Hopscotch | Blu-ray

There's something perfectly comforting about a Walter Matthau comedy film. For an actor who often played the irascible straight-man to other, more whimsical, slap-sticky actors (Jack Lemmon principal among them), Matthau's presence in a film nonetheless always seems to convey a sense of ease and effortlessness.

That's the general feeling behind Hopscotch, a spy-thriller, that plays more like a gentle comedy. Based on a novel by Brian Garfield (of Death Wish fame), Matthau reportedly did a great deal of re-working on the final screenplay himself.

Supported by the always fantastic character actor Ned Beatty, alongside Glenda Jackson, Hopscotch may not be the first film to turn to in Matthau's oeuvre, but it stands alongside Charley Verrick, The Sunshine Boys, and The Front Page among lesser known gems in his career.