Lemmon was already a firmly established screen legend, and well into his 60s when cast in the movie adaptation of David Mamet's stage play set in the cut-throat world of real estate sales. Nonetheless, the role is surely the most powerful of the actor's career; a devastating examination of a man left broken on the brink of desperation after a lifetime of failures. As an ageing salesman under threat of losing his job with medical bills to pay for his ailing daughter, Lemmon's palpable anxiety is simply heartbreaking, despite the character's less savoury aspects. The performance may have been famously lampooned in the desperate salesman character, Gil, who occasionally pops up on The Simpsons, but this cannot rob Lemmon's work of its power.
