Jack Lemmon/Harold Lloyd anecdote

Towards the end of his life Jack Lemmon wrote the Foreward to a book on Harold Lloyd (i.e. Harold Lloyd, Master Comedian) and said that he'd met the great comedian in the 1950s during his early days in Hollywood. Lemmon's wife was a good friend of Harold's daughter Gloria, so Lloyd was the first celebrity Lemmon got to know when his move career was just starting. As they got to know each other, Jack would ask Harold for advice on playing comic scenes.

When Jack's first film It Should Happen to You came out he asked Harold if he'd seen it. Lloyd said yes, and that he'd loved the movie and Jack's work in it. (Very flattering!) Then Jack asked how Harold felt about the scene when he argues with Judy Holliday, storms out, then comes back in and asks: "So, are we still on for Friday lunch?" "Certainly." "Thank you very much!" Jack had tried to underplay the scene, so he asked Lloyd specifically if he felt he'd gone overboard. Harold just said: "Close, wasn't it?" and smiled. And Lemmon concluded the anecdote by saying that, from then on, he tried not to overplay.

The point of the story seems to be that Harold felt Jack had narrowly avoided overplaying that bit. Which is a little hard to figure; I saw this movie again recently and felt he played the scene beautifully. Anyway, I found it interesting to learn that Lemmon was mentored, early in his movie career, by a great veteran comedian.