EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Arcturus1980 Very fond though I am of Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft, I could not have known how lucky I was to find a VHS copy of this movie (yes, I still use a VCR). Any big fan of theirs should prioritize it. It is jam-packed with humor and Lemmon's endearingly characteristic pathos. It was another tailor-made role for him, and Bancroft played her part to perfection. It is also very much a New York City movie in that Manhattan is not simply the backdrop, but is experienced as such. It has been my observation that spiraling into madness is always funnier than madness itself. The movie is after all based on "a serious play that's very funny" to quote the playwright and adapter Neil Simon. Although it soars as a comedy and certainly does not go awry as a drama, I give it nine stars instead of ten because it is considerably more amusing to me than it is emotive. It is great comedy and good drama, as apparently intended.Sylvester Stallone's memorable cameo is a much appreciated bonus!

dougdoepke The movie really is a tightrope walk. One false move and the comedy about a nervous breakdown turns into really bad taste. Fortunately, screenwriter Simon and actor Lemmon appear made for each other, their balancing act superbly carried out. Plus, Bancroft makes a likable foil for the dyspeptic Mel. The two reside in a Manhattan tower apartment. Trouble is they rub up against big city frustrations daily. So emotions begin to build, and when Mel is fired from his job, he goes into a slow-motion breakdown. Doesn't sound amusing, but the way it's brought off, it is, and we don't even feel guilty for laughing. For instance, there's the promiscuous stewardesses next door whose excesses cause a wall-banging contest with an annoyed (jealous?) Mel. Or the outdoor stoop where Mel goes to let off steam and get soaked by a combative upfloor neighbor. Then there's the array of exchanges between Mel, Edna, and brother Harry that are both revealing and, at times, poignant. Add the unexpected role reversals at movie's end, and we know writer Simon is reflecting on not just on one man's frustrations, but on life in the city and family life, as well. I'm still not clear, however, on the reasons for Mel's turnaround, but maybe I missed something.All in all, it's a beautifully executed turn with really tricky material that might be likened to 1944's Arsenic And Old Lace, minus the comedic body count.

sddavis63 I've always enjoyed Jack Lemmon's work, and his performance in "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" was another in a long line of winning roles for the veteran actor. As Mel Edison, Lemmon plays a middle aged man struggling at work, already feeling pressured and losing touch with reality just a bit, who suddenly loses the job he's held all his adult life. Unemployment causes him to crash further - a process accelerated even more when his wife Edna has to get a job to support them. Edna was played by Ann Bancroft; Lemmon and Bancroft made a good team.With its focus on Mel's mental state, this seems as if it could become a rather heavy movie, but it doesn't. Even while it deals with real issues - everything from Mel's employment crisis to the drawbacks of city life - it manages to retain a lightness that brings forth smiles and even a few laughs from the viewer. The slow turning of the tables revolving around Mel and Edna and their roles is interesting to watch. As it closes, the movie is hopeful but open-ended. Mel seems to pull himself back together, but you don't know if things will actually work out for this couple.There's an appearance in this by Sylvester Stallone that's a curiosity more than anything. "Rocky" wouldn't appear until a year later, so Stallone at the time of this movie was a basically unknown actor, who had a minor and brief role (listed in the credits as merely "Youth in Park) that he performed well, but who would have known that a year later he'd suddenly be a mega-star, nominated for an Oscar as best actor for his role in a movie that would win an Oscar for best picture. Stallone fans might want to watch this just for the few minutes he's on screen.But Jack Lemmon is the highlight here, and the real reason to watch this movie. (7/10)

James Hitchcock During the sixties, seventies and eighties, Neil Simon was one of America's most successful playwrights, and a number of films were based on his plays during this period. Like many of these ("Biloxi Blues" being a notable exception) "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" is set in New York. It deals with the problems which beset Mel and Edna Edison, a middle-aged couple living in a Second Avenue apartment. The word "prisoner" in the title is not to be taken literally; it refers to Mel who feels trapped or imprisoned by life in general. The film opens during a record-breaking summer heat wave. (Well, the script tells us that the temperature is in the nineties, but the clothing we see people wearing in the street scenes would suggest that the actual temperatures when these scenes were shot were at least twenty degrees lower). Mel does not like the hot weather, but then he does not like many things. He spends most of the play in a foul temper about something or another- when it's not the weather it's his noisy neighbours, or a garbage-collectors' strike or his brother Harry, a successful businessman whose wealth and success Mel resents. Soon, however, Mel has more serious things to worry about. His apartment is burgled, he is made redundant from his job and he suffers a nervous breakdown. The two leading roles are taken by two fine actors, Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft. Lemmon had earlier starred in two other Simon adaptations, "The Odd Couple" and "The Out-of-Towners", and there are certain similarities between the bad-tempered Mel and George Kellerman, the character he played in "The Out-of-Towners". Both men are confronted with a series of ever-increasing disasters to which they respond with ever-increasing fury. Edna, however, is less passive than George's wife Gwen and is more capable of taking positive action; when Mel is laid off, for example, she saves the situation and the family's finances by going out and finding a job herself. Her main problem is how to live with Mel without becoming as manic as he is. Yet, although he frequently exasperates her, she remains loving and supportive; marital breakdown is one disaster which never seriously threatens the couple.There is another good contribution from Gene Saks as Harry, who turns out to be a more decent and likable individual than Mel had imagined. Saks is perhaps better known as a director than an actor, and has directed many of his friend Simon's plays, both in their original theatrical form on Broadway and in their cinematic adaptations. This film, however, was not directed by Saks but by Melvin Frank. Another good feature of the film is the attractive jazz score by Marvin Hamlisch. Despite the quality of the acting, however, "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" has never been a favourite of mine, and the reason I think is its rather uncertain tone. It wavers uneasily between a true comedy and a black comedy, never quite coming down on either side. The experiences Mel is going through are, after all, serious matters; he is not suffering from a mere mid-life crisis (which might be a fit subject for humour) but a genuine psychiatric illness (which normally would not). Yet he generally remains throughout a figure of fun, the stock figure of the comically irascible elderly or middle-aged man along the lines of Alf Garnett (or, to take a more recent example, Victor Meldrew). The overall tone remains too light, without the cynicism or bleakness which are the normal hallmark of black comedy. I don't think it was Neil Simon's intention to make light of mental illness, but at times I felt that the film was coming uncomfortably close to doing so. We are never sure whether to sympathise with Mel, to laugh with him or to laugh at him. For that reason I feel unable to give this film a higher mark than 5/10. It is certainly better than something like the dull and dated "Barefoot in the Park", but I did not enjoy it as much as "The Odd Couple" or "The Out-of-Towners".