THE SUNSHINE BOYS [1975 / 2015] [Warner Archive Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
For the Price of a Movie, You’ll Feel Like A Million Dollars!
A showbiz partner often thinks his sidekick is a pain in the neck. Al Lewis and Willy Clark have lower anatomical opinions of each other.
In writer Neil Simon’s warm stage-to-screen adaption, Walter Matthau and George Burns play feuding vaudevillians reteaming up for a TV special, if they can survive. Walter Matthau earned a 1978 Best Actor Golden Globe Award and Oscar® Award Nomination for his cantankerous Willy Clark. And as hilarious deadpan Al Lewis, George Burns turned his first on-camera film role in 36 years where he earned a 1978 Best Supporting Actor Oscar® Winning performance and a relaunch of his movie career. Also the Winner of the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture in a Comedy or Musical and for the Best Supporting Actor Richard Benjamin. ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ is comic perfection from masters of the art of comedy.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1976 Academy Awards®: Win: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for George Burns. Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role for Walter Matthau. Nominated: Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material for Neil Simon. Nominated: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for Albert Brenner and Marvin March. 1976 Golden Globes: Win: Best Motion Picture in a Comedy or Musical. Win: Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Richard Benjamin. Win: Best Actor in a Motion Picture in a Comedy or Musical for George Burns and tied with Walter Matthau for ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ [1975]. Win: Best Actor in a Motion Picture in a Comedy or Musical for Walter Matthau and tied with George Burns for ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ [1975]. Nominated: Best Screenplay for a Motion Picture for Neil Simon. 1976 Writers Guild of America: Win: WGA Award (Screen) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium for Neil Simon. 1977 BAFTA Awards: Nominated: BAFTA Film Award for Best Screenplay for Neil Simon.
FILM FACT No.2: Woody Allen originally was asked to direct, but he was more interested in playing the role of Al Lewis and declined the offer. Twenty years later, he would be cast as Lewis in the 1996 television adaptation. Initially, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were proposed for the leads, but Neil Simon was opposed to the idea, as he felt the roles required Jewish comedians. Several actors, including Groucho Marx and Phil Silvers were considered and the roles eventually were given to real-life vaudevillian veterans Red Skelton and Jack Benny. Red Skelton declined after realizing his income was higher performing his stand-up comedy than what he was offered for the film; he was replaced by the younger Walter Matthau. Jack Benny was forced to withdraw after being diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer that would soon claim him and recommended his friend and fellow real-life vaudevillian veteran George Burns for the role, who had not been in a film since 1939. George Burns' Academy Award-winning role revived his career and redefined his popular image as a remarkably active, older comedy star. Six weeks before filming started, George Burns had triple bypass surgery.
Cast: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin, Lee Meredith, Carol Arthur, Rosetta Le Noire, F. Murray Abraham, Howard Hesseman, James Cranna, Ron Rifkin, Jennifer Lee Pryor, Fritz Feld, Jack Bernardi, Garn Stephens, Santos Morales, Archie Hahn, Sid Gould, Tom Spratley, Rashel Novikoff, Sammy Smith, Dan Resin, Milt Kogan, Bob Goldstein, Walter Stocker, Duchess Dale, Bill Reddick, Eddie Villery, Gary K. Steven, Steve Allen [Narrator on Fictional TV Program] (uncredited), Phyllis Diller [Perforfmer on Fictional TV Program] (uncredited), Lois Hamilton (uncredited), Lauren Simon (uncredited) and Rufus Smith (uncredited)
Director: Herbert Ross
Producers: Ray Stark and Roger M. Rothstein
Screenplay: Neil Simon (screenplay) and (play) (uncredited)
Cinematography: David M. Walsh (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 111 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: One of the best films ever made from a Neil Simon play, an engaging homage to the tradition of vaudeville in which the two halves of a once-famous double act (they now hate each other) re-team for a TV special.
