Directing Lemmon and Matthau

On the Set with Billy Wilder

Add to my list

by Jordan R. Young

Type

Stories

Subject

Director > Billy Wilder

Keywords

Billy Wilder, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, film making

Publishing date

2014

Publisher

Past Times Publishing

Collection

Past Times Film Close-Up

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Ebook • 65 pages

ISBN

-

User Ratings

(0 vote)

X

Average rating:

0	rating	= We can do without
0	rating	= Good book
0	rating	= Excellent book
0	rating	= Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Book Presentation:
One day in 1965, director Billy Wilder was watching a televised football game when a fullback crashed into a spectator. “That’s a movie,” he decided on the spot, “and the guy underneath is Jack Lemmon.” The resulting film, “The Fortune Cookie,” brought about the debut of one of Hollywood’s top comedy teams when Wilder paired Lemmon with an actor virtually unknown outside the Broadway scene—though he’d tried to cast Walter Matthau in “The Seven Year Itch” more than a decade earlier.

Matthau walked off with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the film. Following “The Odd Couple,” Wilder reteamed the actors in a remake of the classic Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur farce “The Front Page.” Their third collaboration, “Buddy Buddy,” an adaptation of a French comedy, became his unintentional swansong as a filmmaker.

“Directing Lemmon and Matthau” is based on journalist Jordan R. Young’s personal acquaintance with the team, beginning with a visit to the set of “The Front Page”—his first major assignment as a freelance writer: “Talk about a kid in a candy store. Not only was I an invited guest, I was getting paid to watch one of my favorite directors work with two of my favorite actors—an opportunity most people could not buy.”

Young later visited the set of “Buddy Buddy”—an experience he recalls as far more entertaining than the film itself—and interviewed Lemmon, who discusses working with Wilder on “Some Like It Hot.” This book also covers the team’s first picture and notes the films Wilder and co-writer I.A.L. Diamond made apart from Lemmon and Matthau, the work Wilder and Lemmon did together prior to the teaming, and those films made by the team apart from Wilder.

About the Author:
Jordan R. Young is a show business historian, theatre critic and playwright whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications. His books include Reel Characters: Great Movie Character Actors; Acting Solo: The Art and Craft of Solo Performance; The Beckett Actor; Spike Jones Off the Record; and The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age. He has written special material for the Grammy Awards and served as a consultant for BBC Radio. His plays have been produced in Hollywood and Off Off Broadway.

Press Reviews:
"I get sent a lot of this type of thing and it is refreshing to read something so well written and accurate." -- Charlie Matthau

See the complete filmography of Billy Wilder on the website: IMDB ...