The Odd Couple, film review: 'Hilarious'

Walter Matthau (as Oscar Madison) gets some fantastic lines to deliver in The Odd Couple, Neil Simon's film version of his successful Broadway play. "Look at this. You're the only man in the world with clenched hair," he says to Jack Lemmon's character Felix Ungar.

What makes the film so charming is the comic interplay between Matthau and Lemmon in one of their nine films together (The Front Page was another masterpiece) after Felix is thrown out by his wife and, after a few pathetic suicide attempts, turns at the apartment of Oscar to seek refuge. Lemmon is brilliant cast as Felix, the fussy news writer who clears his ears with an infuriating "fmah fmah" sound.

To Felix, Oscar is a slob with a fridge full of not-quite-identifiable substances that are "either very new cheese or very old meat". Felix drives Oscar mad with his cleaning, worrying and date-sabotaging. In Felix's eyes. The pair are totally in sync and deliver some of the most perfectly timed lines in cinema history ensue ("All I'm saying is that if I don't get to touch something soft in the next two weeks, I'm in big trouble", says Felix). "Don't point that finger at me unless you intend to use it," snaps Oscar. Their bickering is hilarious.