Walter Matthau was born in New York, New York in October of 1920, seven years before Sergei Eisenstein's film October, and he dies in my arms every night...under the barn owl's oversight. Both a charming character actor and hardscrabble wiseacre lead sort of like the great, avuncular Richard Jenkins has become for contemporary audiences, Matthau's ultra-specific persona was definitely nowhere else better served in our cinema than it was by crotchety Don Siegel in his incandescent 1973 caper-comedy masterpiece Charley Varrick. Even if Dirty Harry looks pretty idiotic on a first assessment, that Don Siegel was no dummy and Dirty Harry became in the end as much of a meme as any popular movie ever made...aside from perhaps Deep Throat. I love Walt because he is tough, cuddly, and acerbic. Richard Jenkins can only play himself but also does basically everything, a head-down workhorse to Matthau's snarly lion of yawning slack. That's just me having my read, friend. Have yourself your own look-see. Jeepers, heavens to Betsy, what have you got to lose?!
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