and it would have
Speaker 6: been my best movie of last year had come out.
Speaker 6: Has Life of Chuck opens on June sixth, and I've
Speaker 6: been this Life of Chuck evangelist for a little while.
Speaker 6: Now it's a great movie. I finally get to run
Speaker 6: my review that I wrote back in October for that.
Speaker 6: It's a Stephen King aditation. It is not a horror movie,
Speaker 6: and it's just fantastic, life affirming, beautiful little move if
Speaker 6: Mark Hampbell is in it and Tom Hilliston in a
Speaker 6: bunch of red folks in it, and I can't tell
Speaker 6: you anything about the movies, and I want to spoiler
Speaker 6: for it's also on the sixth if you're a John
Speaker 6: Wick fan, you can see Ballerina. It's the latest in
Speaker 6: the series of John Wick movies. Keanu Reeves is in
Speaker 6: this one, even though John Wick is technically dead. So
Speaker 6: if you are like if you like Wes Anderson, you
Speaker 6: need help. But if you like Wes Anderson, he has
Speaker 6: a Phoenician scheme also comes out in the sixth I
Speaker 6: saw that. You can imagine when I thought, yeah, go further,
Speaker 6: yeah yeah yeah, but doing for it for kids, you
Speaker 6: have how to train your dragon. There's a ve Action remake.
Speaker 6: I don't know why of How to Train Your Dragon coming?
Speaker 5: Can you stop for a minute. Why did they do it?
Speaker 5: They did it with Lion King and I love Fabreau.
Speaker 6: It doesn't We're doing it with and Stitch right now.
Speaker 6: They let on Stitch is a number of movie beat
Speaker 6: Tom Cruise. It's almost shot for shot eighty five percent
Speaker 6: of the cartoon.
Speaker 4: I don't get it. I mean, it's a money grab.
Speaker 4: I get it. You know they already know it's money.
Speaker 6: It's money.
Speaker 5: Yeah, But I mean I just leave it alone, all
Speaker 5: right anyway? Sorry, go ahead?
Speaker 6: So I mean, yeah, I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 6: Even when I like the movie. I mentioned in my review,
Speaker 6: this is a money like, why does this movie even exist?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 6: I haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon, so I
Speaker 6: can't speak to that. I've seen the cartoon, which I like.
Speaker 6: For horror folks, there's a twenty eight Years Later, which
Speaker 6: is the sequel to twenty eight Days Late twenty eight
Speaker 6: weeks later, and then the sequel to twenty eight Days
Speaker 6: Later zombie movie going forward later. For dads, there's the
Speaker 6: Formula one movie with a bad Pitt that comes out
Speaker 6: on June twenty seven. It's twelve f one. Also in
Speaker 6: June twenty seventh movie I'm looking forward to Megan two
Speaker 6: point zero because you know how much I love the
Speaker 6: original Megan. The Killer Twerking Robot. Spike Lee's movie Highest
Speaker 6: to Lowest, which is my most anticipated movie of the summer,
Speaker 6: comes out on a twenty second. It's his we he
Speaker 6: and Denzel Washington routine for the first time in almost
Speaker 6: twenty years.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 6: The last movie they did together was Inside.
Speaker 4: Manat that's the great movie. I love that.
Speaker 6: I love Inside Man.
Speaker 4: I love Inside Clive Owens is awesome.
Speaker 6: Washington is great, but I mean, you know, Clive Owen
Speaker 6: is great in that. For the fourth of July, we
Speaker 6: have another Jurassic Park movie. This one's got Scar Joe.
Speaker 6: It's Scarduni versus T.
Speaker 4: I never got into him. I just stay don't. I
Speaker 4: can't get into him.
Speaker 6: After the first two they just went to hell. Oh
Speaker 6: before I forget because this is the Boston time. There's
Speaker 6: a happy gil More too. What have you heard coming
Speaker 6: out on July twenty fifth. I don't know if it's
Speaker 6: it's one of the few Adam Salmer movies that kind
Speaker 6: of enjoyed, but Carl Weathers and Bob Barker, who were
Speaker 6: the best things in the first movie. They're both deceased,
Speaker 6: so we'll have to see how it goes.
Speaker 5: It took a while. They wanted him to make that
Speaker 5: for a long.
Speaker 6: Time, so we'll Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't make it sooner.
Speaker 6: And considering he has a big deal with Netflix, they
Speaker 6: can do whatever he wants.
Speaker 4: Right right. His movies do great on Netflix.
Speaker 6: I mean and one one other. Yeah, his movies do
Speaker 6: greater Netflix. And I know why bad A one one
Speaker 6: move there to remake again of The Naked Gun, which
Speaker 6: has been getting a lot of press. It's Liam Neeson
Speaker 6: taking over the world because Leslie Nielsen is no longer
Speaker 6: with us. I saw the trailer and I am very
Speaker 6: worried about this one.
Speaker 5: But you know what you should you should be But
Speaker 5: I will say this, I if anybody could pull it off,
Speaker 5: it's him because I've heard him in interviews and he's
Speaker 5: very self deprecating. You know, he can be very funny,
Speaker 5: like he'll even go along with a bit like so
Speaker 5: I heard an interview where they asked him to do that,
Speaker 5: you know, the what's the franchise he's done where his
Speaker 5: daughter Bacon. Yeah, taken like taken eight or nine or ten.
Speaker 5: But you know he does that thing like I'm gonna
Speaker 5: find you and I'm going to kill you, and I've
Speaker 5: heard him do parodies of himself with it, and he's
Speaker 5: really funny.
