Product Description

AN OHIO BUSINESSMAN AND HIS WIFE FLY TO NEW YORK AND HAVE NOTHING BUT TROUBLE FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11638 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2003-11-25
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.com
Arthur Hiller (Love Story) directed the film adaptation of Neil Simon's curious comedy about a pair of non-New Yorkers (Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis) having a hellish visit to the Big Apple on the eve of a job interview for Lemmon's character. Made in 1970, this hectic film almost seems ahead of its time when compared to more recent misery-piled-on-misery comedies such as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The couple in this film endure everything that can go wrong on a trip, including being forced to spend the night in a mugger-happy Central Park. The strange element in Simon's script, though, is that Lemmon's character is so unpleasant. A middle-class, uptight guy who can't believe that New Yorkers in the service profession don't perform their jobs slavishly, he's kind of a one-note joke that quickly wears thin. Remade with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Hilarious and funny warning to stay out of New York.
What appears to be the plot for a lengthy kids cartoon comes to live action with all the desired results and then some. Lemmon and Dennis, both of whom are Oscar-winners, are genuinely perfect in the leads of the All-American family trying to make it in a big city, with one disastrous mishap topping another, from missing trains to losing luggage to broken teeth and even to broken high heels. It's a wonder Lemmon's character kept from spewing off an endless barrage of foul dirty cussing, something typical of the trashy comedy we see in the movies today. Dennis's portrayal of the ever-so supportive wife is outstanding, as she just takes what comes despite her own misery just to keep her husband happy. Nearly everything one can imagine to make a business trip turn to a total nightmarish cataclysim happens here, and shows just what can happen in the Big Apple, but with a hilarious rather than serious approach to it. "Never give up" seems to be Neil Simon's message here when trying to make it in the business world. Nevertheless this film is brilliantly produced, directed, superbly scripted, and giftedly edited. The two leads are irreplaceable, and stands alone as one of the best comedies of life as we know it.

George and Gwen go to the big bad city of New York
I met Sandy Dennis backstage at a play once and wanting to say something more than the usual remarks of admiration I told her that my father stayed up one night to watch "The Out-of-Towners," which was of some import because my father never stayed up to watch anything. She said her father liked that one too and I got an autograph in which she spelled by first name correctly.

This 1970 film, the original version of "The Out-of-Towners" for those who say the recent version that is part of Steve Martin's attempt to be in more remakes than any other living actor, is my favorite Neil Simon script, which is rather ironic when you consider that he is primarily a comic playwright. However this script takes the hapless couple of George (Jack Lemmon) and Gwen Kellerman (Dennis) from their home in Ohio to New York City, where he has a job interview. However, their plans for a nice dinner at the Four Seasons are dashed when the plan circles the airport for hours before being diverted to Boston. Instead of eating at one of the best restaurants in the world they end up with her eating peanut butter on white bread and him eating crackers and olives with no drinks. This actually ends up being the best thing that happens to George and Gwen the rest of that night, which involves a train ride to New York, no room at the inn, a garbage strike, a mugger, and being kidnapped while in the back of a police car. This is without even mentioning the lost eyelash, the broken heel, and the chipped tooth that resulted from a bad encounter with the prize in a box of Cracker Jacks.

Throughout it all, George and Gwen keep up a running dialogue as he gets angrier and take more names while she tries to be the voice of reason and attests that she can verify everything her husband says in his growing list of complaints against the city is true. Everybody always talks about Lemmon's comic partnership with Walter Matthau, but Dennis comes across as the more perfect foil. Eventually her pessimism is turned into paranoia as the city takes the out of town couple for everything they have and keeps on grinding them into the rain soaked streets where the garbage is piling up to the sky. Eventually the idea of being Vice President in a company that has something to do with plastics does not seem like a step up in the world if this is the world in which they have to live.

I am surprised that this movie is only 98 minutes long, but I suppose it is because of all those commercials with late night television and the way Simon keeps pouring one misery after another on George and Gwen that makes "The Out-of-Towners" seem a lot longer, but not in a bad way. The pacing is pretty brisk for a story about two people who have a hard time getting to where they are going, and there are a lot of patented Neil Simon one liners, most of which are true to character and context, although Dennis gets maximum mileage out of repeating the phrase "Oh my, God!" and getting big laughs.

Simon won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen for this script, which was originally going to be one segment of "Plaza Suite," which came out the next year. But freeing it from the setting of a hotel room or even a hotel, into the wider expanse of New York City and the surrounding environs was what made this black comedy really work. Keep your eye out for lots of familiar faces who were relatively unknowns when this film came out: Anne Meara, Graham Jarvis, Ron Carey, Robert Walden, Richard Libertini, Paul Dooley, and Billy Dee Williams. Final thought: If you want to see a film that takes the exact opposite approach to New York City then that would have to be Woody Allen's "Manhattan," which would come out at the end of this same decade.

Unforgettable Performances By Lemmon and Dennis!
A wild fast paced comedy by Neil Simon, shows him to be in top form! One of the few movies one can watch and just never get sick of. I've seen this movie dozens of times, and still think it's Simon's second best( I love "Lost In Yonkers")! Unforgettable acting by Lemmon and Dennis as George and Gwen Kellerman, who plan on suing the entire city of New York. At one point in the film Lemmon scream in the streets..."I have all our names and adresses! " One mishap after another, first their plane can't land, then their luggage is missing, next, their hotel doen't hold their room! And believe it or not, but this all actually happened to Simon in real life on a trip to Boston. If you like Neil Simon, or like fast paced comedy this Simon movie is perfect for you. Oscar caliber acting by Lemmon and Dennis, who only managed to get "Golden Globe" nominations. And unrightly over look Simon for an Oscar nomination. One of Simon's funniest!