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The Fortune Cookie

1966

Billy Wilder

Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Cliff Osmond ...

7.8

13,570

Comedy Harry Hinkle is a cameraman who is broadcasting a live game until a football player hits him. Despite the insignificant concussion, his brother in law, who is a lawyer, suggests to him to pretend a serious injury in order to get money. The cameraman is against it until he hears that his ex-wife will be coming to see him. He pretends to be injured to get her back, but also sees what the strain is doing to the football player who injured him. [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"It has style and taste (...) [Lemmon] is the perfect knucklehead (...) While the superb performance of Mr. Matthau dominates the film, there is always behind him the specter of Mr. Wilder"	POS
United States	James Powers The Hollywood Reporter	"'The Fortune Cookie' is Billy Wilder's best picture since 'The Apartment', his funniest since 'Some Like It Hot' (...) Lemmon's particular ability in this role is that he saves it from dullness or ordinariness"	POS
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Empire	"Rarely has screen satire been so bleak or so mercilessly funny (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Don Druker Chicago Reader	"Wildly funny in spots, but nihilistic in the extreme."	POS
United States	Variety	"Generally amusing (often wildly so) but overlong"	NEU
United Kingdom	Tony Rayns Time Out	"The friction between the laughs and the cynicism generates more heat than most Hollywood comedies even aim at"	POS
United Kingdom	Alan Jones Radio Times	"[An] energetic comedy, which crackles regularly throughout (...) Wilder squeezes telling performances from his two stars (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Ryan Vlastelica AV Club	"Disappointing (...) Matthau is fun—he won an Oscar for the performance—but more could have been done with this premise."	NEU

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