The Prisoner of Second Avenue

Mel Edison is laid off after years at the same job. He is forty-five, in New York, during one of the hottest stretches on record, and the air conditioning in his apartment does not work. The neighbours make noise, the flat is burgled, the unemployment drags on. Mel starts to come apart, while his wife Edna takes a job and keeps the household standing. That reversal is harder for Mel than the unemployment. Neil Simon adapted the screenplay from his own play, staged in 1971; Melvin Frank directed and produced. Simon's comedy is not at its usual lightness here. The jokes are built on top of a nervous breakdown, and the New York of the 1970s stands in the background as a constant threat. Jack Lemmon plays Mel and Anne Bancroft plays Edna. A then-unknown Sylvester Stallone appears as a youth in the park. Who it's for: Viewers who like Neil Simon adaptations, Jack Lemmon, and 1970s New York comedy. Who it's not for: The tone is bleak and the lead's continuous complaining can wear you down. Its view of the city also overstates the pessimism of its moment.