Herb Edelman

From John Guillermin, the outstanding director of The Blue Max, The Bridge at Remagen, Skyjacked, The Towering Inferno, King Kong and Death on the Nile, comes this thrilling mystery in the tradition of Harper and The Long Goodbye. Down-on-his-luck New York private eye P.J. Detweiler (George Peppard, Newman’s Law) takes a bodyguard job to protect Maureen Preble (Gayle Hunnicutt, Marlowe), the mistress of shady millionaire William Orbison (Raymond Burr, Rear Window). P.J. gets in over his head after Orbison’s business partner is gunned down and he’s framed for the murder.

Neil Simon has a special genius for finding the great hilarity in ordinary people doing everyday things. Like two divorced men who decide to share a New York apartment. That's the premise of The Odd Couple, though there's nothing odd in the casting of two Oscar-winning talents like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The two veteran funnymen work together with the precision timing of a vaudeville team, but always with bright spontaneity. Lemmon plays fussy Felix, fastidious to a fault. He proves that cleanliness is nest to insanity.

Devotees of Neil Simon's repartee, such as in his Goodbye Girl and Brighton Beach Memoirs, will enjoy this earlier tale of domestic dispute between newlyweds. Corie (Jane Fonda) is the young housewife trying to keep life exciting while making a home for her and her husband, Paul (Robert Redford), on the fifth floor of a Greenwich Village walkup apartment. He's working hard at starting his career as lawyer; she's eager to be romantic and spontaneous; and the two have plenty to squabble about.