The mostly unknown KOTCH is one of those pretty-good time fillers, but what it's known for is the different kind of collaboration between multi-screen-buds Jack Lemmon and title star Walter Matthau, who shares nice chemistry with Deborah Winters, an intense and lovely young blond-haired actress who makes a cozy odd couple, and here's what's on her mind about the production:
DEBORAH WINTERS: I went in and read for Jack Lemmon: this is the only picture that Jack directed. You know, actors don't usually end up liking to direct and the reason is it's extremely difficult to direct a picture. It's very, very hard work and the work begins before you're filming, and then of course during filming, and it's long after filming: doing all the editing and post-production...
It's too much work. They like to go in and memorize some dialog for the day's shoot... The make-up man and the hairdresser makes them up and makes them look good, and then they shoot for one day and they go home, and when the picture's over they relax.
It took Jack six years to get this film finally made... And I came in, of course, more on the tail end of it. Nobody would give him the money and he really loved the story and thought it should be made. So he kept working on it and working on it...
And it was something where I went in to audition and Jack felt I really understood "Erica Herzenstiel," and I was the one he wanted from the very beginning... It was a great compliment and I loved working with both of them. They were fantastic men, and characters, and very funny together.
