Word: matthau
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...made a deal," says CHARLIE MATTHAU of directing his dad WALTER in The Grass Harp. "He'd listen to my directions. However, at any time, if so ordered, I'd put on a sweater." Such are the compromises one has to make as the offspring and the director of a star parent. Still, it can't be that horrid, since a spate of families have taken to the set together with happy results. NICK CASSAVETES wrote and directed Unhook the Stars as a "love letter" to his mom GENA ROWLANDS, and, he says, "she sent me one with her amazing...
...Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are awfully good at this sort of thing. You might say they've been practicing since they were (relatively speaking) kids. By this time they instinctively know how to bring out the comic best in each other -- Matthau's bullying misanthropy, Lemmon's melancholic good cheer. It follows that they invest Grumpy Old Men, in which they play querulous neighbors, with an appeal that is nostalgic and, if you are a devotee of well- practiced shtick, technically seamless...
Grumpy Old Men avoids both queasiness and boredom by throwing only sharp, sidelong glances at old-age issues like straitened circumstances and the death of friends. And the fact that Matthau and Lemmon are playing men of their own ages (73 and 68), which Harris and Duvall (61 and 63) are not, adds authenticity and an element of gallantry to the movie. It also suggests a solution to the problem of old age: if you're healthy, keep working...
...menu that keeps this dive jumping among the surfer and industry-big-shot set. The real attraction is 72-year-old proprietor Bill Fischler, who lords over his young cook Alfredo and his gorgeous Valkyrian waitress Veronica while he greets and gooses the customers. Part W.C. Fields, part Walter Matthau (plus a bit of the Three Stooges' Curly Howard tossed in), Fischler is a wisecracking curmudgeon with style. And with customers like Fischler's, style counts...
...Walter Matthau in Dennis the Menace: "I'm an old codger named Mr. Wilson, and the little blond kid next door drives me nuts. Baby-sitting Dennis is like having to listen to MTV at top volume. But he will foil a thief, retrieve the stolen booty and make me a better human being. G.D. that...