48 Fun Facts About Grumpy Old Men

What plays alongside the closing credits of Grumpy Old Men?

Outtakes and bloopers roll with the credits, and a last clip shows Walter Matthau in a bathtub joking that he would have asked for another million had he known about the scene.

In which Minnesota town is Grumpy Old Men set?

Wabasha gives the film its setting but little of its scenery: St. Paul stood in for the neighbourhood, Faribault for downtown and Center City for the church.

In Grumpy Old Men, which subject did John Gustafson teach before he retired?

History: John tells Ariel he taught American history for 39 years, and jokes that he touched a pupil only once, on the head, while the boy snored through his New Deal lecture.

In Grumpy Old Men, what did Walter Matthau's Max Goldman do for a living before retiring?

Television repairman: Max reveals his old trade when he finds Ariel has gutted a 1954 Zenith set, and he offers to fix it for her.

Which prank do Grumpy Old Men's John and Max keep pulling?

Leaving a dead fish in the rival's vehicle bookends the film: John stinks out Max's back seat early on, and Max hides one in John's wedding limousine at the end.

Who plays Ariel Truax, the free-spirited widow who moves in across the street in Grumpy Old Men?

Ann-Margret plays Ariel, who picks John over Max; when the 1995 sequel opens, the two have been married for six months.

What is Ariel Truax's job in Grumpy Old Men?

English professor Ariel teaches American literature, and she introduces herself to John by admitting she took some of his mail to find out who he was.

Which veteran actor plays John's father, Grandpa Gustafson, in Grumpy Old Men?

Burgess Meredith plays John's 94-year-old father, who tells his son to keep seeing Ariel because the first 90 years or so go by pretty fast.

Grumpy Old Men's Grandpa actor was best known for which earlier roles?

The Penguin and Rocky's trainer Mickey renewed his popularity after a film career that stalled in the 1950s, when his liberal politics landed him on the Hollywood blacklist.

Who plays John's daughter Melanie in Grumpy Old Men?

Daryl Hannah plays Melanie, who separates from her husband Mike and ends the film starting a romance with Max's son.

In Grumpy Old Men, Kevin Pollak's Jacob Goldman is running for which office?

Mayor: Jacob wins the election partway through the film, and then manages to hold off the seizure of John's house for a while.

Which actor plays Chuck, the friend caught between John and Max in Grumpy Old Men?

Ossie Davis, who wrote and delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965, plays Chuck, the pal who urges both neighbours to court Ariel.

Which agency is chasing John over a debt in Grumpy Old Men?

The IRS sends agent Elliot Snyder to seize John's house and belongings, but Max barricades the front door and rigs the roof to dump snow on him.

What started John and Max's feud in Grumpy Old Men?

One married the other's high-school sweetheart: John wed May, the girl Max loved, though John insists she was no prize and that Max was happier with the woman he did marry.

How does jealous Max endanger John in Grumpy Old Men?

He drives the fishing shanty onto thin ice after seeing Ariel leave John's house in the morning, and John only narrowly escapes.

What happens when John storms out of the bar in Grumpy Old Men?

He has a heart attack in the snow on the way home; Max finds him, and at the hospital the old enemy checks in by declaring himself John's friend.

What wedding gift does Max give John at the end of Grumpy Old Men?

A paid-off tax bill: Max tells the groom that he and his son Jacob have settled the debt, then undercuts the gesture by calling his own share just a loan.

What does Ariel make in the snow on her day out with John in Grumpy Old Men?

A snow angel: Ariel makes one on a bluff above town after their snowmobile ride, and tells John that angels are all around us.

Which Mystic Pizza director made Grumpy Old Men?

Donald Petrie reunited Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau for their first comedy together in twelve years, and its success led to a run of late-career pairings.

In Grumpy Old Men, what does Ariel insist on doing with the fish she catches with Max?

Letting it go: Max wants the record catch stuffed for his wall, but Ariel calls it a live creature full of courage and sends it back under the ice.

Which music star's studio complex housed the interior sets for Grumpy Old Men?

Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen with a full sound stage beside its recording studios, which is why the film's interior sets could go up there.

What went wrong at the end of the Grumpy Old Men shoot?

Walter Matthau caught pneumonia as filming wound up, after outdoor scenes shot in the subzero cold of a Minnesota winter.

Grumpy Old Men opened across US cinemas on which holiday in 1993?

Christmas Day suited the story, whose turning point comes over Christmas, when Max comes to his neighbour's rescue and finally calls himself a friend.

Roughly how much did Grumpy Old Men gross in North America?

$70 million in North America made a hit of a comedy about two feuding retirees, and a sequel followed two years later.

What happens to Chuck partway through Grumpy Old Men?

