Cinema: The Illegal Mind at Work

The Fortune Cookie. Director Billy Wilder has taken the very rash risk in this film of spiking his big gun. In Cookie he keeps Jack Lemmon, a funnyman-in-motion who lacks the instincts of a sit-down comedian, sitting in a wheelchair that makes him seem foolish but never funny. With Lemmon immobilized, only a miracle could save the show from being as sedative as Wilder's last picture, Kiss Me, Stupid. Fortunately, something like a miracle is at hand: Walter Matthau. A magnificent comic actor too long misused as a minor cinemenace, Matthau last year...

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