Jack Lemmon as a nebbishy Jewish salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross. Ironically, I just saw the latest production on Broadway and Al Pacino (!) pulled off the same role as “Machine Levine” perfectly.
I thought Jack Lemmon was horrible in GGR. I always think it’s because older actors at that time had no idea how to do Mamet’s elliptic, cryptic dialogue. Both Kevin Spacey and Ed Harris hit it out of the park.
Several years ago, Alan Alda played Jack Lemmon’s part on B’way. He was excellent!
Lemmon as Shelley Levine is a good example of the production trade-offs that obtain in both movie-making AND Broadway, (especially B’way revivals)—all about the added appeal of a what inevitably turns out to be damaging to the overall production, but can be counted on to get a few extra asses in the seats and creating a buzz among those eager to see Jack Lemmon onstage, in a play,rather than in the movies.
Pretty ironic considering the character that Pacino played in the movie version of GG/GR.