European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sex change for the Odd couple1 Bysie Schapiro new York Bureau playwright Neil Simons classic the Odd has undergone a sex change and the 1965 smash hit is Back on Broadway still paying off in laughter in the female Rita Moreno plays the Sloppy Roommate of the Fasti Dious Sally Struthers in the Manint women Moreno is Olive Madison originally Oscar played on stage and screen by Walter on to by Jack Struthers is Florence Unger previously Feliz Unger Art Carney on Jack Lemmon on Tony Randall on both stars get plenty of laughs the Busy Struthers with Flos various hypochondriac Al the restrained Moreno with Throy away the concept of the original play remains superheat cast adrift by moves in with Sloppy also bereft of a few of the original lines but the show has been almost entirely with lines suitable for females in seeing a anything serious we Only had two and i hated being 17 i got to be the funny poker game has become a funny trivial Pursuit Only one scene had to be completely reworked because of the gender in the original play and movie Felix and Oscar enter Tain their the Pigeon the if British airline Olive and Florences dinner guests Are two suave Spanish Jesus and Manolo con Azuelo Tony Shalhoub and Lewis who work for Iberia the linguistic misunderstandings that result make the scene even More hilarious than the visiting Pigeon Sisters in the original there Are some poignant there was nothing like that in the original play or said Moreno in an its a different play that was 20 years not Only have things but Neil has his sensibility has Hes writing a lot less jokes and a lot of funnier Moreno saw the stage version of the Odd couple and the film and the to who could not Struthers never except for a couple of to but when i was cast in the Struthers i rented a film cassette and watched the first is minutes and it upset and i turned it i guess this will look strange in because Gene Saks directed and Neil Simon wrote but i want enjoying it Only because i was thinking of myself in the and its a different this play is about Moreno its no longer about men who insult each Matthau said some cutting things to Carney in the that we quickly found out we  get away because women dont speak that Way to each its not that the lines Are its just that there not right for a woman to say to another the inevitable question Are the two actresses at All like their roles is Rita Moreno is Sally Struthers a ridiculous beatnik Moreno Shook her in definitely not a Slob at or even in the in an actress playing a Sloppy woman theres a in not who put sandwiches under his armpits while he got the cards what Neil loved Best was my the Way i became defending my Way of said Struthers in like Florence in a but if theres a Way to be neat and clean without being a i even in its new the play remains a Monument to in morenos but Neil Simon believes the female Odd couple May be More perceptive and poignant than its male a reduces the reason is that its a More difficult problem for a woman in her late 30s to be kicked out by her husband and left alone than it is for Man in his Early the woman just cant walk in any place and meet somebody Simon is Quick to add that he Doest dwell on the poignancy its just implicit in the there is a level of Candor in the new Dia Logue mostly absent in the for exam the following speech in which Olive explains to Florence How she dealt with the breakup of her marriage i drank for four Days and five i  i ate a quart of Haage dazs Jamoca Almond fudge every i gained 14 seven on each i looked like i was carrying my laundry in my pockets but i got through Florence then says her husband will suffer because of their but Olive cant agree Hes a men have he can meet women we have to donate a kidney and Hope the Man is grateful and photo by Martha Swope Odd couple Sally Rita As a consequence of such Moreno believes the relationship Between Olive and Florence is deeper than that of Oscar and the Friendship in the original play was one of buddies and casual friends who met every Friday to play Moreno theres a big difference in the texture and Quality of the Friendship Between the Neil Simon says Rita who had appeared in his last of the re hot was an Early Choice for the original was supposed to be Penny Marshall of tvs Laverne and who rehearsed with Moreno but then dropped out before the Struthers signed on and Simon says she was a bit of a Surprise to me i want sure she could do this kind of then she came and and she was won Struthers Archie bunkers Little girl on All in the family is being talked of As a discovery in the the Odd a description which annoys her a Why am i the Shock of the evening she i guess people who know youve done television think you can do retakes and an editor will put your performance what they dont understand is that All in the family was performed like a play in front of a live Audien in amazed they didst know i could do this All the female Odd couple played nine cities before open ing at the Broadhurst theater in new and under went massive revisions on the along the the female version lost its second went from three acts to two and from three hours to roughly two hours and 20 no its still the Odd couple fresh and one of the nut Tiest love stories Ever filmed photo by John Bryson Kathleen Turner and Jack Nicholson in roles As professional killer and mafia hit Man who fall in by Vincent Canby new York times six years ago John Huston made one of his occasional appearances As an playing with benign Sel Assurance a incredibly wealthy character called a Kegan in William Richerts screen adaptation of Richard condos melodramatic Winter it seemed then that a Man of robust humor with a profound appreciation for the seriously was born to collaborate with a writer of condos very partic manic having worked for Many years As a film publicity Man before becoming a novelist