Anne Bancroft played Annie Sullivan, the teacher of Helen Keller, in her memorable Oscar winning performance of "The Miracle Worker". She appeared as a suicidal housewife in "The Slender Thread". She performed as none other than the iconic Mrs. Robinson, a cold, intimidating Class A "witch" in "The Graduate". She portrayed a compassionate stage diva who also offered herself as the socially connected, sympathetic patron of severely deformed John Merrick in "The Elephant Man".
In "The Prisoner of Second Avenue", Ms. Bancroft comes full circle, this time not only as Edna Edison, a name oddly void of ethnicity, but as close as ever to Anna Maria Italiano, the daughter of a dress cutter from the Bronx. She is as authentic as a born and bred New Yorker, which she was, and very, very funny.
Being robbed in real life is a very serious and even traumatic experience, but watching Edna (Bancroft) explain the situation to Mel (Jack Lemmon), her preoccupied husband, in the midst of a ransacked apartment is just plain hilarious. "What does robbed mean? They come in, they take things out. You had 'em, now they got 'em. They used to be yours, now they're theirs. We've been robbed!" While Neil Simon could write some very funny lines, who could deliver them as well as Anne Bancroft, who wasn't as widely celebrated for comedy as she was for her much more serious , dramatic roles.
Lemmon is also excellent, but we've seen him perform before as a sympathetic, lovable schlemiel (or is it schlmazel?). Once again, he fulfills our high expectations here, even though Neil Simon's comic writing fails to sustain its early momentum after a hilarious first half hour. The humorous dialogue just fizzles out somewhere along the way but to no fault of Lemmon or Bancroft who do their very best with what they have been given. The scenes with the family, including Gene Sachs as Mel's brother, only serve to slow down the original pace to the point of monotony. I lived in the New York area during the 1970's when the overall quality of life in the city was rapidly deteriorating every day, but I thought that the reporter's periodic voice over was extremely disruptive to the film's essential tempo. I can't imagine how the ridiculous, annoying narration, which nearly destroyed the entire movie, ever survived to the finished product. Even the exceptional talent of Bancroft and Lemmon couldn't rescue a very sluggish and tired second half.
In "The Prisoner of Second Avenue", Ms. Bancroft comes full circle, this time not only as Edna Edison, a name oddly void of ethnicity, but as close as ever to Anna Maria Italiano, the daughter of a dress cutter from the Bronx. She is as authentic as a born and bred New Yorker, which she was, and very, very funny.
Being robbed in real life is a very serious and even traumatic experience, but watching Edna (Bancroft) explain the situation to Mel (Jack Lemmon), her preoccupied husband, in the midst of a ransacked apartment is just plain hilarious. "What does robbed mean? They come in, they take things out. You had 'em, now they got 'em. They used to be yours, now they're theirs. We've been robbed!" While Neil Simon could write some very funny lines, who could deliver them as well as Anne Bancroft, who wasn't as widely celebrated for comedy as she was for her much more serious , dramatic roles.
Lemmon is also excellent, but we've seen him perform before as a sympathetic, lovable schlemiel (or is it schlmazel?). Once again, he fulfills our high expectations here, even though Neil Simon's comic writing fails to sustain its early momentum after a hilarious first half hour. The humorous dialogue just fizzles out somewhere along the way but to no fault of Lemmon or Bancroft who do their very best with what they have been given. The scenes with the family, including Gene Sachs as Mel's brother, only serve to slow down the original pace to the point of monotony. I lived in the New York area during the 1970's when the overall quality of life in the city was rapidly deteriorating every day, but I thought that the reporter's periodic voice over was extremely disruptive to the film's essential tempo. I can't imagine how the ridiculous, annoying narration, which nearly destroyed the entire movie, ever survived to the finished product. Even the exceptional talent of Bancroft and Lemmon couldn't rescue a very sluggish and tired second half.