The Fortune Cookie (1966)

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards:

Best Supporting Actor: Walter Matthau (WON)

Best Original Screenplay

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White

 

The Fortune Cookie is the first pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who subsequently worked together on 11 additional films, that’s the trivia. I didn’t see it sooner, because I had a scary feeling I might not like Matthau in the role, and glad to say I was wrong. He won the Oscar quite surprisingly for it, but I can now conclude it was much deserved. He is actually the co-lead and the real star of the film and the reason to see it, playing a crooked lawyer with a dirty plan. He is very funny, gets the best dialogue lines and delivers them perfectly. A really nice performance.

The film isn’t that great otherwise, but not bad either. Jack Lemmon has to settle with the more boring role, of the good guy, and there are very few other elements of importance in the film. It’s funny at times, but it should be seen only for Matthau.

 

I give it: 7.5/10

IMDB LINK