The Prisoner Of Second Avenue (1975)

After he loses his job, a middle aged businessman (Jack Lemmon) starts to unravel and eventually has a nervous breakdown. His wife (Anne Bancroft) returns to work to support them but as her husband progressively gets worse, she goes to his family for help. Based on the hit Broadway comedy by Neil Simon and directed by Melvin Frank (A TOUCH OF CLASS). This comedy is a bit darker than most of Simon's works. Nervous breakdowns aren't funny and though the film is rich with humor and Simon's famous one liners, it's painful to see a decent man desperately holding on to his sanity while he looks for answers as to why. Lemmon, who does hysteria like no one else, can often be annoying as he rants and raves and well, can we say it? Overacts. But this is a nice blend of normalcy and hysteria and his mannerisms have the perfect setting here. Bancroft has the less showy role as the wife but she's both funny and touching. Clearly, Simon has more on his mind than a laugh machine. There's a nice score by Marvin Hamlisch. With Sylvester Stallone, F. Murray Abraham, Elizabeth Wilson, M. Emmet Walsh, Ketty Lester, Patricia Marshall and in the film's best performance, director Gene Saks as Lemmon's older brother.