"The Fortune Cookie" was not Billy Wilder's last good film, but it was his last commercial success. If it is remembered at all, it is remembered as the film that made Walter Matthau a star, got him an Oscar, and became the first of a string of Matthau-Jack Lemmon collaboration. Like Wilder's previous movie, the critical and commercial super-flop "Kiss Me, Stupid" (which I have argued is pretty good), "The Fortune Cookie" is a bit long (124 minutes), but has very good performances. With Matthau unleashed for the first time,* and Cliff Ormond back (he was also in Wilder's far-too-long hit "Irma la Douce" and in "Kiss Me, Stupid") there is some broad comedy, but there is also the wistful, pained realization of the limits of those in whom a character has placed hope and misplaced confidence that is also a Wilder hallmark and, particularly, a Wilder-Lemmon hallmark (the archetype is Lemmon figuring out the low regard in which Fred MacMurray really holds him in "The Apartment").

The central plot line has a shyster lawyer called "Whiplash Willie" (Matthau) persuading his very reluctant brother-in-law Harry Hinkle (Lemmon), a CBS cameraman with whom a Cleveland Brown punt-returner "Boom Boom" Jackson collided and knocked over a rolled-up tarpaulin during a game with the Vikings. Harry was knocked out (and sedated? that does not strike me as standard or as good treatment...) and wakes up in the hospital with Willie suing CBS, the Browns, and Cleveland's Municipal Stadium for a million dollars.

Harry is not greedy and wants not part of insurance fraud. There are two reasons he goes along. The first, a pretty convincing one, is to ship his screechy mother (Lurene Tuttle) off to Florida. The second is that Willie convinces Harry that Sandy (Judi West), Harry's ex-wife for whom he is still "carrying a torch" has expressed concern and may come back and take care of him. Smelling money and knowing Willie, she does.

The interesting complication is Boom Boom, who is achingly remorseful and comes around often to cheer and aid Harry's rehabilitation. His innocence and seeing the pain his apparent disability has provoked in Boom Boom credibly tears at Harry. When Sandy shows up, Boom Boom sees through her, but does not dare challenge her or disillusion Harry. Instead, he takes to drink, the path his father, a prize fighter who killed a man in the ring and sought to drown his guilt in alcohol, took.

The establishment law firm defending against Willie's lawsuit have hired surveillance (including bugging every room) from a private detective (Ormond) who is convinced Harry is faking his injuries and Willie uses his knowledge of that for his own ends.

I gather that 1966 critics considered the ending something of a cop-out of the cynical view they believed Wilder had. However, I don't think that Wilder identified or wanted audiences to identify with Willie. I think that Boom Boom is (and was intended to be) the hero. Or possibly Truth is the hero, sullied through most of the movie, ransomed at the end. The (American) title fortune cookie's message is Lincoln ("great president, bad lawyer" in Willie's judgment) "You can fool some of the people all the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." (There is a suitably European specialist who rejects his American colleagues' confirmation that the injuries are real, as well as Purdy--and the lawyers, who may be pompous nincompoops but are right about Willie.) Like Wilder's best comedy, "Some Like It Hot," at the end of "The Fortune Cookie, Jack Lemmon gets the man. And he does so after revealing the truth (that he is a man in "Hot" that he was faking injuries in "Cookie"), so his acceptance survives admission that the previous basis of his relationship was fraudulently based.

Besides fine acting (subtle in the cases of Lemmon, West, and Rich; unsubtle in the cases of Matthau, Ormond, Tuttle, and the opposition lawyers) there is a notable musical score by Andre Previn and there is time in the leisurely unfolding of a fairly simple plot to admire Joseph LaShelle's excellent visual compositions (in contrast to "One, Two, Three," in which James Cagney talks so fast that it takes all one's attention to keep up, so I'd have to watch it with the sound turned off to have an opinion on how it looks).

*Matthau herein became a big comedy star, though I prefer him in more restrained dramatic roles, as in "A Face in the Crowd", "Mirage", and "Lonely Are the Brave" before "Fortune Cookie," and "Charley Varrick" after it.


Recommended:
Yes