The Out-of-Towners

A comedy set in New York. George and Gwen come from Ohio. He is going to a job interview. He will be promoted and they will move to New York. The interview is at nine in the morning. They will arrive the night before. The aircraft cannot land. The airport is closed and the plane is diverted to Boston. From there the film is a chain of disasters. They take a train from Boston. The dining car is shut. The train arrives not in New York but at another station. The hotel booking has been cancelled. There is no room. Their luggage is lost. They are robbed in a park. It rains. There is a strike; the rubbish is not collected, the buses do not run, no taxi can be found. The narrative lines these up one after another and gives no breath anywhere. George takes notes. He writes down a name at every incident and says he will sue. That is the character's only defence. Gwen is calmer. She takes what happens and tries to settle her husband. What the narrative is interested in is not a city but control: its idea is a man who built his life on a plan falling into a place where he can command nothing. New York is a character here and is drawn as wholly hostile. The interview takes place in the morning. He walks into the room a wreck. The result is unexpected. The last scene is on an aircraft and the narrative makes one more joke. The screenplay is by Neil Simon and was written directly for the screen; it is not adapted from a play. Jack Lemmon plays the part at a constantly rising pitch. Arthur Hiller directed. Jack Lemmon, Sandy Dennis, Sandy Baron and Anne Meara are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1970s American comedy and structures built on a single idea. Who it is not for: anyone looking for variety; the narrative repeats the same joke for ninety minutes and tires after a point.