Just when I think I'm approaching the end of a years-long tour through my favorite actor's prolific movie career (Grumpy Old Men is near the top of my Netflix queue now), another batch of movies, heretofore unreleased on DVD, appears out of nowhere. Released last month, The Jack Lemmon Collection contains five movies from the 1950s and 60s. I didn't expect a lot from them, figuring that his best work must already be on DVD at this late date, and that is partially true: The Notorious Landlady, wherein Jack's love interest is maybe or maybe-not a murderess, is a lemon (har har). On the other hand, Good Neighbor Sam was one of my all-time faves. In that one he plays a good-natured schlub who's promoted at work based on his being a "clean living, family man" -- which goes fine until his wife's divorcee friend stands to inherit $15 million, provided she's married. Jack poses as the friend's husband to help her get the money, while his boss begins to think the "clean living, family man" is leading a double life. Hilarity ensues.
These movies are from my favorite Lemmon period -- he'd moved out of his early 1950s goofball phase (seen in, among others, Some Like It Hot) but he hadn't yet hit the string of disillusioned characters he played in the 1970s and 80s or the crotchety oldsters of late in his life. These movies are from the period when he was his most charming and melancholy. Those are the qualities that draw me to him, and they fuel a lot of the character nuances I remember most. For example, I'm sure the script for The Apartment read something like "Baxter strains spaghetti with tennis racket" -- but Lemmon made that into one of my favorite moments in movies.
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