Word: matthau
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...success is all the more remarkable because it is virtually plotless. A suburban husband (Walter Matthau) decides that the grass is greener and the lass keener in the other fellow's backyard. A colleague with a wandering eye (Robert Morse) nominates himself as Matthau's instructor in the arcane rules of high-infidelity. Like most modern teachers, Morse goes in for visual aids: every time he makes a pedantic point the screen lights up with a lively sketch from life, featuring 13 stars in cameo roles as "technical advisers...
Eager to learn by doing, Matthau finally entices a voluptuous victim (Elaine Devry) to a motel; as she stands before him, stripped down to her black lace foundation, he decides that he prefers a wifetime of dreaming to a lifetime of scheming. Nervously he shows his date pictures of his family and prays for any interruption that will end the affair that never began. Moments later, deliverance comes when detectives break into a neighboring room and discover a couple in bed. The man: that satirical satyr Robert Morse. Gratefully, Matthau and the movie chicken out and head for home...
Director Gene Kelly has guided Guide flawlessly, making it as crisp and catchy as one of his old dance routines. But it is hard to see how any moviemaker could have gone wrong with one of Hollywood's ultimate weapons: Walter Matthau. Underplaying the male norm pondering the female form, Matthau creates a triumph of taste in a role that could have been merely low-down and dirty-proving once again that the person who plays the common man must be an uncommon actor...
...Scofield, the best actor, for A Man for All Seasons, remained in Sussex, England. Elizabeth Taylor, the best actress, for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfl, sent her polite regrets from Nice.* Sandy Dennis, the best supporting actress, for Virginia Woolf, stayed put in New York. Only Walter Matthau, the best supporting actor, for The Fortune Cookie, showed up-as did All Seasons Director Fred Zinnemann and Scenarist Robert Bolt...
...Omar Sharif, Anouk Aimee, David Hemmings, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Rita Tushingham, Melina Mercouri, Ingrid Thulin, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Susannah York, Samantha Eggar, Sarah Miles, Terence Stamp, David Warner, Alan Bates?and the Beatles. Hollywood's contribution to the constellation is insignificant: James Coburn, Walter Matthau, Lee Marvin are big boys at the box office now, but for some curious reason, Hollywood has yet to bring on a new and better class of girls...