The Fortune Cookie

Excellent Acting Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau, also a superb directing by Billy Wylder.
It has some great scenes and a few good laughs although is considered a classic I grade this a B+ Average Comedy.
Their acting was excellent and the beggining of a long, lustrous and profitable relationship, this movie is not too funny, compared to their best classics The Odd Couple, Some Like it Hot, Grumpy Old Men, ans sequels like The Odd Couple II, and Grumpier Old Men, nor Walter Matthau's Hopscotch, A Guide for the Married Man, Cactus Flower, or Jack Lemmon's The Out-of-Towners, The Apartment, How to Murder Your Wife, It Happened to Jane, Avanti, My Fellow Americans, and many more.
The Fortune Cookie is at the level of Out at Sea and Front Page. If you are a Lemmon and/or Matthau fan is a must see otherwise buy one or all mention above you'd not regret it a bit, and would have hours of great laughs.

Out to Sea
The Odd Couple II
The Odd Couple
Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men
The Front Page
Some Like It Hot
Irma La Douce
Hopscotch - Criterion Collection
The Out-of-Towners
Cactus Flower
How to Murder Your Wife
A Guide for the Married Man
Mister Roberts
I.Q.
Avanti!
The Bad News Bears

This is one of the best small comedies ever made and one that never has never gotten the standing it should have. Billy Wilder, one of the best filmmakers in the world, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, one of the best movie comic teams ever, produce a fun and thoughtful movie. Matthau wins an Oscar for this role, making it worth seeing for that reason alone. Lemmon plays the good guy being tempted to perfection. Alternating between greed and fear, he and Matthau play off one another to perfection. The story is tight and true, playing on a get rich quick wish that is common to humanity. Like the best of Wilder's work, while we are laughing we are asking, "what would I do?'

If I had to buy a single movie showing Walter Matthau's genius as an actor, this may be the one, for as good as Jack Lemmon always is in a movie, Walter shines here as the shyster brother-in-law lawyer, and the Best Supporting Oscar was awarded to him rightly for this role. Matthau, always the man who acted through sicknesses went through a heart attack during this one. The scene that he runs up the stairs after receiving the settlement check, a keen eye could notice that he is thinner at the top of the stairs. That was because he shot that scene after his attack. This movie begins the long association with Lemmon/Matthau. The next movie was to be "The Odd Couple". What a great bunch of entertaining movies they were. And this was the first one.

It is so nice to see THE FORTUNE COOKIE released on DVD. This is one of the best Billy Wilder comedies, and one of his most caustic. Walter Matthau creates the sleaziest lawyer ever on screen in his "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich, the brother-in-law of Jack Lemmon's Harry Hinkle. When cameraman Hinkle is hit head-on by a football player while filming a Cleveland Browns game, Whiplash springs into action to soak everyone he can, even though Harry's injuries aren't that severe. He goads Harry into going along with the con, using Harry's ex-wife as leverage (significantly, the potential money means nothing to the sweet-natured Harry, but the possibility of getting his wife back does). Add to this the also very sweet-natured Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson, played by Ron Rich, who was the football player involved in the original accident, and you have a nice mix of avarice and righteousness.

Wilder chooses to structure the comedy in chapters, each numbered and titled, which has the effect of telegraphing the next section of film. He and his frequent co-conspirator I.A.L. Diamond build this movie slowly, so if you're thinking this will be the manic style of SOME LIKE IT HOT or ONE, TWO, THREE you will not find it here. This is wise, as the story is of a quieter build. Wilder was one of those rare directors whose style adapted to the material and amplified it to its best potential. And he always knew that the best comedy and drama arises from character.

You will see many familiar faces here: Cliff Osmond as the frustrated but persistent private detective Purkey, Lurene Tuttle as the perpetually hysterical Mrs. Hinkle, Noam Pitlik as Purkey's right hand man, Harry Davis as the Doctor who performs Harry's initial physical, the wonderful Sig Ruman (of Marx Brothers fame) as the specialist who thinks throwing Harry into a snake pit might be a good idea, future M*A*S*H padre William Christopher as an internist, the legendary Keith Jackson as, what else, a football play-by-play announcer, and many more.

But Matthau runs away with the film as the oily Gingrich, deservedly taking home an Oscar. I remember that after the first time I saw this movie, for the next few months I couldn't help but answer the phone with Matthau's nicely drawn-out "Nnnnnellooo!" Trivia indicates that both Frank Sinatra (what?) and Jackie Gleason (maybe. . .) were touted for the role of Gingrich, but Jack Lemmon, always Wilder's first choice for Hinkle, pushed for Walter Matthau. Thank goodness he did. 90% of a film is in the casting, and Matthau was absolutely perfect. As a matter of fact, this was the film that started the long-lasting Lemmon/Matthau teaming.

The reason I gave this a "but. . ." is because the video transfer is merely okay. There are large sections of film in need of digital cleanup, and the sound becomes a bit choppy in the second half of the movie. It is, however, in the original 2:35 widescreen aspect. The only bonus is the trailer. It's watchable, but THE FORTUNE COOKIE is definitely in need of restoration.

I remember when "The Fortune Cookie" came out and I assumed that I would see it sooner or later but it wasn't until tonight that I had the opportunity. I was aware of the storyline and I knew that Lemmon and Matthau would make quite a team and I was right. The "Odd Couple" personalities are in view and the writing is excellent with Billy Wilder replacing Neil Simon. However, I kept getting the sense that this movie is too long. There are some side stories that could be diminished or even eliminated. I'm not talking about the "Boom Boom" Jackson character. Rather, there seemed to be a lot of redundencies throughout the movie. The private eye gets too much coverage as does the insurance company representatives. The ex-wife is a nice twist to the plot but we got the idea early and didn't need such an extensive development of the renewed relationship. There are other examples as well but I think I may be emphasizing this too much.

The end was not as I had expected although not greatly off the mark. However, the movie is not centered around the plot so much as it is around the interaction between Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Matthau won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his preformance in what would appear to have been a leading role. I have no problem with that (although I really was impressed that year with Mako in "The Sand Pebbles"). I guess that's the core of my objection to the length of the movie; too much subplot interrupting the Matthau/Lemmon chemistry.