Das Nervenbündel

Mel Edison (Jack Lemmon) and his wife Edna Edison (Ann Bancroft) live lives of quiet desperation in an expensive yet shabbily constructed New York apartment with loud and obnoxious neighbors that they do not know nor do they want to know. Then Mel loses his job at age 48 after 22 years with the same firm. He says he was fired, but the modern term is laid off because it was not that he did something wrong, his employer, for whatever reason, just didn't need him anymore. So Mel's quiet desperation becomes louder as weeks turn to months and he can't find employment. Meanwhile, his wife has gone back to work and he feels less and less part of her life as she now comes home with the workplace stories instead of him. Will Mel ever find employment again? Will he ultimately crack up? Watch and find out.

This film just seems to try too hard with the voice over joke news flashes about what was modern urban life in the 1970s and the quirky extended family members. But the parade had passed it by with it seeming to retread ground first broken by All In the Family five years before. What saves it are the performances of the cast, and not just the main cast. Quite a few future famous actors have bit parts in this and it's a delight when they pop up. M.. Emmett Walsh is the apartment doorman. 1984 Best Actor Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham is a cab driver. And probably the funniest cameo appearance is unknown Sylvester Stallone as a young man who is chased through the streets of New York by an angry Mel, who thinks Stallone has stolen his wallet and he is determined to get it back.

When Mel is going to work and noticing that more and more of his coworkers are disappearing to the point where he is the last guy in the office, you might wonder why he didn't see the writing on the wall and go look for another job. After all it's easier to find another job when you still have one. The reason for this inaction is that this was made at a time when the concept of being "laid off" was a new one. From the end of WWII up until about 1970 you either got fired for being incompetent at your job or being dishonest or you had employment until you retired. That's an odd concept today when workers are perpetual - and pensionless - moving targets.

Maybe this movie was our rental choice because Anne Bancroft had just died, and "Prisoner" is now on DVD - I'm not sure why we took it, but I'm glad we did! It is definitely comedy toward the dark side, and the mechanisms of life have changed, but the human element is stronger than the 1970's decor and you feel like you know these people. Maybe you don't want to live next to them, but you know them. It's not that dated - aren't we still discussing the prevalence of crime, gay rights, organic food and the effect of talk radio? Anne Bancroft was totally wonderful, it was fun to see Gene Saks - never a big star, but a wonderful actor, and Jack Lemmon was Jack Lemmon, which was perfect.

Worth a chuckle or more, this sometimes hilarious comedy hits a raw nerve with anyone who has lived in an apartment building where you can hear all the noise you never wanted to (at all sorts of hours), in a world that starts with listening to the radio news detail one horror after another.

That's the way the Broadway play started. The lights went out before the curtain opened and all you heard was a radio announcer delivering one crazy incident after another on the local news. That was the prologue to what you knew was about to follow. Then the curtains parted and the play began.

JACK LEMMON and ANNE BANCROFT play off each other brilliantly, but when all is said and done, there's just something missing in this Neil Simon comedy. The payoff that you should feel when the movie ends, just isn't there.

And yet, when you hear some of the news, it's almost quaint. Just think what was supposed to get a laugh: a news flash that a Polish freighter had just run into the Statue of Liberty. How tame!! Imagine what kind of news flash there would have been if this were written after 9/11.

Good supporting roles from Gene Saks, as Lemmon's brother, and Elizabeth Wilson and Florence Stanley as his sisters.

It may be lesser Simon, but it's still worth seeing, especially for New Yorkers.

I've always thought of Neil Simon as being the one playwright consistently able to capture the genuine flavor of New York as a backdrop to the realistic personalities of his characters. Not being a New Yorker - Silicon Valley is about as far away as you can get - I'm afraid I have not been drawn to movies of his plays as strongly as to other comedies.

But Prisoner of Second Avenue is an exception. Maybe it's because I am indeed in Silicon Valley, where layoffs are something we all get to experience. But this movie captured so aptly the craziness of being laid off, staying home all day - seeing only the one you love (but starting to hate him/her too as an extension of your own self-hatred). Making petty grievances huge, and trying to pretend the truly huge issues no longer exist. And worrying about the bills, and the clothes, and how silly the family behaves when money gets involved. And how the bad luck seems to snowball. And how "therapy" sessions seem so futile.

The acting is superb - but I don't know of a movie where Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft have ever given us any less. Bancroft, in particular, when she makes the transition to anger, is perfect. Thankfully we're not handed any sop at the end either.

The subject is so realistic that I don't find it funny at all - but that's a failing of the times we live in, not the movie. A great flick.

Being a Jack Lemmon fan, I can't help but be biased when it comes to watching his films. But I have to say, even by Lemmon's standards, "Prisoner" is one of his finest performances. He displays a broad range of emotion as Mel Edison, a corporate exec who falls victim to the unemployment crisis of the seventies. Anne Bancroft is nicely cast as his wife, Edna--it's almost hard to believe watching this film that this is the same woman who played in "G.I. Jane" as a crooked senator. And, although another viewer here frowned upon the casting of Gene Saks' as Mel's brother Harry, I always enjoy seeing the director in front of the camera (Saks directed another of my faves, "The Odd Couple"). The direction is pretty tight, and the interludes between acts include humorous voice-overs from a fictional radio announcer (you'll have to listen closely to catch some of the jokes). Look for Sylvester Stallone in a cameo appearance. I heartily recommend this film to all Jack Lemmon fans, as well as to those who enjoy a good comedy that's not all slapstick and guffaws.