The movie really is a tightrope walk. One false move and the comedy about a nervous breakdown turns into really bad taste. Fortunately, screenwriter Simon and actor Lemmon appear made for each other, their balancing act superbly carried out. Plus, Bancroft makes a likable foil for the dyspeptic Mel. The two reside in a Manhattan tower apartment. Trouble is they rub up against big city frustrations daily. So emotions begin to build, and when Mel is fired from his job, he goes into a slow-motion breakdown. Doesn't sound amusing, but the way it's brought off, it is, and we don't even feel guilty for laughing. For instance, there's the promiscuous stewardesses next door whose excesses cause a wall-banging contest with an annoyed (jealous?) Mel. Or the outdoor stoop where Mel goes to let off steam and get soaked by a combative upfloor neighbor. Then there's the array of exchanges between Mel, Edna, and brother Harry that are both revealing and, at times, poignant. Add the unexpected role reversals at movie's end, and we know writer Simon is reflecting on not just on one man's frustrations, but on life in the city and family life, as well. I'm still not clear, however, on the reasons for Mel's turnaround, but maybe I missed something.All in all, it's a beautifully executed turn with really tricky material that might be likened to 1944's Arsenic And Old Lace, minus the comedic body count.

Neil Simon's writing at its best is epitomized in this 1975 film with the psychoses, neuroses of urban living together in a New York heat wave to give its protagonist, Jack Lemmon, a nervous breakdown, after he loses his executive position.Lemmon is terrific as the eventual malcontent finally blaming society for his woes. He is most ably assisted by Edna, played deliciously by the always superb Anne Bancroft.Frustration is the center core of this entertaining film, and also an excellent supporting performance by Gene Saks, as the supposed stable older brother of Lemmon who exposes his frustrations at the end of the film. Another case of sibling rivalry, but on a loving scale.Urban frustrations abound in a very decent film.

During the sixties, seventies and eighties, Neil Simon was one of America's most successful playwrights, and a number of films were based on his plays during this period. Like many of these ("Biloxi Blues" being a notable exception) "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" is set in New York. It deals with the problems which beset Mel and Edna Edison, a middle-aged couple living in a Second Avenue apartment. The word "prisoner" in the title is not to be taken literally; it refers to Mel who feels trapped or imprisoned by life in general. The film opens during a record-breaking summer heat wave. (Well, the script tells us that the temperature is in the nineties, but the clothing we see people wearing in the street scenes would suggest that the actual temperatures when these scenes were shot were at least twenty degrees lower). Mel does not like the hot weather, but then he does not like many things. He spends most of the play in a foul temper about something or another- when it's not the weather it's his noisy neighbours, or a garbage-collectors' strike or his brother Harry, a successful businessman whose wealth and success Mel resents. Soon, however, Mel has more serious things to worry about. His apartment is burgled, he is made redundant from his job and he suffers a nervous breakdown. The two leading roles are taken by two fine actors, Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft. Lemmon had earlier starred in two other Simon adaptations, "The Odd Couple" and "The Out-of-Towners", and there are certain similarities between the bad-tempered Mel and George Kellerman, the character he played in "The Out-of-Towners". Both men are confronted with a series of ever-increasing disasters to which they respond with ever-increasing fury. Edna, however, is less passive than George's wife Gwen and is more capable of taking positive action; when Mel is laid off, for example, she saves the situation and the family's finances by going out and finding a job herself. Her main problem is how to live with Mel without becoming as manic as he is. Yet, although he frequently exasperates her, she remains loving and supportive; marital breakdown is one disaster which never seriously threatens the couple.There is another good contribution from Gene Saks as Harry, who turns out to be a more decent and likable individual than Mel had imagined. Saks is perhaps better known as a director than an actor, and has directed many of his friend Simon's plays, both in their original theatrical form on Broadway and in their cinematic adaptations. This film, however, was not directed by Saks but by Melvin Frank. Another good feature of the film is the attractive jazz score by Marvin Hamlisch. Despite the quality of the acting, however, "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" has never been a favourite of mine, and the reason I think is its rather uncertain tone. It wavers uneasily between a true comedy and a black comedy, never quite coming down on either side. The experiences Mel is going through are, after all, serious matters; he is not suffering from a mere mid-life crisis (which might be a fit subject for humour) but a genuine psychiatric illness (which normally would not). Yet he generally remains throughout a figure of fun, the stock figure of the comically irascible elderly or middle-aged man along the lines of Alf Garnett (or, to take a more recent example, Victor Meldrew). The overall tone remains too light, without the cynicism or bleakness which are the normal hallmark of black comedy. I don't think it was Neil Simon's intention to make light of mental illness, but at times I felt that the film was coming uncomfortably close to doing so. We are never sure whether to sympathise with Mel, to laugh with him or to laugh at him. For that reason I feel unable to give this film a higher mark than 5/10. It is certainly better than something like the dull and dated "Barefoot in the Park", but I did not enjoy it as much as "The Odd Couple" or "The Out-of-Towners".

A real buried treasure in the Neil Simon canon. Jack Lemmon is a recently laid off New Yorker struggling to make sense of his life while fighting the daily demons of urban living. From nasty neighbors to insensitive relatives, Lemmon is hit with all of it...his life is in a nosedive! Neil Simon's screenplay is very cutting, even more so than in his earlier anti-NYC tirade THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS. Melvin Frank's direction does come off as a bit unimaginative, but that's really because most of the movie takes place in the apartment Lemmon shares with patient wife Anne Bancroft. The acting is excellent, with Lemmon giving a really great performance and Bancroft matching him with both her warmth and, when needed, caustic tongue. The supporting cast includes the great character actor M.Emmett Walsh as well as Elizabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley, and, in a rare acting role, the director Gene Saks, as Lemmon's overly cautious older brother.