Kotch **** (1971, Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr, Charles Aidman) – Classic Movie Review 7045

In 1971 Jack Lemmon expertly directs (in his début and sole film as director) his old buddy Walter Matthau as Joseph ‘Kotch’ Kotcher, a septuagenarian retired salesman widower who refuses to let his adult children Wilma (Felicia Farr) and Gerald (Charles Aidman) put him in a nursing home. So he sets off on a road trip during which he strikes up a friendship with pregnant teenager Erica (Deborah Winters) and helps her give birth.

Matthau’s testy old-man acting is a tour-de-force in this winning comedy drama. It is interesting to compare it with Lemmon’s own role as granddad in Dad (1989). Big-hearted, winningly played, this delicious comedy is quirky and sentimental without being sentimentally cloying, apart, that is, from Marvin Hamlisch (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics)’s song ‘Life is What You Make It’. Lemmon has a walk-on as the sleeping bus passenger.

John Paxton’s screenplay is based on Katharine Topkins’s novel.

Also in the cast are Darrell Larson, Larry Linville, Ellen Geer, Donald Kowalski, Arlen Stuart, Jane Connell, James Brodhead, Jessica Rains, Darrell Larson, Biff Elliot, Paul Picerni, Lucy Saroyan, Kim Hamilton, Tamar Cooper, Amzie Strickland, Paul Fierro, Penny Stanton, Janya Braunt and Dee Carroll.

It was nominated for four Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Walter Matthau), Best Music, Original Song (‘Life is What You Make It’), Best Sound and Best Film Editing. ‘Life is What You Make It’ won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song – Motion Picture. So the voters liked ‘Life is What You Make It’!

Kotch is directed by Jack Lemmon, runs 113 minutes, is made by Kotch Company Productions and ABC Pictures Corporation, is distributed by Cinerama, is written by John Paxton, based on Katharine Topkins’s novel, is shot in Metrocolor by Richard H Kline, is produced by Richard Carter, is scored by Marvin Hamlisch and designed by Jack Poplin.

Felicia Farr (born 4 October 1932) was married to Lemmon, till his death on 27 June 2001.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7045

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