A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury.A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury.A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 3 wins & 5 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaProduction was halted for weeks after Walter Matthau had a heart attack. He had slimmed from 190 to 160 pounds by the time filming was completed and wore a heavy black coat to conceal the weight loss.
- GoofsWhen the "stop-action replay" of Harry's accident is shown, the camera is focused on Harry for a second or two before Boom Boom hits him. In reality, the camera would be following the action on the field and would not be focused on Harry, since the director and camera operator would not have known in advance that Boom Boom would hit Harry. Harry would not have come into view until after Boom Boom is knocked out of bounds.
- Crazy creditsThe end credits concluded with a thank you message to the players and management of the Cleveland Browns, and the National Football League for their cooperation.
- Alternate versionsThe 1997 VHS release showed black and white versions of the 1994 United Artists variant and MGM fanfares at the start and end of the movie respectively.
- SoundtracksYou'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
Music and lyrics by Cole Porter
Sung by Judi West
Also strains played throughout the movie
Featured review
One of the greatest films of all time. Don't miss it!
I absolutely love Walter Matthau. He is one of the greatest comic actors ever to grace the screen. His ability to turn a Jewish complaint into a laugh has a life of its own (like Woody Allen) and Lemmon of course is the perfect foil. This is why they were "The Odd Couple." In fact, this movie includes three of the greatest film makers to ever work/play in Hollywood: Bill Wilder, Jack Lemmon and Matthau. See this movie to have fun with the perfect comedic chemistry of Lemmon and Matthau and also to enjoy the intelligent humor of Wilder's writing. As those of us who have ever created a film or written a story or music know, such endeavors are always an experiment; there's always the (big) chance that what you're busting your butt on will just lay there in the end. Well, when they came up with this story formula, with Matthau as scheister and Lemmon as border line skeptic/fool for love, it just hit, you know? As in, it's a classic winner! Hollywood comedy literally doesn't get any better. The proof? Study up on your dark comedy history: It started with Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), was carried on with Wilder (this film) and every single piece of satire that has been written since these masterpieces of comedy owes itself to them.
helpful•3020
- petermaxie
- Apr 8, 2000
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Der Glückspilz
- Filming locations
- Cleveland, Ohio, USA(Roswell Hotel-opp. Hinkle's apt East 20th St between Euclid and Chester Avenues, now a part of the Cleveland State University campus.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $3,705,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 5 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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