La grande combine

Finally caught it on TCM yesterday, and was able to watch it "fresh," compared to "The Odd Couple" or "The Front Page," which one might already know all about.

A fine study in contrasts at work here; Matthau, as the shyster lawyer has something resembling a family life, while Lemmon, ostensibly the nice guy, is shown to be very lonely, still stuck in the apartment his wife left him in (and aren't those exteriors filmed in Cleveland? I don't think those buildings on his street were seen in any other Hollywood backlot, and they looked a touch more shabby than ordinary). So we have "Boom Boom" as the real moral center of the movie. He's racked with guilt over having injured Hinkle (Lemmon), so much so that he sees to Hinkle's recovery, even carrying him around like a wounded puppy, letting his game suffer, and he's the one who's most hurt by the scam.

The movie also shows a hopeful light on race relations in the mid-60's: Ron Rich gets to play a character with some feelings and some ambition beyond the NFL, and it's he and Lemmon's characters who become buddies at the end.

Whereas these days a successful movie series means endless spin-offs and sequels, there was a time when there were brilliant creative teams who got together time and again, producing a kind of motion picture brand that you could trust. The series of comedies written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, directed by Wilder and (many of them) starring Jack Lemmon are such neat works of professionalism and congruent talent that during their heyday in the 1960s they provided a guarantee of smoothly intelligent yet undemanding entertainment.

Billy Wilder had one of the most apparently laid back directorial styles of his era. He barely moves the camera, and his shots tend last as long as is practical. But within this fixed frame he juggles everything with expertise. He uses the cinemascope ratio to keep various elements on the screen – for example the camera and microphones which keep stealing into shot as a reminder of the private eyes that are bugging the flat. This idea of keeping things in view without making them centre of attention also applies to Wilder's presentation of comedy. There's a great example where Walter Matthau is on the phone at one edge of the frame, while the rest of the screen reveals the interior of his home. His children skate around while his wife prepares dinner, which culminates in an incidental gag, punctuating the scene, while Matthau's phone conversation remains what the scene is about. This is very much Wilder's way – not to make the jokes leap out at you but to weave them into the background, noticeable but never forced.

Lead man Jack Lemmon was by now a familiar piece of Wilder furniture, and you can see why. He has a slightly exaggerated look, with a duck-like face and a manic way of moving, and yet he can also "do normal" and convince us that he is an everyman. Still, this time around he is upstaged by an exuberant Walter Matthau. There are many great facets to Matthau's performance – his sudden overt gestures, his ability to move his hat as if it were part of his body, the way he paces around, managing to get closest to the camera as his voice reaches a bizarre crescendo or his facial expression is at its most absurdly comical. However I think what really makes him fit in here is the way, although he gets all the funniest lines, he doesn't show them off, simply delivering them as if they were the natural thing for his character to say, which of course makes them all the funnier. It's also a lot like Wilder's style of weaving the comedy into the narrative material rather than hammering the jokes home.

But what about this narrative material, sharply scripted by Wilder and Diamond? The Fortune Cookie is ostensibly about an insurance scam, but gradually the friendship between Jack Lemmon and the football player who accidentally injured him emerges as the main story arc. It's almost like a love story between two men. I'm not implying anything homoerotic here, simply that the story is structured like a romance with a friendship taking the place of the love angle. The fact that Boom Boom (played by the little-known Ron Rich) is black is not drawn attention to or made an issue of, and this is rather interesting. This picture was made at the height of the civil rights movement, but it is not making an overt point about race, nor is it even a political picture. But it works as a nicely harmonious accompaniment to what was going on in the streets at the time. Wilder comedies could calmly cover areas other pictures couldn't even touch without making a mess.

When a cameraman is knocked over during a Cleveland Browns game, the sharks move in - or should I say shark - in the form of "Whiplash Willie," his brother-in-law, in "The Fortune Cookie," a 1966 film written and directed by Billy Wilder.

