Walter Matthau

Hello, Dolly! Widescreen Edition

They just don't make musicals like this any more. There are some who would be grateful for that--the plot is but a flimsy excuse to string together song and dance numbers. Some of us, however, love big, splashy, overdone musical scenes, of which there are many. Glittering stage numbers showcase a commanding Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levy, a New York matchmaker who can find a mate for anyone. Anyone but herself, that is. Determined to marry wealthy Walter Matthau, she lures him out of Yonkers and sets about wooing him.

Don't worry about the lack of a solid story or Gene Kelly's pedestrian direction. Watch instead for the musical numbers and the lavish costumes. Listen to Jerry Herman's score, and dance around the living room when a sequined Streisand arrives in a club as Louis Armstrong strikes up the title tune for her benefit. (Just pull the shades first.) Based on Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker, Hello, Dolly! won Academy Awards for best sound, art direction, and musical score. --Rochelle O'Gorman

One of Barbra Streisand's most beloved performances is that of the indomitable Dolly Levi in this hugely popular musical that received a Best Picture Academy Award nomination in 1969. It's turn-of-the-century Yonkers New York where an ambitious young widow with a penchant for matchmaking (Streisand) has an idea for the perfect match-tight-fisted local merchant Horace Vandergelder (Walter Matthau) and-herself! As she tries to win his heart we're treated to one of the most musically entertaining hilariously underhanded plots in film history. Directed by Gene Kelly this Oscar winner for Best Sound Music Score and Art Direction/Set Decoration is among the world's most cherished films.System Requirements: Running Time 148 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE

Charade

Audrey Hepburn plays a Parisienne whose husband is murdered and who finds she is being followed by four men seeking the fortune her late spouse had hidden away. Cary Grant is the stranger who comes to her aid, but his real motives aren't entirely clear--could he even be the killer? The 1963 film is directed by Stanley Donen, but it has been called "Hitchcockian" for good reason: the possible duplicities between lovers, the unspoken agendas between a man and woman sharing secrets. Charade is nowhere as significant as a Hitchcock film, but suspense-wise it holds its own; and Donen's glossy production lends itself to the welcome experience of stargazing. One wants Cary Grant to be Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn to be no one but Audrey Hepburn in a Hollywood product such as this, and they certainly don't let us down. --Tom Keogh

The Odd Couple

Neil Simon's terribly funny play about roommates Oscar the slob and Felix the neurotic was first committed to film in this 1968 production, directed by Gene Saks (Barefoot in the Park). Perfectly timed, ingeniously rendered, not a hair out of place in the history-making performances of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon (or the great support cast), The Odd Couple is a movie that one just has to see every two or three years to stay happy. The poker-game sequence in which Oscar's cronies seem to be falling under the sway of fussy Felix's talent for making sandwiches is priceless. --Tom Keogh

Neil Simon's beloved story about two divorced men who decide to share a New York apartment. Felix is fussy and fastidious to a fault. He proves that cleanliness is next to insanity. Oscar 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.

Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men

They're Grumpy Old Men [Side A]. And since they're played by famed screen odd couple Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau they're also Funny Old Men. The wit hits the fan as the two play Minnesota ice-fishing pals whose crusty friendship grows hilariously icier as they vie for an attractive widow (Ann-Margret). Also in the cast are Daryl Hannah Kevin Pollak Ossie Davis and an outrageously randy Burgess Meredith. The two leads grab their fishing rods to reel in another comic whopper in the sequel Grumpier Old Men [Side B]. Most of the original cast returns and Sophia Loren plays the vivacious newcomer who wants to turn the beloved bait shop into a chichi ristorante. Of course in this part of the Land of 1000 Lakes that means war! Enjoy. And yes this is the movie with the "man-sized manicotti" outtakes!Running Time: 93 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 012569817487 Manufacturer No: 81748

Hopscotch - Criterion Collection

Walter Matthau is in peak form in Hopscotch, a featherweight spy-game comedy in which he plays a CIA agent who's way smarter than his dimwitted superiors. That's the fantasy part--this amusing cat-and-mouse game is so lopsided that you can't take it seriously. The movie's charm is derived from the sardonic pleasure with which Matthau makes his pursuers look like idiots, after they've targeted him for "termination" for publishing a tell-all memoir about his tenure in "the Company." He's no stool pigeon, however; it's his boss (played with blustery thick-headedness by the great Ned Beatty) who's abusing his power, so Matthau recruits an old lover (Glenda Jackson) to join him in a globetrotting game of clandestine cleverness. Under Ronald Neame's too-casual direction, this is a not-so-wild goose chase, but Matthau and Jackson (reuniting after they had fun making the 1978 comedy House Calls) have an easygoing chemistry that's nicely balanced with Matthau's cantankerous shenanigans. --Jeff Shannon

Miles Kendig knows too much. One of the CIA's top international operatives, he suddenly finds himself relegated to a desk job in an agency power play. Unwilling to go quietly, Kendig, with the aid of a chic Viennese widow, puts himself back in the game by writing a memoir exposing the innermost secrets of every major intelligence agency in the world. The CIA wants Kendig dead, but he refuses to cooperate—he's having too much fun. Based on Brian Garfield's best-selling novel, and starring the inimitable comic team of Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, Ronald Neame's Hopscotch is a smart and stylish tale of international intrigue and a cat-and-mouse comedy.

