In "The Long Way Home," Jack Lemmon and Betty Garrett play old sweethearts who are reunited after decades apart.
It wasn't a stretch for them.The TV movie, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS/Ch. 2, marks the first time the two have worked together since they co-starred in the 1955 musical "My Sister Eileen." And they both said they were thrilled with the reunion.
"We sat down and I felt like I just saw him yesterday," Garrett said. "He's just that kind of easy person to talk to. And I think we both just enjoyed each other."
"We both felt the same way," Lemmon added. "We just sort of took up where we left off without the 42 years in between."
And their personal relationship made producer/director Glenn Jordan's job easier.
"The extraordinary thing is this part of the picture is about two people who have a shared history," Jordan said. "And when you have two actors who have a shared history, it's all there without having to work for it. It just falls into place."
As for Garrett, she shared some "very, very fond memories of Jack." She recalled shooting "kind of a seduction scene" for "My Sister Eileen" in which she was being chased around by Lemmon, who was singing "This is Bigger Than Both of Us" as he swirled his drink in a brandy glass.
"He drinks it and then he throws the glass into the fireplace in a very dramatic gesture," Garrett said. "It was a long shot. Then came my close-up. And Dick Quine, who was our director - a dear, wonderful man - said, `All right, Jack, don't throw the glass because you don't need to. It's out of the shot and it'll make a lot of glass and mess over there in the fireplace.' "
Garrett was aghast at that direction.
"I said, `Oh, please, let him throw the glass because if he doesn't throw it I'll have to fake the reaction to it,' " she said. But Quine insisted Lemmon just hold onto the glass.
"So we start the shot and Jack gives me a little wink," Garrett said. "The camera's only on me and I'm watching this brandy swirl in the glass. Then he supposedly drank it - and then crash! He threw that glass into the fireplace and I had this wonderful reaction, which they kept in the picture.
"And then Jack turned to Dick Quine and said, `I don't know what happened. It just slipped out of my hand.'
"But that's Jack. It was so much fun doing a film with him again after 42 years."
Garrett actually appears only at the end of "The Long Way Home" - and her scenes with Lemmon are a delight. But this is a movie where the performances are far better than the script.
Lemmon stars as Tom Gerrin, a widower who was forced into retirement by his grown children. He's living with one of his sons and his daughter-in-law, and he isn't happy about being put out to pasture.
Through a series of happen-stances, Tom connects with a free-spirited young woman, Leanne (Sarah Paulson), who's on a cross-country trek. Tom had received a letter from the romance of his youth, Veronica (Garrett), in California, and he decides to accompany Leanne as she hitchhikes there from Kansas.
"The Long Way Home" is predictable and would be fairly mundane - if not for the performances. Lemmon absolutely brings the script to life, creating a likable but far-from-perfect character. Paulson holds her own quite well, and there's the added treat of Garrett in the final minutes.
And "The Long Way Home" makes you appreciate the fact that there's still a place on television for actors of Lemmon and Garrett's abilities. And the fact that neither one of them has any plans to retire.
"I'm happiest when I'm working. And if I'm not working for money, I work for nothing," said Garrett, who devotes much of her time to Theater West, a group she helped found 35 years ago. "I can't imagine not wanting to work. It's so much fun."
Lemmon admits he sometimes likes to take time off, but not too much time.
"I've done an awful lot of work the last two, three years, and I'm going to have a good rest now," he said. "But in the past, whenever I've felt I had to take three, four, five months off - after a month or so goes by, I say, `Why isn't somebody calling me? What happened? I'm going to forget how to act. What the heck's going on? Where's the work?'
"It becomes such a part of your life - and it's fun."