Ep. 151 – Jack Lemmon (feat. Mitchell Beaupre)

The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast

Happy Holidays from The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss the great Jack Lemmon with the great Mitchell Beaupre! Our B-Sides today include Cowboy, The April Fools, Tribute, and Out to Sea. There’s also a lengthy appreciation of Save the Tiger, which won Lemmon his second Oscar. The three of us try to define how exactly Lemmon so perfectly encapsulated the average, American male for so many decades, while digging into his long career, that includes both filmmaker Billy Wilder and Walter Matthau. We discuss how Cowboy was ahead of its time, how The April Fools skates by on immense, charming chemistry, and how Tribute falters due to a stunted co-lead (sorry Robby Benson!). There’s a lot in this episode. A true holiday gift! We appreciate the great film critic Janet Maslin. We recount that time when Ving Rhames won a Golden Globe and called Lemmon on stage to gift him the award out of respect. There’s a brief reflection on the strange career of Tribute director Bob Clark, a discovery that our greatest living cinematographer lensed 80 for Brady, and an appropriate acknowledgement that Dyan Cannon, co-star of Out to Sea, makes every film better. Be sure to give us a follow on social at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.