Grade: C+
Synopsis: An ambulance-chasing lawyer (Walter Matthau), ropes his reluctant brother-in-law (Jack Lemmon) into a fake-injury scam.
The Fortune Cookie is a funny, but ultimately uneven, film highlighted by a great performance from Walter Matthau.
Despite suffering a heart attack during production (which halted filming for several weeks), Walter Matthau is terrific in his Oscar winning turn as a sleazy, fast-talking lawyer. He has a natural chemistry with star Jack Lemmon and despite getting second billing, carries the film.
If only the rest of the film were as strong. Matthau shines so bright that the rest of the cast pales, and the script by director Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond doesn’t help. Jack Lemmon is mostly wasted in part that’s basically a shadow of his role in Wilder’s earlier The Apartment (1960). Judy West packs zero charisma as Lemmon’s character’s estranged wife, so much so that you find it hard to sympathize with Lemmon’s character, and Ron Rich feels like a plot device disguised as a character.
The Fortune Cookie tries to blend Wilder’s two previous films, The Apartment, and One, Two, Three (1961), but lacks the non-stop energy of the former, and the emotional depth of the later. What’s left is a showcase for Matthau’s knockout performance but unfortunately, not much else.
