"Jack Lemmon has become the perfect personification of all harassed mankind - the outranked, outnumbered, outmanipulated little fellow with sound instincts and bad judgment. He is the one who is always taken advantage of. And if, in the end, he emerges triumphant, it's because of a basic decency rather than superior cunning or sudden inspiration."-an unsigned critique of Richard Murphy's "The Wackiest Ship in the Army" (1961) in Saturday Review (written most likely by Hollis Alpert)
"From the moment he pokes the doorbell of Kim Novak's London house and starts sparking brightly on the instant she guardedly answers it, Lemmon is full of delightful little gurgles, witty spayings, appreciate looks and all the amusing indications of a healthy fellow falling - well, in love ... Credit a clever little story and a comic performance by Lemmon that twinkles like a mischief-maker's eyes for the unexpected good humor that generally crackles and pops in Columbia's 'The Notorious Landlady,' which came to the Criterion and the Beekman yesterday."
-Bosley Crowther reviewing Richard Quine's film (1962) in The New York Times
Jack Lemmon, ever boyish, died on 27 June, 2001
I was so very shocked when he died. I half expected him to live forever. One of the truly greatest film/stage
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I’m rather fond of “The Notorious Landlady” myself, and like you, Joe, prefer Lemmon's work with Quine that what he did with Wilder.
ReplyDeleteJoe. I miss the new millenium Lemmon. Wish eh was still with us.
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