Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s comeback comedy performed decently enough at the box office, but its real accomplishment is vaulting Walter Matthau into mainline stardom. Matthau embodies the most venal ambulance chaser alive: Whiplash Willie Gingrich. His sad insurance scam scramble for unearned, undeserved loot is more of an exposé of sagging American values than anything particularly satirical. Jack Lemmon is the straight man this time around. He spends much of the movie in a medical collar, being victimized to make a fast buck. But Matthau hits the laughs out of the park — it’s an inspired performance that won him a Best Supporting Oscar. “You know Willie. He could find a loophole in the Ten Commandments.”
The Fortune Cookie
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1966 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Meet Whiplash Willie / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West, Cliff Osmond, Lurene Tuttle.
Cinematography:...
The Fortune Cookie
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1966 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Meet Whiplash Willie / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West, Cliff Osmond, Lurene Tuttle.
Cinematography:...
- 10/9/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“You Cannot Fool Everyone All The Time”
By Raymond Benson
Abraham Lincoln once famously said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” That utterance is evoked in the course of Billy Wilder’s 1966 acerbic comedy, The Fortune Cookie and it certainly applies to the legal goings-on as instigated by “Whiplash Willie” Gingrich (Walter Matthau), an unscrupulous lawyer who sets out to commit fraud against an insurance company for big bucks.
While it’s arguable that the great Billy Wilder continued to make good films into the 1970s, The Fortune Cookie might be his last superb one. It’s no Some Like it Hot or The Apartment, but the picture manages to evoke many laughs and also exhibits what is perhaps the quintessential performance by Matthau.
Jack Lemmon is sports news cameraman Harry Hinkle.
By Raymond Benson
Abraham Lincoln once famously said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” That utterance is evoked in the course of Billy Wilder’s 1966 acerbic comedy, The Fortune Cookie and it certainly applies to the legal goings-on as instigated by “Whiplash Willie” Gingrich (Walter Matthau), an unscrupulous lawyer who sets out to commit fraud against an insurance company for big bucks.
While it’s arguable that the great Billy Wilder continued to make good films into the 1970s, The Fortune Cookie might be his last superb one. It’s no Some Like it Hot or The Apartment, but the picture manages to evoke many laughs and also exhibits what is perhaps the quintessential performance by Matthau.
Jack Lemmon is sports news cameraman Harry Hinkle.
- 8/4/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
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