A Fun Tour of the Matthau Career -- And He Talks About Some of His Movies Specifically

This is a fun tour of the improbable career of Walter Matthau, who did about 10 years as a Broadway star and movie supporting actor, and then turned into a full fledged leading man/major movie star thanks to The Fortune Cookie(a lead role for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and The Odd Couple. Jack Lemmon helped both times, but came the 70's, Walter became a bigger star than Jack -- Lemmon was evidently too much the neurotic Felix Unger type for audiences(he switched to drama a lot) and Matthau was "just one of the guys."

Charley Varrick is one of the great Matthau movies, but they interview him and he's wary "Oh, I like Charley Varrick...but the script I was given was infantile. Let let me re-write it." You can't tell if he's being serious. He also talks about how he was allowed to direct his young son Charley on the picture for one scene while the director Don Siegel went off to make a phone call. Matthau said to his boy, "Now don't over do it, just say the lines" (true Matthau acting style) and the boy finally said "Can we bring the REAL Director back out here?"

Matthau also speaks very fondly of the 1962 movie "Lonely are the Brave," another movie where he plays support but really has a co-lead(with star Kirk Douglas.) Douglas played a sympathetic fugitive trying to ride up over a New Mexico mountain; Matthau plays the sheriff reluctantly chasing Douglas.

Lots of other good interview footage with Matthau here, plus of other people saying good things about him. He's missed. Its a good watch.