Buddy Buddy (1981) review

Assassin Trabucco (Walter Matthau) gets a contract from the Mob to kill a snitch with a rifle from the third floor of his hotel - Lee Harvey Style - but keeps getting interrupted by pathetic Victor Clooney (Jack Lemmon), who is trying to commit suicide in the room next door because Victor's wife Celia (Paula Prentiss) ran off with Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot (Klaus Kinski), a "Sexual Fulfillment Clinic" guru.  I can understand how critics in the early 80's didn't take to this, a very glib pitch black comedy from the team of Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (based on the play and film by Francis Veber), where Lemmon does his usual fast-talking neurotic routine and Matthau looks grumpy, and while it isn't consistently funny, it's briskly paced and the banter between the leads is very natural (they really were one of the great on-screen duos).  It was Wilder's chance to end his career with a "Get Off My Lawn" moment, griping about society's mores.