At the start of Neil Simon's 1975 film comedy film, ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS,’ the film opens with Walter Matthau as a semi-retired comic scraping by doing commercials that his agent/nephew Benjamin has secured for him. He's auditioning for a silly potato chip TV spot for advertising director Howard Hesseman, when he keeps blowing his lines and decides that this isn't show business and he no longer wants to be a part of it. A nostalgic TV special is coming up, and Richard Benjamin books Walter Matthau on it, hoping that he will put aside his rancour towards his former partner, George Burns, and unite this last time for the benefit of all those people who never saw them together in the flesh.
George Burns and Walter Matthau haven't spoken in decades, and the mere mention of George Burns is enough to send Walter Matthau's blood pressure soaring. But he buries his enmity and agrees to see his erstwhile friend. The two men meet and began rehearsing the sketch that made them household names way back when they were known as the Sunshine Boys, but battles begin immediately as they argue over the first words of the sketch.
For 47 years Al Lewis [George Burns] and Willy Clark [Walter Matthau] had been one of the most successful of all vaudeville comedy teams when they retired 11 years ago, and it's been 12 years since they actually spoke to each other off the stage. Willy hates Al with a fine passion, while Al Lewis, as he puts it, doesn't hate Willy Clark; he simply can't stand him.
The kind of retirement each man has slipped into describes their differences. Willy Clark remains in the middle of Manhattan, the better to pursue his career as a single, lives in the Ansonia Hotel, plays cards at the Lambs Club, and occasionally reads for TV commercial jobs he never gets. Al Lewis lives contentedly in New Jersey with his married daughter, napping the afternoons away.
Richard Benjamin plays Ben Clark, Willy Clark’s hapless nephew and agent, who can’t convince his uncle to show up on time and in the right place to audition for a potato chip commercial. A number of other notable actors turn in supporting roles, including a young F. Murray Abraham with all that amazing hair as a mechanic.
What’s really funny is that the comedy duo’s disagreements are so trivial. Willy Clark insists that Al Lewis deliberately poked him during their performances, and spit on him when pronouncing his T’s. Lewis wanted to retire and Willy Clark didn’t, and he’s obviously bothered that he doesn’t have any identity outside of their partnership. Lewis gets steamed when Willy Clark changes the opening line of their routine from “Come in” to “Enter.” Walter Matthau was only in his 50s when they made the film, but he was believably aged up 20 years or so through makeup and his own acting skills.
There’s a great, serious scene where Willy Clark is haranguing Al Lewis to Ben Clark, who finally asks him why he worked with him for 43 years if he hated him so much. Willy Clark forcefully calls Al Lewis “the best.” He was a great actor with terrific comic timing, Willy Clark praises. “As an act, nobody could touch him. As a human being, nobody wanted to touch him!” The jokes come fast and furious, building in speed and intensity until the audience is rolling with laughter. It’s not vaudeville, but it sure is very very funny hilarious laughter.
Finally, here is a lovely quote from Neil Simon where he says, “I always feel more like a writer when I'm writing a play because of the tradition of the theater ... there is no tradition of the screenwriter, unless he is also the director, which makes him an auteur. So I really feel that I'm writing for posterity with plays, which have been around since the Greek times.”
THE SUNSHINE BOYS MUSIC TRACK LIST
MAKE EM’ LAUGH (uncredited) (Music by Nacio Herb Brown) (Lyrics by Arthur Freed) (Arranged by Conrad Salinger)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and we get an exquisitely textured, subtly nuanced 1080p image with fully saturated colours to show off the intricacies of Albert Brenner’s production design and Marvin March’s set decoration in resplendent 1080p razor-sharp clarity. The era-specific palette and film stock translate nicely for the most part, featuring subdued and occasionally garish colour schemes, as well as solid black levels and image detail. Indigenous grain has been lovingly preserved without digitized manipulations. Contrast is bang on perfect. You are going to love this Blu-ray disc. Finally represents a modest step up from the inferior earlier version.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – The 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track (presented in its original mono split to a two-channel spread) and certainly won't knock your socks off, thankfully, because it has a well-balanced coherent dialogue, plus there are hardly any music and background effects. There is also no major hissing, pops or crackles get in the way, but you hear all the words spoken by the actors very clear and precise.
