Die Sunny-Boys (1975)
53KDie Sunny-Boys: Directed by Herbert Ross. With Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin, Lee Meredith. A vaudeville duo agree to reunite for a television special, but it turns out that they can’t stand each other.
“The Sunshine Boys is one of my favorite feel good movies. I first saw it when it as the Christmas attraction at Radio City Music Hall when it first came out and loved it ever since. I ended up seeing it 6 times in the theaters, and if it was playing today Iu0026#39;d go out to see it again.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enNow a lot of the reviews here mentioned the wonderful performances of the leads. Matthau was brilliant, but had the misfortune of being nominated against Jack Nicholsonu0026#39;s Oscar winning performance of Randall P. MacMurphy in u0026quot;One Flew Over the Cuckoou0026#39;s nest. Burns did win, though Richard Benjiman deserved at least to be nominated as well. Even the smallest roles were played to perfection, like Fritz Feld auditioning for the potato chips commercial. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhich brings me to my reason for reviewing this film, the direction of the greatly underrated Herbert Ross. Ross who previously brought a two person play, u0026quot;The Owl And The Pussycatu0026quot; to the screen and made a full movie out of it, does it again. He opens the plays out without making them look like a photographic stage play. He fleashens out the story and the characters.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enHere weu0026#39;re 20 minutes into the film before we get to the scene that opens the play, where Ben Clark comes to see his uncle and tell him about the comedy special. Though there are dialogue from the play during the first twenty minutes, the sequence itself is totally new. A few years ago I did see at the broadway revival of the play with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, which was wonderful. But I think that Ross and screenwriter, playwright Simon improved on it. Itu0026#39;s just a wonderful film.”
