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
Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s lavish movie boils down to a dirty party joke, but they struck gold just the same. Audiences flocked to see Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine reunited in a fantasy Parisian red light district, in a show that looks like Disneyland for fans of Playboy cartoons.
Irma La Douce
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date July 17, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Holiday, Bruce Yarnell, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, Cliff Osmond, Diki Lerner, Ruth & Jane Earl, Tura Satana.
Cinematography: Joseph La Shelle
Art Director: Alexander Trauner
Film Editor: Daniel Mandell
Original Music: Marguerite Monnot, André Previn
Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond from a play by Alexandre Breffort
Produced by Edward L. Alperson, I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
Directed by Billy Wilder
Although there’s...
Irma La Douce
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date July 17, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Holiday, Bruce Yarnell, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, Cliff Osmond, Diki Lerner, Ruth & Jane Earl, Tura Satana.
Cinematography: Joseph La Shelle
Art Director: Alexander Trauner
Film Editor: Daniel Mandell
Original Music: Marguerite Monnot, André Previn
Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond from a play by Alexandre Breffort
Produced by Edward L. Alperson, I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
Directed by Billy Wilder
Although there’s...
- 7/14/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Kiss Me, Stupid
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA, 1964
How good was Billy Wilder? So good that this film, Kiss Me, Stupid—largely entertaining, frequently witty, beautifully shot, and with at least two noteworthy performances—probably wouldn’t figure in most lists of his top 10 movies. Yet it is a good Billy Wilder film, if not a great one.
Starting in Las Vegas, we are introduced to Dino, a womanizer, a drunk, an accomplished singer, and a clever jokester. Dean Martin, in a bit of curiously inspired and rather daring casting, plays the rapscallion; not surprisingly, he does so very well. On his way to Los Angeles, he stops in Climax, Nevada (with all the sexual innuendo built into this film, the town’s name almost seems the least obvious). There he encounters Orville (Ray Walston), a nebbish piano teacher and amateur songwriter who...
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
Directed by Billy Wilder
USA, 1964
How good was Billy Wilder? So good that this film, Kiss Me, Stupid—largely entertaining, frequently witty, beautifully shot, and with at least two noteworthy performances—probably wouldn’t figure in most lists of his top 10 movies. Yet it is a good Billy Wilder film, if not a great one.
Starting in Las Vegas, we are introduced to Dino, a womanizer, a drunk, an accomplished singer, and a clever jokester. Dean Martin, in a bit of curiously inspired and rather daring casting, plays the rapscallion; not surprisingly, he does so very well. On his way to Los Angeles, he stops in Climax, Nevada (with all the sexual innuendo built into this film, the town’s name almost seems the least obvious). There he encounters Orville (Ray Walston), a nebbish piano teacher and amateur songwriter who...
- 3/10/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Gregory Peck from ‘Duel in the Sun’ to ‘How the West Was Won’: TCM schedule (Pt) on August 15 (photo: Gregory Peck in ‘Duel in the Sun’) See previous post: “Gregory Peck Movies: Memorable Miscasting Tonight on Turner Classic Movies.” 3:00 Am Days Of Glory (1944). Director: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Gregory Peck, Lowell Gilmore, Maria Palmer. Bw-86 mins. 4:30 Am Pork Chop Hill (1959). Director: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn. Bw-98 mins. Letterbox Format. 6:15 Am The Valley Of Decision (1945). Director: Tay Garnett. Cast: Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp. Bw-119 mins. 8:15 Am Spellbound (1945). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, Rhonda Fleming, Bill Goodwin, Norman Lloyd, Steve Geray, John Emery, Donald Curtis, Art Baker, Wallace Ford, Regis Toomey, Paul Harvey, Jean Acker, Irving Bacon, Jacqueline deWit, Edward Fielding, Matt Moore, Addison Richards, Erskine Sanford, Constance Purdy. Bw-111 mins. 10:15 Am Designing Woman (1957). Director: Vincente Minnelli.
- 8/16/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Billy Wilder movies, Johnny Carson interviews tonight on TCM Billy Wilder is Turner Classic Movies’ Director of the Evening tonight, July 8, 2013. But before Wilder Evening begins, TCM will be presenting a series of brief interviews from The Tonight Show, back in the old Johnny Carson days — or rather, nights. The Carson interviewees this evening are Doris Day, Charlton Heston, Tony Curtis, Chevy Chase, and Steve Martin. (See also: Doris Day today.) (Photo: Billy Wilder.) As for Billy Wilder, TCM will be showing the following: Some Like It Hot (1959), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Spirit of St. Louis (1958), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Of course, all of those have been shown before and are widely available. Some Like It Hot vs. The Major and the Minor: Subversive and subversiver Some Like It Hot is perhaps Billy Wilder’s best-known film. This broad comedy featuring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis...
- 7/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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