Buddy Buddy (1981)

Don't Believe the Hype

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

For what turned out to be his final film, Billy Wilder decided to adapt the French black comedy L'Emmerdeur to America and he and his writing partner I.A.L. Diamond came up with Buddy Buddy. As it turned out I saw this film back to back with Wilder's Kiss Me Stupid. In that one, a whole lot of talented actors couldn't raise it above mediocrity. But in watching Buddy Buddy I failed to see why this one was slammed as bad as it was. It's not anything close to what Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau did in The Fortune Cookie or even in the remake of The Front Page. Still Buddy Buddy does have its moments.Of course the film does hinge on the incomparable chemistry between Lemmon and Matthau and they save the film essentially for Wilder. They are two total strangers whom chance throws together at a most inopportune moment.Matthau is a professional hit-man who's been given the job of killing three stoolies who are to testify at a mob trial. He's got the first two and has a plan set for number three.Then of course he meets Lemmon who is despondent over his wife leaving him for a fake sex therapist. He checks into the same hotel in the room next to Matthau who is readying his hit and tries to commit suicide. For the rest of the film Matthau is forced to take an interest in this schnook's marital problems to keep from committing suicide and bringing a swarm of police to the hotel. Matthau and Lemmon get into some pretty funny situation as there seems to be no end in sight to what can go wrong with a well thought out plan. Lemmon's wife is played by Paula Prentiss and their marriage seems very much modeled on the one Lemmon had in The Fortune Cookie. Things work out just about the same way for the unhappy couple.Things kind of work out for Matthau too in a rather unbelievable way for which you will have to see Buddy Buddy. And while it's not like some of the great Wilder classics of the Fifties when Billy was at his creative best, it's far from the worst film he could have gone out on.

Of the extensive list of team-ups that actors Walter Matthau and comedy pal, Jack Lemmon have done, this is not one of the best. It certainly isn't great material from the divine works of director Billy Wilder. But, it does have those off-beat misadventures moments that can make you laugh every now and again.Buddy, Buddy is the story of a mismatched duo, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in their usual form with Matthau as the serious cynic, and Lemmon as the worrisome moralist. Lemmon plays Victor Clooney, a man depressed by the fact that his wife of twelve years wants to divorce him and instead, carry on the rest of her years with a deranged German sex-therapist doctor (complete with nutty German scientist garb including bleach blonde hair and pink lens glasses). Clooney takes a room in the hotel where he proposed to his wife, and happens to be staying next door to hit-man Trabucco (Walter Matthau), who can't seem to believe his luck. He's been hired to kill a Mafia witness, but in trying to complete the contract, he keeps getting involved with all of the idiocies of Clooney and his wife and the crazy sex clinic. For me, Matthau as the unshakable serious hit-man is what makes this movie so funny. It is as though he can't believe what he's gotten involved in and how idiotic the other characters are--Clooney, his wife, and yes, the sex therapist. What's more, is he can't seem to liberate himself from the likes of the incessant Mr. Clooney. The things that Trabucco does to (what he thinks) get himself away from Clooney and get his job over with are quite amusing. But only in slight. But, as I said before, this certainly isn't the best of the Matthau/Lemmon duos (the greatest probably being the classic, 'The Odd Couple,' and 'Front Page'; and of course, this movie pales in comparison to many of the great films in Billy Wilder's catalogue--some of which even include Jack Lemmon in starring roles). Moreover, given that it was released in 1981, this movie seems much older, like it was made in the late 60s or early 70s.

Although "Buddy Buddy" is yet to be regarded as a modern movie classic, no other films have made me realize the art of comedy such as this one. Walther Matthau is hillarious in his portrayal of Trabucco the assassin who is constantly being interrupted from doing his dirty deeds, by an even more astonishing and suicidal! Jack Lemmon. Director Billy Wilder has captured moments on tape that we all seem to relate to one way or another. Together with german actor Klaus Kinski, who more often played deeper roles than this, Lemmon and Matthau gives a performance one would normally find on a broadway theatre.

Jack Lemmon is Victor Clooney, a man who wants to commit a suicide and Walter Matthau is a hitman called Trabucco.When these two run into each other in the same hotel it can only mean lots of funny moments.Buddy Buddy from 1981 is an excellent Billy Wilder comedy.Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are amazing together and they always were.Unfortunately Mr Lemmon passed away last week on June 27 on cancer.He was 76 years old.That made me and many other Jack Lemmon fans very sad.Walter Matthau died last year.We never get to see this great comedy couple together again. But you can always watch their great movies on TV.This movie is a must see for every Matthau and Lemmon fan.There isn't a dull moment in this movie.Don't miss it.