Le prisonnier de la deuxième avenue

I loved this movie.It wasn't depressing in the least.Neil Simon has written many brilliant and funny plays,this being one of them(and The Out of Towner's,also with Lemmon).Jack plays a man who gets fired from his job after working there half his life.Anne plays his wife who gets another job while Jack has a breakdown and they struggle to go on with the everyday life and calamities that face them.I laughed at so many of the lines.I laughed when Jack Lemmon was yelling at the New Yorkers out of his balcony after his house had been robbed,i laughed when he was banging back on the wall at his neighbours,when he and Anne had to climb all the stairs because the elevator is broken,the look on their faces is painful but funny! Jack could play a miserable on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown man,and make you really laugh aswell. Also features a young Sylvester Stallone before his Rocky days. I love it and its one of those films i can watch over and over.

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.

For some reason, I only think us New Yorkers would appreciate this movie, but maybe not.

Anyone aware of what Manhattan was like in the 1970s will know this movie really nailed it; it terms of location shots, attitudes, Jewish stereotypes, and so on. This was a pre-Koch time in New York (May he rest in peace- he just passed a couple days ago. Great mayor, great person) and city was at the beginning stages of becoming an open sewer.

Street scenes will surprise all modern-day Manhattanites; I watched this movie several times, and there's not a single store or shop around then that survives today. (Near 87th & 2nd Ave.) So sad.

Jack Lemmon's character was funny, from start to finish, without TRYING to be funny. Always a treat- watch for Sly Stallone as a "mugger."

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.

I must confess I have a bias for films of the seventies. Most of my all time favourite films were made in that decade and this is one of them.

Jack Lemmon is a New York middle executive who is retrenched. We watch as he slides into depression. Their is some fine humour in this film, which, incidentally was not well received critically, but it is really the underlying drama that makes this such a great film. It is an intensely personal film for me and, apart from some overacting, there is little I can criticise. It is an incisive and briskly paced comedy drama which I never tire of viewing.

By the way, watch out for cameos by pre-fame Sylvester Stallone and F. Murray Abraham.