Before Lemmon and Matthau, there was the not quite odd coupling of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, two of the first big new stars to come along after World War II, near top billing in their first films, and not like any actor from the war years or before. They're not walking alone through desert fury, but together, and on their first day out of prison after a 30 year stretch, they find themselves in the headlines by stopping a bank robbery, the reason they were in prison for the same reason. It's a readjustment to society that motivates the film, and of course that gets them into trouble.
If it's not Lancaster dealing with an overzealous cop pushing him out of a public park, it's Douglas being asked to dance in a gay bar ("Guiding Light's" hunky Grant Aleksander as the bartender), dealing with street gangs or the embittered but clumsy Eli Wallach out to kill them and cop Charles Durning anxious to pin something on them. It's obvious that these two old geezers can take care of themselves.
A charming film with two great, strong leading men, still getting good parts. Douglas was "The Man From Snowy River" and Lancaster got an Oscar nomination for "Atlantic City" just a few years before. Both men would have a few more good roles (catch Lancaster in "Field of Dreams" and "Rocket Gibraltar"), and Douglas would continue to work well into the 21st Century. Coming off stage success and a memorable run on "Dallas", Alexis Smith is definitely still at the top. Watch how Douglas deals with an obnoxious kid as a yogurt store and how Lancaster deals with the "healthy" slop served in his retirement home.
This isn't the old age of Henry Fonda in "On Golden Pond". The two men are very funny, the type of older person I'd have loved to have sat and talked to when I was younger, especially now that I'm gaining track on their age. But they're not feisty and angry just to be funny. The characters they are represent who they were when they were sent up. The theme song is one of the most underrated of the 80's, getting a Golden Globe nomination but completely forgotten. The movies may not have always done right by older people, but when they got it right, they made modern classics.
If it's not Lancaster dealing with an overzealous cop pushing him out of a public park, it's Douglas being asked to dance in a gay bar ("Guiding Light's" hunky Grant Aleksander as the bartender), dealing with street gangs or the embittered but clumsy Eli Wallach out to kill them and cop Charles Durning anxious to pin something on them. It's obvious that these two old geezers can take care of themselves.
A charming film with two great, strong leading men, still getting good parts. Douglas was "The Man From Snowy River" and Lancaster got an Oscar nomination for "Atlantic City" just a few years before. Both men would have a few more good roles (catch Lancaster in "Field of Dreams" and "Rocket Gibraltar"), and Douglas would continue to work well into the 21st Century. Coming off stage success and a memorable run on "Dallas", Alexis Smith is definitely still at the top. Watch how Douglas deals with an obnoxious kid as a yogurt store and how Lancaster deals with the "healthy" slop served in his retirement home.
This isn't the old age of Henry Fonda in "On Golden Pond". The two men are very funny, the type of older person I'd have loved to have sat and talked to when I was younger, especially now that I'm gaining track on their age. But they're not feisty and angry just to be funny. The characters they are represent who they were when they were sent up. The theme song is one of the most underrated of the 80's, getting a Golden Globe nomination but completely forgotten. The movies may not have always done right by older people, but when they got it right, they made modern classics.