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The Hollywood Collection - Jack Lemmon America's Everyman
Actor: Jack Lemmon
Director: Wombat Productions
Genres: Documentary

NR 2008 1hr 33min

John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III, was born on February 8, 1925. An only child, he was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and was that rarity among Hollywood stars, a man with affectionate memories of his parents. Graduating from... more » Harvard, Jack headed for New York City to become a professional actor. A job playing piano to silent movies gave him the chance to study comics like Keaton and Chaplin up close. His first acting was on soap opera and live TV drama. But it was his appearance in a Broadway revival of Room Service that led to a co-starring role with Judy Holliday in his first movie, It Should Happen To You (1954). However, Jack had no intention of "going Hollywood" and he adamantly refused to change his name. His unmistakable intellect and his boyish but average looks played against him becoming a romantic leading man. But his live TV and comedy training gave him the perfect timing, the precise emotional balance and the total believability that showed in films as diverse as Mister Roberts (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), and The Odd Couple (1968). In his later films, Save the Tiger (1973), The China Syndrome (1979), and Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992), Jack exposed some of the darker side of the American Way of Life. Jack Lemmon made over sixty films and received numerous awards, including eight Academy Award Nominations and two Oscars. Later in life, his achievement was enriched by new challenges in which he exposed the vulnerability and emotion of the later years as few had dared. He reveled in his ongoing screen partnerships with directors like Billy Wilder and stars like Walter Matthau. Narrated on-camera by Jack Lemmon, this profile includes interviews with Lemmon's son, the actor Chris Lemmon. Also appearing are such legends as Jack's life-long friend, the writer and director Billy Wilder, writer-director Garson Kanin, drama teacher Uta Hagen, and actor Gregory Peck. Actors Charles Durning, Maureen Stapleton, Betty Garrett, and Kevin Spacey, writer Neil Simon, director Delbert Mann, and other Hollywood luminaries help complete the profile. Clips from some of Lemmon's major films as well as archival footage add to this portrait of one of our most illustrious and productive stars.

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Movie Details

Actor: Jack Lemmon
Director: Wombat Productions
Genres: Documentary
Sub-Genres: Biography
Studio: Janson Media
Format: DVD - Color
DVD Release Date: 02/26/2008
Release Year: 2008
Run Time: 1hr 33min
Screens: Color
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 4
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English

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Member Movie Reviews

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 2/6/2023...

The Odd Couple (1968) - Old school slow burn plotline with great actors Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Movie Reviews

Sort of dull

Italo Profeti | Tromsø, NORWAY | 10/16/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"There is hardly someone who does not know Jack Lemmon, or who does not bump into one of his movies, sooner or later. If someone should, though, have a urge of knowing him, I'd say they would rather rent one of the above mentioned movies, than buy this DVD.

I suppose this product has Jack Lemmon's fans as target.
Well, for someone who loves him as an actor and would have liked to know a little bit more about him, both as an actor and as a man, well, it is rather disappointing.
As much as the man is brilliant, forceful, quick and capable to squeeze a smile or a tear from even the most hardheaded guy on earth, as dull, weak, slow, and soulless this product is.
Sorry."