Both Lemmon and Matthau play their signature characters to an extreme here.
In Lemmon's character, we see the classic cuckold husband with an extremely miniscule ability to deal with emotional pain desperately try to reclaim his dissatisfied wife, who's brazenly run away to have a mostly sexual relationship with another man. He is so distraught he goes to the lengths of attempting suicide and other crimes in order to mollify his distress.
As he hilariously begs his wife not to humiliate him with the other man on the phone, we see why the character became so iconic that he was immortalised in the Simpsons as semi-regular character "Old Gil."
Of course, that's not all he is. He's also indefatigable and devious as he's willing to do anything, from breaking in to a hospital to blowing stuff up, in order to try to palliate his distress (ostensibly it's to recover his wife, but at some point it just becomes petty revenge as he understands that whatever they had is never coming back). So, on the one hand seemingly a detestable cuckold, but on the other hand a cagey fellow, admireable on some level.
And then we have straight man of the duo Matthau, who wants nothing more than to get along with his business as quickly as possible and go home. Short-tempered, laconic, and stone-faced, Matthau also plays his signature character to an extreme. I think this is one of the most extreme portrayals of the straight man he'd ever played, matched only when he was perfectly cast as the irascible Mr. Wilson in Dennis the Mennis. He's even willing to murder Lemmon in the desert to get rid of him - solely because he's annoying - but destiny keeps getting in the way.
Hard to replace these two personalities. A unique classic of comedy.
Honourable Mentions: Pinky and the Brain (1995) - A similar concept with another great comedy duo, except Pinky tends to foil Brain's plots by being idiotic. I find it funnier how Lemmon keeps inadvertently foiling plots in this movie just by being annoying and spasmodic.
In Lemmon's character, we see the classic cuckold husband with an extremely miniscule ability to deal with emotional pain desperately try to reclaim his dissatisfied wife, who's brazenly run away to have a mostly sexual relationship with another man. He is so distraught he goes to the lengths of attempting suicide and other crimes in order to mollify his distress.
As he hilariously begs his wife not to humiliate him with the other man on the phone, we see why the character became so iconic that he was immortalised in the Simpsons as semi-regular character "Old Gil."
Of course, that's not all he is. He's also indefatigable and devious as he's willing to do anything, from breaking in to a hospital to blowing stuff up, in order to try to palliate his distress (ostensibly it's to recover his wife, but at some point it just becomes petty revenge as he understands that whatever they had is never coming back). So, on the one hand seemingly a detestable cuckold, but on the other hand a cagey fellow, admireable on some level.
And then we have straight man of the duo Matthau, who wants nothing more than to get along with his business as quickly as possible and go home. Short-tempered, laconic, and stone-faced, Matthau also plays his signature character to an extreme. I think this is one of the most extreme portrayals of the straight man he'd ever played, matched only when he was perfectly cast as the irascible Mr. Wilson in Dennis the Mennis. He's even willing to murder Lemmon in the desert to get rid of him - solely because he's annoying - but destiny keeps getting in the way.
Hard to replace these two personalities. A unique classic of comedy.
Honourable Mentions: Pinky and the Brain (1995) - A similar concept with another great comedy duo, except Pinky tends to foil Brain's plots by being idiotic. I find it funnier how Lemmon keeps inadvertently foiling plots in this movie just by being annoying and spasmodic.