CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) gets injured when football player Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson (Ron Rich) runs into him while he is covering a Browns game at Cleveland Stadium.
Hinkle's injuries are minor, but his conniving lawyer brother-in-law "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich (Walter Matthau) convinces him to pretend that his legs have been paralyzed.
This way, they can receive a huge indemnity from the insurance company. Hinkle reluctantly goes along with the scheme because he's still in love with his ex-wife, Sandy, and it might win her back.
The insurance company suspects that the paralysis is a fake one, and so a cat-and-mouse game begins between its investigator, Chester Purkey, and the shyster Gingrich.
Jackson takes very good care of Hinkle, who begins having second thoughts as he witnesses guilt taking its toll on Jackson.
As he also sees that Sandy is back by his side strictly out of greed, Hinkle decides to reveal the truth, thereby ruining Gingrich's get-rich plans. -- Wikipedia
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West, Cliff Osmond, Lurene Tuttle, Harry Holcombe, Les Tremayne
Read about this film
Title: The Fortune Cookie (1966)
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Date of birth: 22 June 1906, Sucha, Austria-Hungary
Date of death: 27 March 2002, Beverly Hills, California, USA
Writing credits:
Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Music by: André Previn
Country: United States
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Runtime: 125 min.