review for The Out-of-Towners on AllMovie  The Out-of-Towners
(1969) by Michael Hastings review  One of writer Neil Simon's
more sustained comedic conceits, this nothing-goes-right comedy
provided the template for countless imitators -- see also
Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the National Lampoon's Vacation
series, or the dismal 1999 Steve Martin remake of the same name
-- without being very good itself. The Out-of-Towners' problem
certainly isn't casting: Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis have the
right air of Midwestern befuddlement, and their respective manic
and depressive performance styles work well together. But Simon
has loaded his script against them -- and indeed, against non-
New Yorkers everywhere -- to the point where their rage against
the city is far out of proportion to what they actually
experience. The harried marrieds' failure to survive Gotham is
presented as their failing: they're just simply not up to speed
with the city, and Simon won't pause for a second to consider
that the city might actu