I.Q.

I.Q. has all the elements of a classic romantic comedy. Certainly Meg Ryan has demonstrated she has the stuff for funny love with films such as When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle, and director Fred Schepisi's Roxanne ranks among top contemporary romantic comedies. Even though Tim Robbins received acclaim for dramatic work in Jacob's Ladder and The Shawshank Redemption, his early comedic work shouldn't be forgotten (well, maybe Howard the Duck, but not the hilarious Sure Thing). And Walter Matthau? No explanation needed.

Combine I.Q.'s talent with its fresh story and it charms. Garage mechanic Ed Walters (Robbins) is captivated at first glimpse by pretty, perky Catherine (Ryan), a gifted academic who lives with her uncle, Albert Einstein (a brilliant Matthau). Catherine is engaged to pretentious James Moreland (the oh-so-appropriate English actor and writer Stephen Fry). Catherine's early 1950s world is all bookish and brainy, even though she has aspirations toward the romantic (Moreland's idea of a honeymoon is the Belgian Congo with Pygmies; she longs for Hawaii). Einstein and his professor pals, played by Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks, and Joseph Maher, conspire to match their beloved Catherine with the sincere and smart (though not intellectual) Ed.

This is a sweet--but not saccharine--story about "engineering" the course of true love and the ironic triumph of heart over head. The topnotch performances (which also include Tony Shalhoub and Frank Whaley as fellow mechanics) really draw audiences into this winning movie. --N.F. Mendoza

The Odd Couple II

Mike Nichols directed the 1965 stage production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, but while Nichols went on to become a vitally intelligent director of contemporary comedy, Simon's career thrived in the 1970s and '80s before dwindling towards sentimental fluff like this amusing but mildly disappointing sequel. Closer to Grumpy Old Men than the wry wit of Simon's original play and 1968 screen adaptation, the movie finds former roommates Oscar (Walter Matthau) and Felix (Jack Lemmon) reluctantly reuniting for the wedding of Oscar's son to Felix's daughter. When they get sidetracked in California, the road-movie formula unleashes the comedic chemistry of Lemmon and Matthau (which alone makes the movie worthwhile), but it's too casual to match the original's depth or dramatic foundation. Simon and Grumpy director Howard Deutch could have deepened the Oscar-Felix relationship to make it funnier and more emotionally involving, but instead they've played it safe with some good laughs in the kind of sketch comedy that Nichols would avoid. Simon's capable of much better than this, but Lemmon-Matthau fans will have a good time anyway. --Jeff Shannon

Out to Sea

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the big screen's original "odd couple," star in this riotously funny high-seas adventure. In search of lonely ladies with big bank accounts, happy-go-lucky Charlie (Matthau) cons his cranky, widower brother-in-law Herb (Lemmon) into joining him on an all-expenses-paid, luxury cruise. But their "deluxe accommodations" are deep in the bowels of the ship, and Charlie has signed them on as dance hosts! Under the tyranny of crooning cruise director Gil Godwyn (Brent Spiner), Charlie and Herb are in for rough weather as they romance the luscious Liz (Dyan Cannon) and the lovely Vivian (Gloria De Haven).

Grumpy Old Men

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are reunited in this popular 1993 comedy, in which the Odd Couple veterans play John and Max (respectively), a pair of elderly bachelors whose lifelong friendship is based on mutual aggravation and constant bickering. Their competitive natures kick into overdrive when the beautiful Ariel (Ann-Margret) moves into their otherwise snowbound Minnesota neighborhood. She takes a liking to John, but after a lover's spat she also gives Max a chance at romance, and the long-time buddies reach a peak of grumpy rivalry. It's a stretch to think that Ann-Margret's dating choices would be limited to a pair of grouchy codgers, but sarcastic attitude and snappy dialogue made this a surprise hit (followed by a 1995 sequel), and Burgess Meredith adds plenty of spice as Lemmon's amorous old father. Don't forget to watch the hilarious outtakes during the closing credits! --Jeff Shannon

Two elderly, eccentric, next-door neighbors sustain a rancorous relationship that only a wise observer could recognize as a very special friendship. When a lonely, flamboyant, middle-aged widowmoves in across the street from them, the male rivalry begins.

Charley Varrick

Charley Varrick is a small-time crook who outfoxes the Mob in this fast-paced offbeat thriller directed by Don Siegel. Academy Award winner Walter Matthau stars in a rare dramatic role, along with the powerful Joe Don Baker, as a tough Mafia hitman. Charley robs small banks with small payrolls. That keeps him out of trouble until he stumbles onto the Mob's secret stash. The chase is on as the Big Boys go after the "Last of the Independents." It's a heart-pounding ride that builds to a fiery airborne climax as Charley makes his last desperate run for the Mexican border and safety.