The Fortune Cookie Reviews

To be honest, I’m usually not a huge fan of Billy Wilder’s comedies but I thought I might check this one out anyway. Well, this movie is mostly remembered as being the first time that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau would work together (they would eventually collaborate on 11 movies) but, to be honest, this flick had not much else to offer, I’m afraid. Indeed, the plot was just so paper thin and you might wonder how they managed to stretch this material for 2 hours. Eventually, the whole thing was about some lousy scam and the fact that Harry Hinkle didn’t want to take part from the start made the whole endeavor more pathetic than actually really entertaining. Anyway, concerning the cast, Jack Lemmon basically gave his typical performance and he was fine but not much more than that. The Boom Boom Jackson character was actually more interesting but there was not enough room to really develop him and it felt as if the guy eventually belonged to a different movie. Judy West was also terribly lovely to look at (it was her first movie and she would make only a few more after this one) but her character showed up way too late and was even less developed than Boom Boom. Eventually, the only character that really worked for me was the one played by Walter Matthau. To be honest, I’m not sure if this performance really deserved to be rewarded with an Academy Award (it would be the only one he would eventually win) but Matthau was pretty much pitch-perfect here and he constantly stole the show from the moment he showed up on the screen. I also enjoyed the ending involving Boom Boom and Harry Hinkle which was actually more profound than everything displayed before. Anyway, to conclude, it was definitely a minor Wilder but it is still worth a look, if only to see Lemmon and Matthau working for the first time together.

It's the firsti time of Lemmon with Matthau but the couple is already perfect. Tue cinisicsm is on Walter, Jack is sincere in last reel, splendidly. A lot is in background details (Judi West is always with a object of desire in frame)...