Dancing With Walter and Jack

Off we go…

Real-life best friends Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon co-starred in nine movies, which is, funnily enough, one more than Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn and two more than Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Anyway, Lemmon and Matthau’s next-to-last movie together was 1997’s Out To Sea, a fun if uneven comedy that has its heart in the right place.

It all opens at the racetrack, where Charlie Gordon (Walter Matthau) is placing his bets. His first pick, Hare Krishna, loses, but his second, High Button Shoes, wipes out everyone and Charlie wins big. His next move is to go over to his friend and brother-in-law Herb’s (Jack Lemmon) house, where Herb is about to celebrate his wedding anniversary, or more like, the anniversary of his anniversary, as his wife has recently passed away.

Herb has been lost in grief, and Charlie is worried about him. So when he shows up after winning at the racetrack, he’s got news. He and Herb are going to go on a luxury cruise to South America to watch the solar eclipse at the foot of a Mayan temple. It’s all very tempting, but it takes some doing for Charlie to talk Herb into it.

Charlie sure likes sneaking into places where he doesn’t belong, only to get kicked back down to wherever he’s supposed to be. On the plane he cons Herb into sneaking into First Class, but then the people who booked their seats show up, and Charlie and Herb have to go to their real seats in coach. The mimosas they’ve just picked up aren’t free, either.

Then when they’re on the ship Charlie lands them in the best suite. How he gets the door open is a mystery, but then, funny thing, the cabin’s real occupants show up. Charlie is annoyed and intrigued all at the same time, because it’s a mother and daughter, Mavis (Elaine Stritch) and Liz (Dyan Cannon). One would think Charlie would have eyes for Mavis, but it’s Liz who ends up charming him.

All that can wait, though, because Charlie and Herb have to go to their real cabin by the engine room in the bowels of the ship, and Charlie confesses to Herb that the only reason he was able to get them on the cruise was that he signed them both up to be dance instructors. The cabin is noisy. They have to share a bathroom with their fellow instructors Mac (Hal Linden) and Jonathan (Donald O’Connor). Herb is less than pleased, but he can’t bolt because the gangplank has already been pulled up.

Even worse, if Herb and Charlie don’t fulfill their contractual obligations as dance instructors, they’ll either have to pay five thousand dollars for the trip or get put off at the next port. The cruise director, Gil (Brent Spiner) not only has kind of a god complex but a star complex, which is an awkward combination.

That’s not to say the trip isn’t without compensations, though. Herb meets a charming older lady named Vivian (Gloria DeHaven) whom he connects with immediately, but at first he mostly confuses her because he’s still grieving for his wife. Then there’s Charlie sneaking away to gamble and slacking off during the required dance classes, so Herb has to teach him how to dance.

OK. Out To Sea is markedly better than most of the movies I’ve seen this month (War of the Worlds, anyone? Honey Don’t!, anyone?), so its comparative competency lulled me into complacency, at least at first. Then again, there’s the fact that the movie starts out all right and then gets pretty dumb, with the dumbness going on for a fairly long time. Some things, like Mac and Jonathan catching Herb teaching Charlie to dance and ahem, assuming certain things seem like they would be new running gags but go pretty much nowhere.

On the plus sides, there’s fun to be had. Herb and Vivian are sweet together. Charlie and Liz are weird together, and to be honest, it would have been a lot more fun to see Charlie with the sparky Mavis, who would have definitely whipped Charlie into shape. Gloria DeHaven is delightful as always–she was such a pretty lady and so charming as Vivian. We also see all-too-brief bits of Donald O’Connor cutting a rug as only he can, including a fabulous number with Elaine Stritch, and Rue McClanahan playing the owner of the cruise ship and resident diva as only she can. Estelle Harris is her usual vivid self, Brooklyn accent and all.

And this might be the only movie in existence to feature the former (well,  the then-current) Commander Data cavorting with showgirls while singing “Sway.”

What mostly helps the movie get by is the chemistry between Matthau and Lemmon, who, again, were famously best friends, with Matthau being the cocky instigator while Lemmon was the longsuffering straight man. Matthau’s comic timing is enviable and Lemmon is wonderful. They’re often compared to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, which isn’t too far off given the similarities of the movies each team made, including the quality levels.

Unfortunately, Out To Sea didn’t get great reviews. Variety called it the “best new comedy of 1967.” Siskel and Ebert gave it a “measured positive review.” The movie is a bit hard to find today, and some parts of it haven’t aged well, no pun intended. Charlie invariably calling women “broads” gets old after a while. However, if anyone’s in the mood for some dumb fun and to see some familiar faces of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Out To Sea fills the bill nicely.

For more of the Hit the Road Blogathon, please see Quiggy at The Midnite Drive-In. Thanks for hosting this, Quiggy–it was a blast! Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you tomorrow for Virginie’s 110 Years of Ingrid Bergman Blogathon…

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Out To Sea is available on DVD from Amazon. It is also free to stream on Prime.

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