Why It Took Jack Lemmon And Walter Matthau Over A Decade To Reunite For Grumpy Old Men

Donald Petrie's "Grumpy Old Men" was released in theaters on Christmas Day in 1993, serving as that year's "take your parents to see it" film. Prior to "Grumpy Old Men," the film's two stars, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, had appeared in five films together, including "The Fortune Cookie," Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," "Kotch," "The Front Page," and "Buddy Buddy." The two were so well known for their chemistry, they were often considered one of comedy's great, prevailing duos. To this day, they are often mentioned together, and the two are buried not too far apart in the same cemetery in Westwood, CA. 

While Lemmon and Matthau worked together regularly throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, there was a notable gap in their shared résumé. From 1981 until 1993, the pair did not work in tandem — even though they both appeared in Oliver Stone's 1991 film, "JFK," they had no scenes together. After "Grumpy Old Men," the two began reuniting regularly again, appearing in "The Grass Harp" in 1995, the sequel "Grumpier Old Men" the same year, the broad comedy "Out to Sea" in 1997, and finally "The Odd Couple II" in 1998, which Neil Simon also wrote. 

So why the intermission? In 1994, Matthau was interviewed by Roger Ebert, and the actor revealed that he and Lemmon were, in fact, just waiting for the right production to come along. And he in particular didn't want a project where a producer exploited his and Lemmon's celebrity just so they could secure funding.

Walter Matthau revealed that he actually didn't like the script for "Grumpy Old Men" — credited to Mark Steven Johnson of "Simon Birch" and "Daredevil" fame — but he was pleased to hear that the production was already being worked out when he and Jack Lemmon were approached. He said: 

"... I hadn't worked with [Lemmon] for about 10 years. People would send us scripts, but they wouldn't have any wherewithal to do the scripts. They just wanted to use our names to get the script sponsored. And here, John Davis, the producer, comes up with a script — that I wasn't cuckoo about — that he would pay us for. He had the money, he had the studio, he had the makeup men and the costume men and he had it all ready to go! It was a go!"

Sometimes it's just a matter of practicality. One can cull through the history of Hollywood and find hundreds of unmade movies with famous actors attached. Matthau, it seemed, never wanted to "be attached" to an upcoming project. He would rather just get to work and not bear the headache of long-term pre-productions. Matthau was 73 at the time of "Grumpy Old Men" and had become a bit of a grumpy old man himself. With his patience dwindling, he was happy to dive into a film that was already prepped and ready to go. 

It also helped that he would be working with Lemmon again, which might have been the clincher. He even said, in plain language: "The only reason I did the movie was to work with Lemmon."

Once production was secured, Matthau revealed that he and Lemmon agreed to tinker with the script.

"Grumpy Old Men" takes place in Minnesota in the middle of the winter, and the film's shooting schedule would force Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon to film multiple exteriors outside in the snow. Matthau was concerned about this, and not-to-idly posited that perhaps he and Lemmon could alter the film's setting to a warmer climate. 

"Now, the only thing was I didn't want to go to Minnesota in the middle of January, so I said to Lemmon, 'Listen, Lemmon, we have to fix this script up a little so let's rewrite it and then we'll say okay. But,' I said, 'maybe we can do this in Hawai'i or Florida because one of us is not coming back if we go to Minnesota.' Because in Minnesota it gets so cold that the body wishes to retain the heat; otherwise, you die."

Matthau then listed a series of health ailments that can strike the human body when the temperature gets too cold. Sadly, he was not able to take "Grumpy Old Men" to Hawai'i. And he was proven right. It seems that Matthau did indeed become very ill on the set of "Grumpy Old Men," and the actor had to go to the hospital with a case of pneumonia. Lemmon, to Matthau's chagrin, didn't become ill once, although he did have to be taken to the hospital on one occasion. It seems that Lemmon's tongue became so cold that it froze to his gums. 

One might say it was worth it, though. "Grumpy Old Men" was a modest hit and spawned a sequel. Plus, an opportunity to see Lemmon and Matthau work together shouldn't be passed up.