vincentlynch-moonoi I contrast this film with "The Out Of Towners". Both films were starring Jack Lemmon. Both were about a frustrated man battling New York City. But, "The Out Of Towners" ("TOOT") was strangely uplifting and I enjoyed it immensely, while this film is downright depressing.It's not Jack Lemmon's fault. His acting is downright perfect. And let's face it, there was and remains no actor who could play frustration better than Jack Lemmon. But in "TOOT", Lemmon's character was likable...you were rooting for him in his quest to overcome the forces against him. Here, however, Lemmon's character wallows in his troubles.A problem I have with this film is that it is often listed as a comedy-drama. I don't eve think it's a black comedy. There's nothing funny about a man going through a nervous breakdown. Yes, there is humor here and there, but this is not a funny film. That's a general gripe I have -- too many review entities think that any film that has some humor in it is a comedy. That's wrong.The best acting here, however, is that of Anne Bancroft as the wife. Gene Daks is good as the brother.I think what's sad here is that as Lemmon begins to recover, the pressure that has been on his wife begins to destroy her life.Maybe I'm also just a little tired of Neil Simon. Did he ever do anything really different? Bottom line: Okay, I watched it once, I would not want to watch it again. And I don't usually say that about films with Jack Lemmon.

moonspinner55 Modern day New York City couple struggles with day-to-day hardships while living in the treacherous Big Apple. Jack Lemmon has yet another series of Neil Simon-scripted nervous breakdowns--too soon after "The Out-of-Towners". In fact, within the first 15 minutes of "Prisoner", we're reminded of "The Out-of-Towners", "The Apartment" and "Save the Tiger". It's a replay of themes--Jack Lemmon's Greatest Hits. Often times, there's simply no point to Lemmon's ranting, and the sources of his anger (unemployment, crime, etc.) are expressed as personal diatribes--these are his exclusive problems rather than universal frustrations. Anne Bancroft is touching as Jack's put-upon spouse, though not even she can save the perplexing finish, which throws everything out the window for the sake of an innocuous chuckle. ** from ****

bkoganbing Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue ran for 798 performances on Broadway for the better part of two years in 1971-73. Peter Falk and Lee Grant played the parts that movie names Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft took over. Essentially it is a two person play without a lot of character development for anyone else. Lemmon and Bancroft are Mr.&Mrs Mel and Edna Edison and the ever patient Edna as the film opens is listening to one of Mel's patented rants about how the world is just victimizing him. It seems that way as among other things the apartment is robbed, Lemmon loses his job, he becomes a crime victim, and even the neighbor upstairs tired of listening to him, douses Lemmon with a bucket of water. Eventually Lemmon becomes a candidate for the rubber room. Bancroft thinks if they can just get out of the New York City rat race, Lemmon might become a human being.For which task she enlists her brother and sisters-in-law. In the end however the roles are reversed. The Prisoner of Second Avenue doesn't quite succeed as much as Simon's other work like The Odd Couple or The Sunshine Boys. Like them it depends on the skill and chemistry of the leads. Fortunately Lemmon and Bancroft have skill in abundance. Still I came away from watching this wondering exactly what did I just see. The plot is almost non-existent, but if you like both the leads than don't miss this film.

jzappa If Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue is less than an intense survey of a married couple impelled to nervous breakdown by the exasperations and disgrace of bourgeois living, it still achieves compelling thrust, both somber and hilarious, mostly the latter though. If Melvin Frank's direction is accomplished but not inventive, he's skillfully served by a cast largely populated by Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft, who launch vigorously sincere characterization as credible as the real Second Avenue and other New York locales captured by the Technicolor cameras.Lemmon is aggravated and angst-peppered owing to the defective air-conditioning and thoughtless neighbors in his high-rise apartment house, among other things. And, his tattered nerves aren't greatly relieved when he is fired by his on-the-fence company. As an unemployed ad executive, he can't be liable for being impatient with the unemployment office. And he shouldn't be condemned for pounding on flimsy walls, cursing the neighbors, who drench him with water in reprisal, and developing neuroses swollen by imposed joblessness and appointments with an evasive shrink.If Bancroft, as his genuinely devoted spouse who purposefully gets a job to sustain them, becomes overwrought and bemused to the point of paranoia, she, too, can't be blamed for her mounting worries when she ultimately must choose whether to receive financial help from her husband's apprehensive, if quizzical, siblings. Lemmon, no alien to Simon's work, and Bancroft are most believable and identifiable when unromanticized, and the strength of the piece is in their collaboration in roles as familiar in their comic reciprocating as many of New York's scuttling millions. And they get strong support from Odd Couple director Gene Saks, as Lemmon's prosperous, straightforward older brother and Elizabeth Wilson and Florence Stanley, as his suspicious sisters, not to mention a young Sylvester Stallone's hilarious scene, which could be the high point of the picture.They aren't in the thick of Greek tragedy or in humdrum sitcom TV. Simon is sober about a premise that isn't momentous and he reasonably swathes its earnestness with real laughs that pop up, including radio news items such as the update that a Polish freighter has just collided with the Statue of Liberty. And, with a cast whose members recognize the value of what they're saying and doing, the trials and tribulations of Second Avenue become a diversion.