The Prisoner of Second Avenue Page #3

Synopsis: The story of Mel and Edna (Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft), a middle-class, middle-aged, middle-happy couple living in a Manhattan high rise apartment building. Mel loses his job, the apartment is robbed, Edna gets a job, Mel loses his mind, Edna loses her job . . . to say nothing of the more minor tribulations of nosy neighbors, helpful relatives and exact bus fares. The couple suffers indignity after indignity (some self-inflicted) and when they seem on the verge of surrender, they thumb their noses defiantly and dig the trenches for battle.
Genre: Comedy
Director(s): Melvin Frank
Production: Warner Home Video
  Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
6.8
PG
Year:
1975
98 min
2,138 Views


Save it for winter?|They gotta throw it out sometime.

That's why they call it garbage.

l can't talk to you.|l can't talk to you anymore!

l'm a human being, same as you.

l get cold, hot. l smell garbage,|l hear noise.

You either live with it or you get out.

lf you're a human being, you reserve|the right to complain, to protest.

Give up that right, you cease to exist!

l protest against stinking garbage|and jiggling toilets!

And barking dogs! Now, shut up!|Damn it.

lf you're gonna yell at the dog,|l'm gonna go to sleep.

How are you gonna sleep|with a dog screaming like that?

Keep that dog quiet down there.|There's human beings sleeping!

-Christ almighty.|-Shut up, down there!

-We got children up here!|-Why are you yelling at me?

-Want to complain? Keep the dog company.|-Just keep it quiet.

-Will you stop it, for God's sake?|-Stop telling me to stop it!

Now, don't tell me to stop it!

l don't know what's gotten into you,|but don't take it out on me.

lf it's too much, take a room at the library!|Don't take it out on me. l'm going to sleep.

Edna.

Don't go.

Talk to me.

For a few minutes.

l think l'm losing my mind.

What is it, Mel?

l'm unraveling.|l'm losing touch.

Something is happening to me.|l'm losing control.

l can't handle anything. l--

l forgot how to work the water cooler.

l stood there with an empty cup|and water running all over my shoes.

lt's not just you.|lt's everybody.

-Everybody's feeling tensions these days.|-Oh, tension.

God, if l could feel tension.|When you're tense, you're tight.

You're holding something.|l don't know where to grab.

l'm slipping. l'm scared.

Don't talk like that.

-Now, what about seeing the analyst again?|-Dr. Pake? He's dead.

Six years of my life and $23,000.

What does he care if he gets|a heart attack?

There are other good doctors.|See someone else.

What's the use? God, l don't know|where l am or who l am.

l'm disappearing, Edna.

l don't need an analyst.|l need lost and found.

-Who could that be?|-What?

l'll get it.

Hello. Yes, this--

Yeah, this is apartment 1 4A,|and what about it?

What? l'm keeping you awake?

Who the hell do you think got me up|to get you up in the first place?

What? Don't tell me you've got a plane|to Stuttgart in the morning.

l'll talk as loud as l want!|This isn't some kind of sublet, you know.

l'm a regular, American, paying tenant!

Think l--

You bang on the wall,|you'll get a bang right back.

-lf she bangs, bang back.|-What are you starting it for?

-Will you-- Bang back.|-lt's 2:30. Leave them alone.

-They'll go to sleep.|-Will you bang back?

-lf l bang, they'll only bang back at me!|-Will you bang back?

l'll bang. l'll bang.

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Neil Simon

Marvin Neil Simon (born July 4, 1927) credited as Neil Simon, is an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly adaptations of his plays. He has received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer.Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression, with his parents' financial hardships affecting their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood. He often took refuge in movie theaters where he enjoyed watching the early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve, and after graduating from high school, he began writing comedy scripts for radio and some popular early television shows. Among them were Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows from 1950 (where he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Selma Diamond), and The Phil Silvers Show, which ran from 1955 to 1959. He began writing his own plays beginning with Come Blow Your Horn (1961), which took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway. It was followed by two more successful plays, Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd Couple (1965), for which he won a Tony Award. It made him a national celebrity and "the hottest new playwright on Broadway." During the 1960s to 1980s, he wrote both original screenplays and stage plays, with some films actually based on his plays. His style ranged from romantic comedy to farce to more serious dramatic comedy. Overall, he has garnered 17 Tony nominations and won three. During one season, he had four successful plays running on Broadway at the same time, and in 1983 became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre, named in his honor. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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