The Wonderful World of Neil Simon

Neil Simon came into this world ready to wave the flag of the U.S. because he was born on July 4. 1927 in the borough, The Bronx in New York City. Simon passed on in 2018. He was known as the only living playwright who had had a New York Theater named in his honor – The Neil Simon Theater.

Barefoot in the Park

In 1967 Neil Simon’s play Barefoot in the Park became a movie. It is a really funny comedy about two newlyweds in Manhattan portrayed by Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. If you haven’t seen this movie it is well worth a watch. I have it on video and have seen it many times and it always makes me smile not only because NYC is my hometown but also because it is simply a delightful movie to watch where true love wins overall.

The cast also included Mildred Natwick and Charles Boyer. Natwick portrayed Ethel Corie's mother and Boyer was Victor a “devil may care” guy getting on in age living in the attic. Corie being a free spirit and fun-loving married her complete opposite in Paul a proper and uptight attorney portrayed by Robert Redford. Jane Fonda as Corie made the movie fun to watch. They live on the fifth floor of a Greenwich Village brownstone with a whole crew of strange neighbors. Their apartment is tiny and comes with a hole in the skylight. The movie keeps everyone laughing as Corie sets up her mom Ethel on a double date with Victor. They wind up on the Staten Ferry in the cold heading for a restaurant Victor knows.

While Corie and Victor enjoy the cold crossing and love the food, music, and belly dancing at an Albanian restaurant Ethel and Paul are miserable and not enjoying themselves. Returning from their outing they all have to head up the front stoop and all the stairs to the fifth floor. Ethel comments after reaching the newlywed's apartment.

“I feel like we’ve died and gone to heaven – only we had to climb.” There is a lot to enjoy in the movie. To tie things up the newlyweds fight and Corie wants a divorce and Ethel and Victor find themselves drawing closer to each other. Watch it and enjoy it and there is a happy ending.

The Odd Couple

If we think about it we could not have done without him. Among his most famous plays is “The Odd Couple” for which he won the Tony Award when it was a play on Broadway. This became a film in 1968 and introduced us to two really strange roommates – Felix Unger, a neurotic neat freak. and Oscar Madison is a total slob. In the movie. Felix was portrayed by Jack Lemmon and Oscar by Walter Matthau. The casting was brilliant and the story humorous as two divorced men move in together. Soon Oscar realizes how hard it is to live with his friend Felix who constantly cleans the apartment and makes obnoxious noises when clearing his sinuses. It would be 30 years later that Matthau and Lemmon would reprise their roles.

Meanwhile, everyone could enjoy the antics of Oscar and Felix in the TV show “The Odd Couple” which also made for brilliant casting with Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar.

The Goodbye Girl

This movie is also set in New York City. The cast includes Paula McFadden portrayed by Marsh Mason, Elliot by Richard Dreyfus, Lucy by Quinn Cummings, and Paul Benedict.

This romantic comedy introduces us to Paula McFadden a former dancer and her ten-year-old daughter at the time when Paula's actor boyfriend dumped her and shattered her dreams of setting up a life with him in California. As if things could not get worse her landlady informs her that her boyfriend sublet the apartment. Paula chooses to stay and fight having nowhere else to live. Along comes the subletee Elliot to find he cannot get into the apartment. One thing leads to another and they decide to share the apartment.

Things are tough as Paula returns to dancing and Elliot is working on an Off-Broadway play. They fight, they disagree, and finally, they fall in love. It is a fun movie to watch and I'll let you find out what else happens. I can say that it includes the popular hit song “The Goodbye Girl”. Elliot enters Paula's life in the rain, he romances her while the rain falls, and finally, it all ends with rain but it is a happy ending.

The Out of Towners

Is a fun comedy with lots to see and also set in New York City. The cast includes Jack Lemmon playing George Kellerman, Sandy Dennis as Gwen Kellerman, and a whole cast of other characters.

We get introduced to the Ohio couple George and Gwen Kellerman who are flying to New York City since George has a job interview. The couple does not make it to New York right away, however, since their plane gets rerouted to Boston, Massachusetts. Their luggage gets left behind. Arriving in New York City they discover that mass transit, taxi drivers, and sanitation workers are on strike. Arriving at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel they're informed they no longer have a reservation. This starts a whole string of events including them being mugged and kidnapped. They wind up in Central Park not at a very good time and after each terrible incident poor suffering Gwen utters “Oh, my God”. However, just looking at them and hearing her lament you have to laugh. It is a film that is fun to watch and if you want to know how it ends and if they get back home do watch it.

As you can tell Neil Simon just couldn’t lose as a playwright. In the 1950s, he wrote for Sid Caesar’s live comedy TV show Your Show of Shows along with other talents like Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. Simon’s very first Broadway play was Come Blow Your Horn in 1961. This play also became a movie in 1963 with one of the main characters portrayed by Frank Sinatra. Simon went on to write more than 30 plays. He received four Academy Award nominations for Best Screenplay. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991 for his play Lost in Yonkers as well as another Tony Award.