A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Fortune Cookie -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

It's a good time to be a Billy Wilder fan.

Both One, Two, Three, as well as The Fortune Cookie arrive at around the same time.

Between the two, came Irma La Douce (not yet released on Blu-ray) and Kiss Me, Stupid, available from Olive.

With The Fortune Cookie, Mr. Wilder created a new team -- Lemmon and Matthau, who would go on to do further comedies together.

Like the majority of Mr. Wilder's films of this era and earlier, The Fortune Cookie was shot in beautiful black & white, by Joseph LaShelle.

Imagery is stable, with a nice gray scale, and proper grain structure.

It's a dark comedy that nicely stands the test of time, outside of Lurene Tuttle's slightly over-the-top performance, but then again, possibly I'm not in sync with her character.

A wonderful Wilder project, who shared writing credit with his usual partner I.A.L. Diamond.

Another essential part of any self-respecting cinema library, presented here by Twilight Time.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 4.75

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[Robin9]

Well, that settles it. I was in two minds about buying this disc, but as the quality is so good, I'll go for it.

 

[PMF]

In "The Odd Couple" Oscar and Felix become irritated over a discussion about the gravy that needs to be made, to mask the meatloaf dinner that has just burnt. Oscar is surprised; he didn't know that gravy had to be prepared separately. Indeed, Oscar always thought that gravy just came from the meatloaf as it cooked within the oven. I am certain that audiences thought on these very same terms as Oscar had; that a Lemmon and a Matthau pairing just came from each other like gravy does from meatloaf; seemingly organic and without any additional inputs from the chef. Not so.
"The Fortune Cookie" is, yet, another proof pudding example of Billy Wilder's genius; as it was he who first cast these grumpy old men together and cooked us up a legendary team, making it an easy no-brainer for the casting of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple".
Thank you, Billy Wilder...and TT, too.