Synopsis

In the small Minnesota town of Wabasha, longtime neighbors John Gustafson and Max Goldman sustain a bitter feud through elaborate pranks, insults, and ice-fishing rivalries. Their hostility intensifies when Ariel, a lively widow, moves in across the street and attracts both men. As romance, family troubles, old resentments, and John's financial problems collide, the two lifelong friends must decide whether their grudge matters more than their bond.

Factoids & Trivia

• Screenwriter Mark Steven Johnson wrote the screenplay in 1989 while working as a secretary at Orion Pictures. He based John Gustafson partly on his own grandfather and imagined Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the two central roles.

• Matthau was initially reluctant to make the film. Lemmon helped persuade him to join, making the project their sixth feature-film collaboration.

• Production required genuine Minnesota winter conditions. The crew arrived in January 1993 but had to wait for enough snow before filming exterior scenes. Interior sets were built at Paisley Park Studios outside St. Paul.

• The ice-fishing material was filmed on Lake Rebecca, where production decorated the location with approximately 40 rented and custom-built ice shanties. Since Wabasha was too small to support the production, parts of East St. Paul, Faribault, and Center City doubled for the town.

• Filming was interrupted after Matthau contracted pneumonia while shooting an outdoor fight scene in subzero temperatures. Additional photography was completed on June 23, 1993.

• Early test screenings were strong enough for Warner Bros. to move the film from a planned February 1994 opening to the Christmas 1993 release schedule. It opened on December 25, 1993, and became a substantial commercial success.

• Positive test-screening reactions also led to additional footage being filmed for John's celebratory dance after his romantic encounter with Ariel.

• The end credits use outtakes from the production. After the credits, a comic bathtub clip features Matthau joking that he would have demanded another million dollars if he had known the picture included a nude scene.

• The film's success led to the 1995 sequel Grumpier Old Men. A stage musical adaptation was later developed and premiered in 2018.