He dies in his sleep soon after his Thanksgiving visit to Ariel, the visit that spurred John and Max to start courting her themselves.

Ariel Truax moves to Minnesota from which state in Grumpy Old Men?

California: when Ariel mentions her years in Berkeley, Max mutters that this explains it, his verdict on her free-spirited ways.

In Grumpier Old Men, what does the new owner plan to turn the old bait shop into?

An Italian restaurant is Maria Ragetti's plan, so John and Max join forces to sabotage it; by the end the place serves as both restaurant and bait shop.

What is the name of the giant fish everyone is trying to land in Grumpier Old Men?

Catfish Hunter has dodged every angler in town for years, and the two neighbours squabble over whose wall he will end up mounted on.

Which pair of insults do John and Max trade daily in the Grumpy Old Men films?

"Moron" and "putz" begin as real abuse between the feuding neighbours, but by the sequel the same two words have become a friendly morning greeting.

How is Grandpa Gustafson found dead in Grumpier Old Men?

At his fishing spot with a rod and a beer is how John finds him, having gone down to the lake to ask his father's advice about his marriage.

Whose wedding do the two neighbours race to at the end of Grumpier Old Men?

Max and Maria's wedding is the twist: the film sets up Jacob and Melanie as the bride and groom, but those two have already eloped.

How does Max humiliate John in Grumpier Old Men?

He broadcasts footage of him posing nude for Ariel, who was sculpting John in clay, and the stunt drives her out of the house until things calm down.

In Grumpier Old Men, why does Mama Ragetti warn Maria off Max?

Her ex-husbands: Maria has five failed marriages behind her, and her mother fears that Max would simply become the sixth.

Who directed Grumpier Old Men?

Howard Deutch, the Pretty in Pink director, was also due to make a third film, but it stalled when the studio asked him to defer part of his fee, and he and both stars moved on.

Grumpier Old Men composer Alan Silvestri is best known for scoring which time-travel adventure?

Back to the Future was his big test: executive producer Steven Spielberg doubted he could score it, so the director told him to make the music as grand as he could.

Which Lemmon-Matthau project did the pair make instead of the cancelled third Grumpy film?

The Odd Couple II brought back their mismatched roommates from 1968, thrown together again by the wedding of one man's son to the other's daughter.

Which comedian was announced in 2018 to star in a remake of Grumpy Old Men?

Eddie Murphy was attached to a New Line remake with Tim Story directing, and by May 2019 Samuel L. Jackson was circling the other half of the feud.

Which political drama cast Lemmon and Matthau two years before Grumpy Old Men?

JFK was the odd one out among the ten films the two friends shared: Lemmon played a private eye and Matthau a senator, with no comedy in sight.

Which 1966 Billy Wilder comedy first paired Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, winning Matthau an Oscar?

The Fortune Cookie cast Matthau as a scheming lawyer who pushes his brother-in-law, a cameraman played by Lemmon, to exaggerate an injury from a football game.

In Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau's 1968 Neil Simon hit about mismatched roommates, which character did Matthau play?

Oscar Madison, the slob sportswriter, was already Matthau's part: he had created the role on Broadway before the film reunited him with Lemmon as the fussy Felix.

The actress who plays Ariel in Grumpy Old Men was born in which country?

Sweden: she left for the United States as a child, and by her early twenties she was dancing opposite Elvis Presley in Viva Las Vegas.

Which comedy writer and actor plays Agent Snyder in Grumpy Old Men?

Buck Henry, co-creator of Get Smart and co-writer of The Graduate, plays the humourless agent whom Max ends up burying under a roof-load of snow.

Which sitcom veteran plays Maria's mother, Mama Ragetti, in Grumpier Old Men?

Ann Morgan Guilbert, the neighbour Millie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, plays Francesca, who is pursued through the film by John's 95-year-old father.

In Grumpy Old Men, John last did what on October 4, 1978?

Made love is John's answer, exact date included, and Ariel laughs that after fifteen years the two of them are probably safe.

Which studio released Grumpy Old Men and its sequel?

Warner Bros. released both films, then lost a later reunion to Paramount when a planned third outing stalled over the director's fee.

Grumpy Old Men: The Musical first opened outside the United States, in which country?

Canada: after staged readings in New York, the musical, with songs by Neil Berg, had its world premiere in Winnipeg in October 2011.

What is the name of Max's dog in Grumpier Old Men?

Lucky is the joke: the dog has one eye, and Max takes him because he is told he will not want him, then sets him on the cat that keeps fouling his newspaper.

Which Italian star was slated to play Maria's first husband in the cancelled Grumpiest Old Men?

The third film would have sent the characters to Italy, with Burgess Meredith returning in a dream sequence.