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Blu-ray Special Feature and Extras:
Audio Commentary by Richard Benjamin: Here we get a personal introduction from Richard Benjamin and he is pleased to be there talking about ‘The Sunshine Boys,’ who he tells us personally he was glad to be part of the film. He also informs us this he is a very dear friend to both Walter Matthau and George Burns, who of course has now sadly passed away. Richard Benjamin tells us that he got a call from Herb Ross to ask Richard Benjamin to appear in the film and was totally thrilled and honoured, because he had just seen “The Sunshine Boys” on Broadway. Richard Benjamin was also thrilled because he has done a lot of work with Neil Simon, especially a lot of his films and Broadway productions. We also get to find out that because Walter Matthau was much younger that George Burns, so Walter Matthau was made to look much older. Richard Benjamin praises Walter Matthau and tells us he is a very generous human person, as well as a very intelligent person. At the time of filming ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS,’ George Burns had just turned 80 years of age and they wondered if George Burns was up for a gruelling film schedule, but they were proved wrong and boy were they all surprised, instead they all had to be up for it, as George Burns had incredible energy and loved doing the film. We also find that the film was shot in two different locations in America, like the outside shots were filmed in New York and most of the interior shots were filmed on the M-G-M Studios in California. Richard Benjamin feels that Neil Simon’s scripts are totally unique and brilliant wordsmith and so very clever and the actors have to say the word for word from the script and if they had adlibbed, it would not of worked and Richard also tells us that he loved it when Walter and George were word bantering, especially when they were talking about people who had passed away and especially the people who ran the theatres, especially in New York. Richard Benjamin kept say that he wondered who would be cast in a modern version of the film, but could not think what actors would be suitable, well I agree with Richard, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Richard also talks about the genius of Neil Simon, who wrote his first play for Jerry Lewis entitled “Come Blow Your Horn,” then came “Barefoot in the Park” then followed on by “the Odd Couple,” which were huge hits. Then it was followed by “The Sunshine Boys” and the “Plaza Suite.” Neil Simon also wrote “Star Spangled Girl,” which was Richard Benjamin’s first Broadway play. And Richard Benjamin reckons Neil Simon has written as many plays as William Shakespeare has written and reckons Neil Simon’s plays total about 30 in all. One really fascinating information that Richard Benjamin extols, is that around 01:35:20 mark, when Richard Benjamin is talking to Walter Matthau, who was recovering from his massive heart attack, points out that in films today, they would have had background music at that point in the film, but also amazing is that Richard Benjamin informs us that there is no music throughout most of ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS,’ except at the start of the film, scenes at the Ed Sullivan TV Studio and with the end credits. We are now coming to the end of the film and this audio commentary and Richard Benjamin sums up his feelings on working on ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ where he says, “there is a lot of luck in this business, and the luckiest thing that happened to me is that I got to work with the likes of Walter Matthau twice and George Burns in this picture and it was a dream come true and that I got to be friends with both of them, and was that just much more rewarding and of course they were just wonderful men and I learned a tremendous amount from both of them. But one of the main things that that these two talented people were, is that they were generous and very nice. I think when people are really talented like both of them, for the most part, they are very good people, so I was lucky to be in it with them both and watching it again after all this time, I think it is pretty good, it was very good indeed and it was very pleasant work on a wonderful set and was also very relaxing and we really had a good time. I am Richard Benjamin and I hope you enjoyed watching it to. Well I second that, as this audio commentary was such a joy to listen to and Richard Benjamin was a delight to hear all his anecdotes on the making of the film. I give it a 5 star rating.