the manchurian an Infinity of among by experience As Well As an dauntless sep Hes suspicious of everything announced As his special ability As a novelist is to be Able to imagine conspiracies that Are just crazy enough to seem plausible in an Era when no idea or thing is sacred for longer than five when everything has become instant the news this summer is that Huston and Condon Are As the ads might say Back together again for the first the result the re vilifying Paizzis Huston Doest actually appear in Paizzis Honor As the films his amused pres ence is apparent in every Frame of the adapted by Janet Roach and Condon from condos 1982 novel about the ups and Downs of family the business is no Ordinary the Paizzis Are no Ordinary family there the dominant Force in the Brooklyn mafia and Paizzis Honor is no Ordinary photo by Martha Swope Tony Shalhoub left and Lewis Stadlen in Odd couple scene with Struthers and Abc motion director John Huston on set of Paizzis it quite a classic of its its also a movie that gives the Huston career a Shap Liness not evident who will be 79 on has always politely declined to find links Between his various and Hes probably right to keep though he May Well think about whats he has been quoted As is How different the pictures one from its not healthy for workers in the commercial Cinema to become too analytical about what they do and How they do i cant prove but i suspect that an awareness of his As much As his other contributed to the decline of Nicholas Ray from the director who made in a lonely place and rebel without a cause to the Man who whooped up King of Kings and 55 Days at once the late Joseph Losey began hanging out with european his films became increasingly self conscious and movies to be talked about rather than it was As if he were making films to justify what had already been written about for a director who has turned out so Many extraordinary As Well As his share of Huston has remained unusually modest about his refusing to expand on the True meanings of the successful films or to justify the there have been he is it defensive about Gregory pecks performance As Ahab in moby Dick he has suggested that the critics and the Public simply didst understand that pecks Ahab was not intended to be the raving Loon that John Barrymore Ahab had been in the sea beast when Huston describes pecks Ahab As a heroic nonbeliever in Hes describing a performance that Only he could the rest of us saw Abe Lincoln behaving eccentrically on a Large Hes won oscars As both the writer and director of the treasure of the Sierra and received special including one Given him by the film society of Lincoln Center in but now it May be time to Call him a it would not then follow that every thing Hes Ever made could retrospectively be termed the work of a which is a Wea Selly polite Way of saying that a Brilliant film maker has come up with a Huston turkeys have been a varied lot including things like heaven Allison the bar Barian and the Geisha and roots of heaven both All made for Darryl there have been other films that have been totally without personal like the Bible the Kremlin letter the Mackintosh Man 1973 most Annie but then his is a career that has now continued for More than 50 years he collaborated on his first screen a House divided in 1931 As Paizzis Honor its still going some highs and lows Are what is not inevitable Are the amazing endurance of his cinematic the variety of his films and the consistency with which he has recouped his for tunes with a Good film after turning out some bad the vast majority of his 39 features Are far More than Good and at least i qualify As beginning with the maltese Falcon 1941 and continuing on with the treasure of the Sierra the Asphalt Jungle the red badge of courage the african Queen fat City the Man who would be King Wise blood 1979 and now Paizzis some of the All of which feature Memora ble performances the misfits the doomed but fascinating written by Arthur with Marilyn Clark Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach the night of the iguana with Richard Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr reflections in a Golden Eye with Marlon and under the Volcano with its mesmerizing performance by Albert critics Are often accused with some justification of giving away too much of the plots of the films they sometimes its difficult to especially when writing about a film you dont think is much Good or when writing about a film you like so much that you feel deprived by being denied the privilege of describing it As thoroughly As Paizzis with condos brilliantly convoluted Structure of reve lations upon is one of those rare works whose Story should be protected by armed in this in afraid that even the films ads give away too in its romantic Tough which is very much its Paizzis Honor has direct links to the maltese made 44 years and though its supposedly set in a kind of ageless its completely contemporary in the headed by Jack Kathleen Anjelica Huston and William is a match for that of the maltese Falcon Humphrey Mary Sidney Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook because of its subject Paizzis Honor must be compared to the which is also a classic but a different sort of movie the godfather is Intro infinitely Paizzis Honor is one of the nut Tiest love stories Ever an often hilarious comedy and a Send up of All of the values that the godfather examines so seriously and though it features a number of including one so explicit and surprising it makes you jump in your you approximately three minutes walking out of the theater laughing with dumbfounded Here is a monstrously funny adult the sheer perfection of its realization being a coming right after Wise blood and under the Paizzis Honor makes it Clear that Huston has never been in More com plete command of his Page 14 the stars and stripes july the stars and stripes Page 15