BY LEE PFEIFFER
Neil Simon's "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" was based on his own hit Broadway play that opened in 1971 and ran for two years. It starred Peter Falk and Lee Grant. The play resonated with audiences of the era even though it was an unusually dark piece for Simon, reflecting the social decay of New York City during this period. Those factors were still very much in evidence in films of the era when Simon rather reluctantly agreed to bring his play to the big screen in 1975. He felt the material was too disturbing for his core audience but conceded to write the screenplay himself. He also trusted Melvin Frank as director, as Frank had a long history of helming hit comedies with broad appeal. Simon was also enthused about the decision to cast Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft for the film version. Two of his greatest screen successes- "The Odd Couple" and "The Out ofTowners" - had starred Lemmon and Simon was looking forward to working with Bancroft for the first time. In many ways, "Second Avenue" resembles the latter film in that the script steamrolls over the city that Simon called home at a time when there was a malaise among Gotham's residents due to soaring crime, financial instability and racial divisions. In "The Out of Towners", Lemmon and Sandy Dennis played a couple visiting New York City who are besieged by a series of potentially tragic accidents and crimes that Simon deftly plays out to comic effect. In "Second Avenue", Lemmon and Bancroft deal with essentially the same scenarios from the standpoint of proud New Yorkers who refuse to relent to the on-going urban chaos even as it encroaches on their day-to-day existence.
Lemmon is cast as Mel Edison, a middle-aged executive for a failing corporation, who copes with the depressing atmosphere of a company in which everyone is sitting around waiting to be fired. He's already high-strung and perpetually whining about the deteriorating conditions in the once tony apartment he shares with his loyal and ever-patient wife Edna (Anne Bancroft). The elevators to their 14th floor apartment conk out routinely, the water supply is erratic, as is the air conditioning, the doorman (M. Emmet Walsh) is greedy and inept, two female flight attendants next door keep Mel and his wife awake all night by having noisy sex with their lovers and Mel is constantly in a verbal feud with his upstairs neighbors who he shouts at from his balcony below. Topping it all off, their apartment is ransacked and robbed. All this unfolds amidst a summer heat wave. Mel's depression goes into overdrive when the inevitable happens and he gets fired. Unable to find work, Edna has to return to her profession as an assistant for theatrical productions, something that further diminishes Mel's sense of self-worth. (This was the mid-1970s, after all, the era of Archie Bunker ruling the roost.) Adding to Mel's woes are periodic interactions with his older brother Harry (actor/director Gene Saks in a deft comedic turn), who ostensibly wants to help Mel. However, Harry can't help reminding Mel about how much more successful he is than his kid brother, thus opening old wounds between the two that extend back to their troubled childhoods.
There's a lot going on in "Second Avenue" in terms of exploring relationships and dealing with social issues on a far deeper basis than one might expect from a Neil Simon comedy. For much of the film, Lemmon's Mel is an unsympathetic whiner who engages in verbal tirades against the long-suffering Edna while also indulging in endless bouts of self-pity. Moping around the apartment alone, he turns to talk radio and becomes an adherent to the wacky political conspiracies espoused by crackpot show hosts, thus proving that some things never change. Just when the character becomes insufferable, Simon's script cleverly reverses the situation by having Mel calm down after seeking psychiatric care and Edna become a monstrous, whining presence in the house when she has to absorb the full burden of long work hours and financial responsibility. Ultimately, we see these are two good, loving people just trying to survive in the urban jungle and there is an uplifting ending (sorta).
Director Melvin Frank gets superb performances from Lemmon and
Bancroft, who display great screen chemistry. Nobody played harried
better than Lemmon and here his plenty harried. Frank also wisely opens
up the confines of the apartment to take advantage of the New York
landscapes. In one particularly funny scene, Mel becomes convinced that
young man who has bumped into him (Sylvester Stallone) has stolen his
wallet. A wild chase ensues with an ironic and very funny payoff. It's
all set to a jaunty score by Marvin Hamlisch and fine cinematography by
Philip Lathrop.
The region-free Warner Archive Blu-ray presents the film in a superb
transfer. Extras include a vintage segment from Dinah Shore's chat show
in which she interviews her old friend Anne Bancroft about the making of
the movie. The segment only exemplifies how shallow such shows were and
still are. There is also a funny but muddy looking "making of" vintage
production featurette that focuses on bloopers incurred during filming
and an equally well-worn trailer.
"The Prisoner of Second Avenue" may not have retained the cachet of
Neil Simon's better-known works but it has aged very well and somehow
seems even funnier today. Highly recommended.
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