While Walter Matthau was quite in demand on TV and movies before 1965, this was truly his breakthrough year in terms of his profession. First, he was cast on Broadway in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple as Oscar Madison. And then, Billy Wilder cast him here to play shyster lawyer William "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich opposite leading man Jack Lemmon leading to a fruitful collaboration in movies for the next several years that paired Lemmon and Matthau together with Wilder making at least one more good film with them (The Front Page as the next one after that he made with them-Buddy Buddy-marked a less-than-glorious-end to his directing career). Lemmon is a CBS cameraman who gets knocked down by football player Ron Rich though he doesn't suffer much. Matthau is Lemmon's brother-in-law who wants to exploit his "malady" to get large amounts from an insurance company. Judi West is Lemmon's ex-wife who comes back to him when she hears about it. And Cliff Osmond plays a sneaky investigator for the insurance company. Plenty of cynical laughs are provided by Wilder & I.A.L Diamond's script with most of those punchlines said by Matthau though when Lemmon is alone with the Rich character, there are also some touching scenes of them talking. In summary, The Fortune Cookie was one of the better comedies from a period-the late '60s-not always known for great funny films with Matthau winning his well-deserved Oscar for this role.

Favorite movie quote - "Marriage is like being in the army. Everyone knocks it, but you'd be surprised just how many guys choose to re-enlist." Yes. The Fortune Cookie (from 1966) may have been noticeably overlong at 2 hours & 6 minutes, but, for the most part, it was a surprisingly engaging, little comedy that was clearly power-driven by Walter Matthau's over-bearing, dry-witted performance as the cynical, All-American, shyster-lawyer, Willie "Whiplash" Gingrich.When Willie's brother-in-law, Harry Hinkel (cameraman for CBS) is accidentally knocked over a barricade by the 220 lb. halfback Boom-Boom Jackson and rendered unconscious during an action-packed football game between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Giants, Willie cries "Foul Play!" Without missing a single beat, Willie cleverly convinces the reluctant Harry to feign a crippling spinal injury following his collision with Boom-Boom. And together these 2 greedy charlatans make big plans to split a cool million in phony insurance claims.But, as anticipated, nothing of this sort ever goes as planned. And when Harry cracks open a fortune cookie whose ominous message reads - "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."- This, like a sudden turn of fate, serves as the writing-on-the-wall for the outcome of this seemingly fool-proof scam.Filmed in stark b&w, The Fortune Cookie was directed by Billy Wilder whose other notable films include such titles as Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity.

This is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable, well-made, and well-written films I've seen lately. "The Fortune Cookie" stars Jack Lemmon as a reporter injured while covering a football game and Walter Matthau as the wise-cracking lawyer trying to sue the hospital and football player by faking the injury to be worse than it was. They cannot shake the feeling, however, that they cannot fool everyone all the time, and much of the film consists of spies sent out to prove that they are faking it. There is excellent character development in this film, which comes mostly from Lemmon's interactions with the football player who must endure the guilt of the injury. What keeps the film entertaining is the constantly brilliant humor that fills every scene, though the plot is not overly funny by nature. If you like Jack Lemmon, you will enjoy this film, as he does a great job as always, but the film is a must-see for Walter Matthau fans, as this is the role that won him his supporting actor Oscar, well deserved. He wisecracks the entire time, which makes him one of my favorite actors, but in several of the scenes in his office, he even gives somewhat of a Groucho Marx-like role as he talks to himself and his co-workers. This is likely my second favorite film directed by Billy Wilder, behind "Sunset Boulevard" of course. Close to perfect, and only slightly flawed by the unnecessary plot elements of Lemmon's ex-wife. A unique, intelligent comedy that teamed up Lemmon and Matthau, and highly recommended to lovers of comedy, old movies, and just about anyone.**** out of ****

Like the best Wilder films, The Fortune Cookie is full of interesting characters who aren't a major part of the story being told. Wilder and his co-writer IAL Diamond didn't just use minor characters or passers-by to further the plot, they made it clear that these people had other things going on, that they weren't just standing around waiting for someone else to come by so they could say one thing. A perfect example of this is a scene near the end where Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon in one of his many collaborations with Wilder) interrupts a couple of laundry men betting on whether random team jerseys will have even or odd numbers on them. This is exactly the kind of thing men with a boring job like that would do, and we even see that one of the guys is slyly trying to increase the odds in his favor-this also ties the short scene in with the rest of the film thematically.The entire film is about people who try to manipulate their situations to come out ahead. First there's Hinkle's ambulance chasing brother-in-law Willie Gingrich (Walter Matthau in an Oscar winning performance) who wants him to pretend to be more seriously injured than he really is to get a big insurance settlement. Hinkle isn't a greedy man, though, and he only gives in to Gingrich's scheme because he thinks it means a chance of winning back the wife who already left him for a chance to come out ahead in show business.Gingrich's attempts to keep Hinkle dishonest are constantly threatened by the presence of Boom Boom Jackson, the honest football player who feels terrible about knocking Hinkle down at a game and landing him in a hospital bed. The film is really about Hinkle's moral dilemma: should he choose to play it fair like Boom Boom or should he just try to get ahead like his ex-wife and Gingrich? Regardless of the eventual outcome of the film, it's always fun (and often hilarious) watching the schemes of the quintessential dishonest lawyer as they come and go. The Fortune Cookie may be late period Wilder but it's just as deserving of it's classic status as any of his films.