BrothersJudd.com

Home | Reviews | Blog | Daily | Glossary | Orrin's Stuff | Email


"This is funny guys, but where is the love scene?" That's a question Jack Klugman used to ask the writers on The Odd Couple, having discerned on first seeing Walter Matthau do the role on Broadway that the key to the Felix and Oscar relationship was not the bickering between them but the mutual love. This short and punchy memoir, though filled with anecdotes and almost a primer for aspiring actors, is then very much a love story. It's about how Jack Klugman came to love Tony Randall, to trust him completely. At the heart of the tale is one deeply affecting, and for Mr. Klugman life-changing, moment, when Tony Randall coaxed him into a benefit performance of original play The Odd Couple, despite his struggles to restore his voice after a bout with throat cancer. By the end of the performance, when the two came out for a prolonged and tear-jerking curtain call, Randall had given him his acting life back and taught him just how profoundly one man could support another. It's a truly beautiful vignette in an always charming book.


(Reviewed:)

Grade: (B)


Websites:

See also:

Autobiography
Jack Klugman Links:

    -AUTHOR BLOG: Klugman's Korner: Stories, stars, sports, my new book, and a life as Oscar Madison
    -BOOK SITE: Tonty and Me
    -BOOK BLOG: Tony and Me
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Jack Klugman (IMDB.com)
    -Jack Klugman (Wikipedia)
    -INTERVIEW: Jack Klugman on Friendship and Politics (This Week, Nov. 13, 2005, ABC News)

Book-related and General Links:

    -FILMOGRAPHY: Tony Randall (IMDB.com) [02/26/1920, Tulsa, OK--05/17/2004, New York, NY)