Speaker 6: I have a very speticular set of skills, right, that's it.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, well you know the casting. I mentioned this
Speaker 6: to people about Airplane. How how Airplane played differently for
Speaker 6: me in nineteen eighty in the place for younger people now,
Speaker 6: because in nineteen eighty Leslie Nilson wasn't Leslie Wilson. He
Speaker 6: was a dramatic actor, right, And everybody in air playing
Speaker 6: it was dramatic act just making fools in themselves. That's
Speaker 6: why it was so funny. So I'm willing to conceive
Speaker 6: that the casting of Liam Neeson is an idea in
Speaker 6: the same vein as that. But the trailer looks very
Speaker 6: mean spirited and it's second fall and red flares are
Speaker 6: flying all over the place. But again I was there judgments,
Speaker 6: so I see it. The one last movie there is
Speaker 6: a great, great movie called Sorry Baby Beat Up on
Speaker 6: July eighteenth. It's a dramedy. Even Victor she wrote and directed,
Speaker 6: and she stars in it. It is fantastic.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, well I got to check that out.
Speaker 5: What about Mission Impossible? Did you write about that?
Speaker 1: I did?
Speaker 6: And here's the funny thing. I like the last one
Speaker 6: better than this one because this is technically part two
Speaker 6: of the last one, and it's three hours long, and
Speaker 6: it's you really start to feel it. The first hour
Speaker 6: is pretty star. I mean I gave the three stars
Speaker 6: out of four. The last one I gave three and
Speaker 6: a half. It's a little bit too self serious, but
Speaker 6: once the stunts happen to start happening, the movie really
Speaker 6: takes off.
Speaker 5: He's yeah, you could see what you want about cruise,
Speaker 5: but the stunt, I mean, he's just insane.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: I got a give him credit. He's marketed himself very
Speaker 6: very well. I think he's a better actor than people
Speaker 6: give him credit for. But he doesn't have to act anymore.
Speaker 6: He can just do these movies where he's stumping around
Speaker 6: and jumping out of planes and you know, opened up
Speaker 6: submarine doors. So yeah, the last hour and a half
Speaker 6: of the movie is absolutely fantastic, but you got to
Speaker 6: dig through the first hour of it and it's kind
Speaker 6: of like, oh, God, let me fast forward this. I
Speaker 6: liked it.
Speaker 5: I thought Cruise was great. I'm born on the fourth
Speaker 5: of July, and I also think was it less Grossman
Speaker 5: in Tropic Thunder.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's funny in that. I love him. And Jerry
Speaker 6: Maguire's great in Magnolia movie I despise. I think he's
Speaker 6: good in One and the fol for July, another movie
Speaker 6: that I can't stand. I think he's a better actor
Speaker 6: than a given credit for. But like that Willis and
Speaker 6: Stallone and all these other folks, they don't have to
Speaker 6: act anymore. They he just show up and be Tom Cruise, right.
Speaker 4: Right, He is a better actor than people give him
Speaker 4: credit for. I agree with you. And before we will
Speaker 4: look at a couple of minutes.
Speaker 5: I'm glad you brought up Tom Hitdelson, huge fan Night
Speaker 5: Clerk's a great series.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, he's.
Speaker 5: I mean he's I know, he's part of the Marvel
Speaker 5: universe and so forth, but I mean, the dudes, he's
Speaker 5: the real deal. I mean, he is, no doubt the
Speaker 5: real deal. Odie, it's always great to talk to you, man.
Speaker 5: We appreciate you coming on. Read him in the Boston Globe,
Speaker 5: Odie Henderson, he loves movies. I love movies. That's why
Speaker 5: we have him on. And if you love Jack Lemon,
Speaker 5: google it. Read his article on Jack Lemon.
Speaker 4: It's terrific. Odie, take care, Boddy. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 6: Yeah, all right, take care.
Speaker 5: It's great to have film critics, you know people.
Speaker 4: It's you know, you gotta read him, you got to
Speaker 4: follow him.
Speaker 5: It's not like he used to be, you know, we
Speaker 5: had like the there's so much going on and there's
Speaker 5: so much content, there's so many things to read. But
Speaker 5: you want to follow him. You want to catch him
Speaker 5: in the Boston Globe and read what he has to say.
Speaker 5: So anyways, coming up in the next hour, is this
Speaker 5: title town anymore? Jackson Tolliver's going to join us. He
Speaker 5: has a lot of great tics. NBA Celtics. Who's gonna
Speaker 5: be a rough year next year at the Patriots? Vrabel
Speaker 5: will order be returned in Foxborough? By the way, I
Speaker 5: gotta say, I took my daughter to the lacrosse Championships
Speaker 5: at Foxboro. Congratulations Danny Kraft, the Craft family. You guys
Speaker 5: do a great job. Congratulations to Harvard for hosting and
Speaker 5: also Matt Dooley, the Pride of Lincoln Sudbury, who was
Speaker 5: on the Cornell team starting defenseman that won the national championship,
Speaker 5: is going to join us tomorrow night right here on
Speaker 5: WBZ Life is a collegiate athlete and parents. I want
Speaker 5: you to listen to that segment that's coming tomorrow night
Speaker 5: at nine thirty. By congratulations to all the teams that
Speaker 5: participated Tofts. Great job the Crafts. Thank you for hosting
Speaker 5: and lacrosse tournaments at Julettus past weekend. It was fabulous sports.
Speaker 5: Coming up next with Jackson Tolliver