Just watched Kotch, the only film Jack Lemmon directed with his pal Walter Matthau starring. Matthau plays Joseph Kotcher, a retired businessman who's staying with his son Gerald (Charles Aidman),daughter-in-law Wilma (Felicia Farr, who was Lemmon's real-life wife),and their baby son Duncan. Since both parents work and Joe isn't always responsible with his grandson (Wilma mentions Duncan getting some beer foam and pizza from his grandpop),they send him to a retirement home. This happens despite the babysitter they hired, Erica (Deborah Winters),being not so responsible herself since she has sex with her boyfriend in Kotcher's home with Joe as witness. Needless to say, Joe and Erica form an unlikely bond when she gets pregnant and he decides to go on the road instead of agreeing to the old folks home. I'll stop right there and say while I thought that the movie was going to be a little treacly with scenes of Matthau and the baby on the playground and the Marvin Hamlisch-Johnny Mercer song "Life is What You Make It" playing (which amazingly got an Oscar nomination),it got a little better with Joe's amusing tangents throughout the picture. Erica took a little more getting used to since her tangents were initially irritating but she calmed down eventually. I was worried for her, however, when she first rode in Kotch's creaky 1940s car especially since neither wore a seat belt when they were running fast! The funniest scene to me was when they stopped at a gas station and, as they were going to the ladies' restroom, the sign near the door said, "Ask Attendent for Key"! This happens as Erica's water broke and the attendants were very fixated on their motorcycle. Also appearing here are Larry Linville in his film debut as Erica's brother and guardian who provides some amusing moments a year before becoming Frank Burns on "M*A*S*H", and Ellen Geer, actor Will Geer's daughter, who plays Joe's late wife Vera in flashbacks in touching scenes. She was also Lemmon's ex-wife Frances on The Odd Couple II, and recently played Katherine Mayfair's aunt on "Desparate Housewives". Not a great dramedy, but Lemmon the director provides some nice touches that makes one keep watching for the little moments that Matthau provides in a role that got him a second Oscar nomination. Worth a look for fans of both.

Bittersweet film directed by Jack Lemmon features real-life pal Walter Matthau as an unwanted old codger in Southern California who befriends an unmarried, pregnant teenager. The film makes points on several topics (retirement homes, married life in suburbia, the value of the elderly),yet it doesn't use this material to build momentum--and since the film isn't a satire, the humor (often condescending or sarcastic) comes off as smirking. Matthau does a very fine job--he even convinces us he's a baby lover!--but his relationship with the troubled girl doesn't ring true (worse, Matthau's pinched, icy daughter-in-law is a one-note caricature and nearly unbearable). At one point, Kotch goes on a road trip by bus and sends back lots of postcards to his son, but director Lemmon doesn't use this segment to bolster the plot (it's too sitcom-y with that silly music, like a geriatric version of "Midnight Cowboy"). Lemmon is careful not to flood the movie with teary sentiment; he's generally gracious and attentive, and many of his details are wonderfully wry, but overall the picture feels rather fatigued.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were one of cinema's most notable teams. They co-starred in a number of comedies over the years, always entertaining audiences. But there was also a time that Lemmon stepped behind the camera. The result was "Kotch", based on a book by Katharine Topkins. Matthau plays an elderly man in the LA area who feels useless in the changing world. His son and daughter-in-law consider him a nuisance, but he would rather not spend the rest of his life in a retirement home. But his life takes a new turn when he hooks up with a young pregnant woman.

We're used to seeing Matthau play curmudgeons, but here his character gets a new outlook on life. There's a scene towards the end that's a shocker (let's just say that Walter Matthau is the last person whom you'd picture doing that). All in all, a good movie. Not a masterpiece, but I still recommend it.