Phffft is cute story of a married couple who decide to get a divorce. When they both start dating again, they discover that they were meant to be together after running in to each other in a night club. Judy Holliday, Jack Carson and Kim Novak star with Lemmon in this 1954 film. Operation Mad Ball is a 1957 film starring Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacks, Kathryn Grant, and Arthur O’Connell. From 1962, The Notorious Lady has Kim Novak and Fred Astaire costarring with Lemmon. 1963’s Under the Yum Yum Tree is a cute comedy and the 1964 film Good Neighbor Sam is fun-filled comedy which has Lemmon posing as the husband of a friend to help her with her inheritance.
Chris Lemmon Comments on This Unique Film Collection
“These are all first releases of this type for these films, and to take these wonderful old gems and clean them up and give them immortality on DVD made a lot of sense,” says Chris Lemmon about this collection of his father’s work in a private interview. “They really reflect a great deal of growth in him as an actor, almost a blossoming from a rising superstar to box office number one guy, by the time he finished doing Good Neighbor Sam, so you see a great progression in him, not only artistically but personally because he was the everyman, because he did imbue so much of his performances with so much of himself and utilize so much of his personality in his performances.”
While these five films are neither the most recognizable nor the most popular of Jack Lemmon’s work in the movies, they do hold a lot of fun and some great scenes. No matter what Lemmon did, he was always great at it. Chris states, “I think we’ve got something very original and I am really very pleased with the way it’s turned out. I’m very proud of it.”
Jack Lemmon won two Oscars in his career. One was for Save the Tiger in 1973 and the other was for the 1955 film Mister Roberts. Chris originally wanted to put together all the big films from his father, but that turned out to be an impossible task. Sony chose these five films and Chris agreed. They have never been released on DVD before.
A Bonus Documentary
A bonus feature in the set is a documentary hosted by Chris called Jack Lemmon: The Man Behind the Magic. In it Chris, along with some of Jack’s co-stars like Kevin Spacey and Shirley MacLaine, reminisce about the film star and his life. He was admired and enjoyed by everyone in the industry and those who saw his films.
Chris says that when he was younger people would always come up to him and say, “‘Oh you’re Jack Lemmon’s son. Would you tell him I love him?’ Because he was the guy that they loved to invite into their room or spend a little time with, and he did do just what they would do had they been in his place.”
- Number of discs: 6
- Studio: Sony Pictures
- Run Time: 555 minutes
Source:
Francine Brokaw Interview with Chris Lemmon June 5, 2009
 |
