The beginning of a beautiful friendship

The first film to pair up Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, and the one that got Matthau his Oscar, was 1966's The Fortune Cookie. (But at what cost? Matthau suffered a heart attack in the middle of filming. Production stopped while he recovered, and he is visibly underweight in the scenes that were filmed after his return. Oddly, this was director Billy Wilder's second consecutive film which had to stop mid-filming due to his lead actor suffering a heart attack.) The film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Billy Wilder).

Jack Lemmon plays Harry Hinkle, a CBS cameraman who is accidentally tackled by a player while working the sidelines at a football game. Matthau plays Willie Gingrich, Hinkle's brother-in-law, a shady lawyer who convinces Hinkle to fake an injury in order to turn the incident into a million dollar lawsuit. Hinkle is reluctant at first, is won over to the plan by the belief that he might regain the affections of his ex-wife, but his determination wavers when he sees the toll that guilt is taking on Boom Boom Jackson (Ron Rich), the player who tackled him.

I am usually a big fan of both Wilder and Lemmon, and Matthau has never really done me wrong, but somehow this film just didn't click with me. Matthau was very good here, certainly deserving of the Academy's recognition, especially considering the difficulties that he went through during filming. The story just didn't do it for me, though. Given the talent involved, it just fell below expectations. As a comedy, it just didn't have many laughs. As a con-game, it was predictable. As a satire, it lacked punch. As a drama, it lacked a real emotional connection to the characters. It's not that this was a bad film. It had some laughs and some good moments. It just wasn't a great film. But given the talent involved, given the greatness of the collaborations between Lemmon and Wilder previously, and the great partnership between Lemmon and Matthau afterward, this film being anything less than great is a bit of a disappointment.

Movie trivia question: In the history of the Oscars, five people have won the statue for non-speaking roles. Only one of those was a male. Who is the only male to win an Oscar for a non-speaking role?