sddavis63 I've always enjoyed Jack Lemmon's work, and his performance in "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" was another in a long line of winning roles for the veteran actor. As Mel Edison, Lemmon plays a middle aged man struggling at work, already feeling pressured and losing touch with reality just a bit, who suddenly loses the job he's held all his adult life. Unemployment causes him to crash further - a process accelerated even more when his wife Edna has to get a job to support them. Edna was played by Ann Bancroft; Lemmon and Bancroft made a good team.With its focus on Mel's mental state, this seems as if it could become a rather heavy movie, but it doesn't. Even while it deals with real issues - everything from Mel's employment crisis to the drawbacks of city life - it manages to retain a lightness that brings forth smiles and even a few laughs from the viewer. The slow turning of the tables revolving around Mel and Edna and their roles is interesting to watch. As it closes, the movie is hopeful but open-ended. Mel seems to pull himself back together, but you don't know if things will actually work out for this couple.There's an appearance in this by Sylvester Stallone that's a curiosity more than anything. "Rocky" wouldn't appear until a year later, so Stallone at the time of this movie was a basically unknown actor, who had a minor and brief role (listed in the credits as merely "Youth in Park) that he performed well, but who would have known that a year later he'd suddenly be a mega-star, nominated for an Oscar as best actor for his role in a movie that would win an Oscar for best picture. Stallone fans might want to watch this just for the few minutes he's on screen.But Jack Lemmon is the highlight here, and the real reason to watch this movie. (7/10)

slightlymad22 I'll admit from the off, I am slightly biased as I love Jack Lemmon, and Neil Simon seems to bring out the best in him The Prisoner Of Second Avenue is a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it. Plot In A Paragraph: Executive Mel Edison has a nervous breakdown when he suddenly finds himself unemployed. I'm a Jack Lemmon fan anyway, so I enjoy most things that he stars in, and I always enjoy seeing him on screen. It's also fun to see a young pre-Rocky Sly Stallone in another of his early roles. Sly only has the one scene (Available on YouTube) as he attempts to pickpocket Jack Lemmon and a fed up Lemmon snaps, before he turns the tables on him and pursues him through Central Park.

AaronCapenBanner Jack Lemmon & Anne Bancroft play Mel & Edna Edison, a middle-aged couple who live in a Manhattan sky rise apartment complex. When Mel unexpectedly loses his job, he tries in vain to find another, but in this economy and at his age, that proves difficult, and Mel finds himself increasingly depressed after a further series of setbacks leaves him homebound, and near insanity...Neil Simon story doesn't sound much like a comedy, but has a good script and sympathetic performances detailing their increasing desperateness. Not nearly as funny as "The Odd Couple", though not as harrowing as "The Out Of Towners", this modest satire falls somewhere in between, and works well, though does come to a stop more than a conclusion.

preppy-3 Mel Edison (Jack Lemmon) and his loving wife Edna (Anne Bancroft) live on Second Avenue in NYC. Mel hates the city and his job and complains nonstop. Edna tries to calm him down. Then Mel is laid off from his job and has a complete nervous breakdown.Sounds like a drama but it's not. It's an adaptation of a Neil Simon play (adapted by Simon himself) and it's more or less a comedy with a very serious edge. The script itself manages to switch gears from comedy to drama pretty effortlessly and great acting by Lemmon and Bancroft keeps it going. There are quite a few people who hate Simons plays. They say the one liners are old and the characters are stale but I'm not one of those people. I happen to think his jokes are quite funny and finds he writes three-dimensional, believable characters. But, if you don't like Simon, this movie won't change your mind. Some people might accuse this of being dated--there was a huge recession going on in the mid 1970s and that is worked in to the plot. But, seeing as we're in another one at the moment, this is very timely. My only complaint is the ending is way too pat to be believable but that's minor. I give it a 7. Look for F. Murray Abraham as a cab driver and Sylvester Stallone.