Movie Review: The Fortune Cookie
Billy Wilder’s 1966 Black Comedy About Insurance Fraud Holds Up Well
Jun 25, 2009
Wilder’s best films are dominated by a cold, unforgiving eye for the more venal realities of American life. His movies – both dramas and comedies – comprise a cinematic hall of fame for some of the most wondrously ill-spirited pictures ever made in this country.
This one’s a comedy, but with a deadly sharp edge. The setup is simple:
Jack Lemmon Plays TV Cameraman
Lovably schlubby Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) is a CBS network cameraman who’s mildly hurt covering a Cleveland Browns game when a star player accidentally bulls into him along the sidelines.
Enter Harry's greedy, ambulance-chasing brother-in-law, “Whiplash Willie” Gingrich. Walter Matthau took the supporting actor Oscar for Willie, the role that marked his first on-screen pairing with Lemmon.
Willie, the prototypical shyster lawyer, wants Harry to fake a much more serious injury in order to scam the insurance company for what he hopes is a million-dollar payday.
Matthau Enlists Lemmon's Scheming Ex-Wife
But the only way Willie can convince Harry to go along is to conspire with Harry’s gorgeous, two-faced ex-wife Sandy (Judi West). She temporarily abandons her anonymous lover (always seen in the background of her apartment, either in bed or showering) to return to Cleveland to con Harry, who’s still madly in love with her.
Wilder and longtime writing partner I.A.L. “Izzy” Diamond divvied up the story into 16 “chapters,” each introduced with a title card. For example: “1. The Accident” opens the film and sets up the entire story; “3. The Caper” has Harry in a hospital bed, as Whiplash Willie tries to talk him into cooperating in the scam.
Wilder and Diamond had a prolific collaboration, working together on a dozen features, most of which – like The Apartment, Kiss Me Stupid and One, Two, Three – share The Fortune Cookie’s snarky regard for humanity.
Ron Rich Plays Good-Natured Football Star
Newcomer Ron Rich plays the soft-hearted Cleveland Brown who crashes into Harry and soon befriends him. His character is among the film’s few genuinely decent people. Unfortunately, Rich's performance as Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson is highly problematic. While “Boom Boom” is sympathetic and thoughtful, Rich’s interpretation is one-note and monotone. (The role did nothing for his career, and Rich quickly faded into obscurity.)
Boom Boom volunteers to take care of his newfound friend – cooking meals, helping with physical therapy, etc. Of course, the developing friendship between Harry and Boom Boom is built on a falsehood – Harry’s not really hurt. But their mutual respect and affection are real -- and take the edge off the otherwise acidic screenplay.
The film is peppered with an all-star cast of character actors, including Les Tremayne, Lurene Tuttle as Harry’s mom and Cliff Osmond as a quirky private detective hired to unmask Harry as a fake. Look also for a young William Christopher (Father Mulcahy on TV’s M*A*S*H) in his movie debut as the doctor who initially treats Harry.
Matthau Steals Film As "Whiplash Willie"
But the film really belongs to Matthau’s outsized performance as “Whiplash Willie” Gingrich. He’s hilariously slimy, self-aggrandizing, corrupt – and so completely watchable that it’s a shame his Oscar was for supporting actor. Matthau really deserved best actor honors – he’s that good in it, and without his pivotal role there’s no movie.
(Matthau had a heart attack during production, which was shut down for a time. He lost 30 pounds while convalescing, and wore a heavy overcoat in some scenes in an attempt to mask the weight loss.)
Shot on location, the film is a snapshot of Cleveland in the mid-1960s – a city already past its prime and sliding rapidly into the disarray and decay that would culminate in municipal bankruptcy in 1978. It’s no coincidence Wilder chose to shoot in black and white, which suggests a noir-style bleakness in Cleveland and in Harry’s life that is perfectly suited to the lack of color on the screen.
In a way, the city of Cleveland itself is a metaphor for Harry, whose apartment is a grimy hole, his neighborhood blighted, his life empty since Sandy ran off to New York, hoping for a career as a singer.
The Fortune Cookie Also a Statement on Race Relations
The film was shot in the fall of 1965, less than a year before race riots erupted in Cleveland and several other major cities. (L.A.'s Watts Riots had raged in mid-summer, 1965.) So it’s intriguing that Wilder's only consistent hero in the story is the black guy – the only character whose motives and actions are pure. That in itself is sweetly ironic, since Boom Boom’s professional life is based on legally-sanctioned violence.
The Fortune Cookie may be firmly rooted in its time and place, but it holds up remarkably well because the bigger themes – avarice, deceit, the meaning and value of friendship – are immutable. The film received mixed reviews in 1966. Today, we can see just how powerful Wilder and Diamond’s black comedy remains in exposing some of the darker hues of human ambition.
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