Lemmon plays Harry Hinkle, a television cameraman, who is involved in a freak accident during a football game, when he is knocked over by "Boom Boom" Jackson. As soon as his brother-in-law, attorney Willie Gingrich (Matthau) hears that Harry suffered a compressed vertebrae in his youth (from jumping off of a garage roof without opening his umbrella), he warns his hospitalized victim not to get well. He has a paroled dentist come in and shoot him up with drugs so that he can pass the insurance medical tests, puts him in a wheelchair, a collar, and a corset, and takes him home to recover. Meanwhile, the insurance company has a camera on him and his apartment bugged. Harry's tramp ex-wife (Judi West), an aspiring singer, comes back to him as soon as she smells money to jump-start her career. The guilt-stricken Boom Boom becomes his servant. Boom Boom's football game suffers, and he turns to drink. Whiplash Willie, in the meantime, is negotiating a $200,000 settlement.

Insurance fraud and ambulance chasers are still very topical. One has only to look at the number of commercials for attorneys telling you an accident is worth big bucks. Leave it to Billy Wilder and partner I.A.L. Diamond to write such a witty, cynical script about a man with a conscience up against a man who will stop at nothing to cheat the insurance company.

Walter Matthau is an absolute riot as Willie, and won the Academy Award for his performance. Willie is an obvious cheat who knows all the angles and is able to get around them. Lemmon is great as a lonely man who goes along with the subterfuge with the carrot of his ex-wife returning dangling in front of him. Ron Rich gives a natural, sympathetic performance as Boom Boom, the devastated football player.

The script is very witty and the performances are great. Billy Wilder was one of film's greatest writers and directors, and in "The Fortune Cookie," he shows he's still got what it takes.

In the course of Hollywood legends, there emerges a great chemistry when certain scripts, actors, and directors are combined to make a movie. In this immortal Black and White film, we have such a combination. Herein we have, the late, great Jack Lemmon playing Harry Hinkle, a standard cameraman working with a TV crew covering a Cleveland Browns football game. As the game proceeds, a celebrity running-back Luther " Boom Boom " Jackson (Ron Rich) accidentally runs off the field and directly into the filming cameraman, knocking him out cold. Fortunately for Hinkle, his wily Brother-in-law, William Gingrich, attorney-at-law, (Walter Matthau) leaps into his life and proposes an insurance lawsuit which, if Hinkle goes along with, will net them $1.000.000. Hinkle explains to 'Whiplash Willy,' there is nothing wrong with him and will not participate in the scheme. The plan is doomed, until Gingrich uses a trump card, Hinkles' ex-wife Sandy, (Judi West) whom Harry believes still loves him. The plan is flawless despite the fact, the Insurance company hires the Purkey (Cliff Osmond) Dectective Agency to spy on him 24 hours a day. While Gingrich is busy with the Insurance lawyers and Hinkle is attempting to win his wife back, by pretending to be an invalid, no one notices Luthor Jackson is miserable, drinking and becoming despondent. The movie is wonderful as Lemmon and Matthau are a superb team under the direction of their favorite director Billy Wilder. This is a great movie and certain to become a Classic. ****

"The Fortune Cookie" is a light, lovable con/slapstick film about Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon), a sports cameraman who is accidentally knocked down by NFL star Boom Boom Jackson (Ron Rich) at a football game. Hinkle suffers a minor concussion but his lawyer brother-in-law, Willie Gingrich (Walter Matthau) is immediately on the seen. Willie thinks that they can sue for millions of dollars if Harry plays that he's got a "compressed vertebrae", and Harry reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile Boom Boom is feeling desperately guilty and is taking care of Harry to make himself feel better.

This movie is labeled as a comedy but most of the humor is dry and subtle. I'd go as far as to call it out-dated, it was probably considered a lot funnier when it first came out.

Though I guess the only character that is supposed to be actually funny is Matthau's, and he is. Hilarious, in fact. He never misses a beat, every movement and line is delivered in perfect accordance to his character. And considering the guy had a heart attack while working on the film, his drive and proffesionalism is admirable.

Aside from Matthau the movie is a little bland, but not bad. The other performances, from Lemmon, Rich and Judi West as Hinkle's gold-digging ex-wife, are all well-played, Rich gives the most notable performance as the guilt-ridden Boom Boom.

The style, direction and other componets of the film are well too...but in the end Matthau's performance is the only real benefit of this film, but it's a big benefit, and gets a 7.5/10 from me.