Special Feature: Vintage M-G-M Feature: The Lion Roars Again! [1975] [480i] [1.37:1] [16:45] This short M-G-M documentary that is narrated by Wayne Thomas and records a two day open house at the studio and held for the 1975 International Press Conclave hosted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer over two days in May 1975. The event was used to preview several upcoming M-G-M feature films. After opening remarks by studio vice-president Daniel Melnick, the press gets a tour of a set that will be used in the film ‘Logan's Run’ [1976], plus a short fashion show of the film's futuristic costumes. Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire host a luncheon honouring ‘That's Entertainment, Part II’ [1976]. Next is a press conference for a film with the working title ‘The All-American Girl,’ but the film was eventually released under the title ‘Sweet Revenge’ [1976]. The first day ends with a dinner for the stars of ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ [1975]. We see Richard Benjamin is the host of the dinner, and is surprised by the presentation of a gigantic birthday cake. George Burns and Walter Matthau also address the diners. The second day begins with a press conference for ‘Hollywood Cowboy’ [1975]. This is followed by a special premiere of ‘The Wind and the Lion’ [1975]. The conclave concludes with a dinner and ball on a sound stage made to look like the Moroccan desert depicted in the film. Contributors include: Michael Anderson, Army Archerd, Fred Astaire, Richard Benjamin, Candice Bergen, Edgar Bergen, Tony Bill, George Burns, Stockard Channing, Francis Ford Coppola, Saul David, Phyllis Diller, Vince Edwards, Rhonda Fleming, Brian Keith, Gene Kelly, George Kennedy, Walter Matthau, Daniel Melnick, John Milius, Brenda J. Perla, Walter Pidgeon, Paula Prentiss, Richard Pryor, Frank Edward Rosenfelt, Jerry Schatzberg, Ray Stark, Loretta Swit, Bill Thomas, Bobby Van, Edy Williams, Howard Zieff, Frances Bergen (uncredited), Sean Connery (archive footage) (uncredited), David Hasselhoff (uncredited), Gary Houston [reporter opposite Fred Astaire at luncheon] (uncredited), Elaine Joyce (uncredited), Louis Malle (uncredited), Donald O'Connor (uncredited), Eleanor Powell (uncredited), Mickey Rooney (uncredited) and Michael York (archive footage) (uncredited).
Special Feature: Vintage M-G-M Feature: Jack Benny and Walter Matthau Make-up Test [1975] [480i] [1.37:1] [10:34] This is completely silent and with this Walter Matthau Make-up test, it looked like Jack Benny was originally going to be in the film, but I suspect the executives felt that George Burns was going to be so much more suitable for the film.
Special Feature: Vintage M-G-M Feature: Phil Silvers Screen Test [1975] [480i] [1.37:1] [3:24] This instead has sound and with this screen test looked like Phil Silver was going to be the original character in the film, but was replaced by Walter Matthau.
Theatrical Trailer [1975] [1080i] [1.78:1] [3:45] This is more than the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS,’ because you get to see exclusive behind-the-scenes of the making of the film and also a special presentation at the Americana of New York for Walter Matthau and George Burns. Plus we get to read rave review comments on the screen from Rex Reed from the New York Daily News; Vincent Canby from the New York Times; Gene Shalit from NBC Today Show and Judith Christ from the Saturday Review and announcing the Academy Award® Winner George Burns for best Supporting Actor in ‘The Sunshine Boys.’
Finally, like its two aging antagonists, ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ moves at its own speed whether you like it or not, and just for the record, you'll probably like it. The Warner Archive Collection releases another classic vintage catalogue title out of the park with ‘THE SUNSHINE BOYS’ on Blu-ray. The film was photographed mostly under natural lighting conditions in Manhattan, New Jersey and on sound stages back in Hollywood by cinematographer, David M. Walsh, a personal favourite of director, Herb Ross. Warner Archive Collection has given the utmost consideration to restoring and remastering the film from a newly sourced inter-positive, giving us the best result possible and a joy to have this in my Blu-ray Collection. It is one of those rare Neil Simon comedies that still makes you laugh in all the right places for all the right reasons. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
