The Out of Towners (1970)

Another Sunday means it’s time for the next installment in the A-to-Z challenge. This week for the letter “O” it was a first time watch of The Out of Towners (1970).

Title: The Out of Towners

Director: Arthur Hiller

Released: May 28, 1970

Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes

Available to stream on: Paramount+

IMDb synopsis: An Ohio sales executive accepts a higher position within the company and travels to New York City with his wife for his job interview but things go wrong from the start.

George Kellerman (Jack Lemmon) and his wife Gwen (Sandy Dennis) live in small town Twin Oaks, Ohio. They are set to embark on an all-expenses paid trip to New York City so that George can have an interview with the top brass at his company. If all goes well, George will get a substantial raise and his family will relocate to the Big Apple with his new title of Vice-President of Sales.

George has gone to extreme lengths to carefully plan this trip and has a tight itinerary all laid out. The flight is set to land at 8pm which gives them plenty of time to get to their dinner reservation at The Four Seasons. From there they will enjoy a night of luxury at the Waldorf-Astoria before his big interview. They board their flight to New York City, the flight is running on schedule, everything seems to be going as planned.

However, as they approach JFK airport they’re informed that due to dense fog and heavy air traffic they will need to circle for a little bit. Well, the little bit turns into hours and hours turn into being eventually rerouted to Boston. No big deal, right? Maybe for some people, but not the Kellermans. A young Billy Dee Williams, working lost and found at Logan airport, informs the George and Gwen that their luggage was left behind. What’s worse is that George’s ulcer medication is in the lost luggage.

After catching a train and waiting for two hours in the dining car for a meal, they are told there’s no more chicken. The only options are peanut butter on white bread, both of which George can’t have, or crackers and olives. And the options for drinks are tonic water or clam juice, both of which “ain’t cold”.

Finally, arriving in New York City and finding their way to the hotel, in the pouring rain, they’re greeted and told they don’t have a room. Their room was only held until 10pm and then given away since there wasn’t a request made to extend the hold. Better yet, thanks to a transit strike, there are no rooms available here or anywhere else in the city for that matter. At this point, it’s 3am and George’s big interview is a mere six hours away.

From this point on, the comedy of errors continues to snowball no matter what George tries to do. He and Gwen are robbed, mugged, kidnapped, and even find themselves involved with a Cuban diplomat. George makes a list of everyone involved with each misstep and threatens to sue them all. But first, he needs to find a way to get some sleep, shower, and change all in the next six hours. If he doesn’t, the promotion may fall through and with it the possibility of relocating from Ohio to New York.

I am usually a big fan of anything Jack Lemmon is in, so I was excited to watch The Out of Towners (1970). Well, as the saying goes, they can’t all be winners. And unfortunately, it starts with Jack Lemmon as George Kellerman. He plays a great neurotic character and that fits the character of George perfectly. The problem is that it grows to be exhausting. The breakneck pacing isn’t something I’d usually have issue with, but when it’s paired with the anxiety and anger of George, it wears thin really quick. By the end of the movie, I found myself almost rooting against him.

The first half hour, or so, is what I found to be the most enjoyable. Every single one of us can relate to travel chaos. Whether it’s delayed flights, lost luggage, hotel reservation issues, we’ve all been there. Yes, it helps that we can relate with those issues. But they are also all scenarios that, on a bad day, you could experience all three. I’d even say the robbery and/or mugging could be a fourth you could experience on a truly awful day. It’s when the scenarios go off the deep end that the comedy starts to wear on you. The scenarios begin to feel like they were written in an improv class, everyone trying to get more over the top with each “yes and”.

Now that’s not to say that there wasn’t anything to enjoy here. Sandy Dennis is great, it was fun to see a young Billy Dee Williams, and before the story becomes more and more unbelievable the comedy really works. I’m not sure if I went into this with higher expectations because it starred Jack Lemmon. But I do know that I walked away from it a bit disappointed. After seeing this, there is no burning desire to seek out the 1999 remake anytime soon.

If you can catch it for free, you could do worse. If you have to pay for it, save the money.

Well, what say you? Have you seen The Out of Towners (1970)? Let me hear your thoughts on it in the comments below or by interacting with me on social media!

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So, next week will bring us the letter “P”. Do you have any suggestions for what it should be? You have until Wednesday morning to get those suggestions in!