Jack Lemmon ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." The biography quotes Lemmon as saying, "I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play... If my character was having a nervous breakdown, I started to have one." He enjoyed longtime working relationships with both Blake Edwards, starring in "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962), "The Great Race" (1965) and "That's Life!" (1986), and Richard Quine, starring in "My Sister Eileen", "Operation Mad Ball", "Bell, Book and Candle", "It Happened to Jane", and "How to Murder Your Wife". Quine also directed Lemmon's screen test when the
My Sister Eileen (1955 film) [She] has the proper skepticism and the right desperation for the role. Her way with a line is homicidal. What's more, she can dance and sing. These are essential talents in this production, in which Miss Leigh . . . is particularly nimble on her legs — and for which Mr. Styne and Mr. Robin have dished up some apt and lively songs . . . But it is Jack Lemmon . . . who generates the most amusement and upholds the tarnished dignity of males. Mr. Lemmon is a charming comedy actor, getting more so in each successive film.