...can be found in this film. I'll get back to that later.
Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) , a cameraman for CBS, is tackled by a player for the Cleveland Browns, Luther Boom Boom Jackson, during a NFL football game. Hinkle is hospitalized, and though he is not that injured, his brother in law, the ambulance chasing lawyer Willie Gingrich, (Walter Matthau) sees this as a golden opportunity. Hinkle doesn't want the money - Gingrich promises a million dollar settlement if Hinkle will act paralyzed - but he does want his ex-wife back, who calls him while he is in the hospital seeming concerned. She was a dancer who ran out on him the year before. Hinkle reluctantly agrees to play along with the scam.
The high priced law firm retained by the NFL, the Browns, and CBS tries to buy off Gingrich low, but he's not biting. In the meantime this firm hires a private detective to watch and bug Hinkle's apartment. Gingrich figures this out quickly and uses the ruse to make Hinkle look very injured with a bleak outlook.
Gingrich is single minded in his intent to defraud the big guys. However, Hinkle is truly conflicted over the situation. It's not about the financial fraud. It's that he feels guilty that his wife is there caring for him as though he were ill and he is actually fine. It's also that the football player that hit him, - Boom Boom - is guilt ridden over the situation and begins to go downhill, playing carelessly because he is preoccupied with guilt, drinking and getting in trouble with the law. What Hinkle does not know is that the wife knows everything about the scam. She isn't there because she cares about Hinkle. She wants her cut of the money so she can start a new dance act.
So how is this the best and worst of the end of the production code just as it rides into the sunset? It is the best in that it shows true friendship between two people of different races - Hinkle's friendship with Boom Boom, who is African American. It is the worst of the end of it because now Billy Wilder gets to outright show sex rather than imply it. As things get more permissive through the years the female characters in his films get dumber, greedier, less faithful, more buxom. You see the beginning of it in "Ace in the Hole" with Jan Sterling's character, but in this film and "Kiss Me Stupid" it comes to real fruition and borders on cartoonish. In Billy Wilder's unique case, the production code was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. It forced him into subtlety.
But at least Wilder brought together one of the great screen comedy teams of all time - Matthau and Lemmon in this, their first collaboration. Lemmon's every man with conscience worked great with the more cagey Matthau. And to think Matthau started out his career playing gangland heavies.
I'd recommend this one, but it has aged poorly in a few places.
Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) , a cameraman for CBS, is tackled by a player for the Cleveland Browns, Luther Boom Boom Jackson, during a NFL football game. Hinkle is hospitalized, and though he is not that injured, his brother in law, the ambulance chasing lawyer Willie Gingrich, (Walter Matthau) sees this as a golden opportunity. Hinkle doesn't want the money - Gingrich promises a million dollar settlement if Hinkle will act paralyzed - but he does want his ex-wife back, who calls him while he is in the hospital seeming concerned. She was a dancer who ran out on him the year before. Hinkle reluctantly agrees to play along with the scam.
The high priced law firm retained by the NFL, the Browns, and CBS tries to buy off Gingrich low, but he's not biting. In the meantime this firm hires a private detective to watch and bug Hinkle's apartment. Gingrich figures this out quickly and uses the ruse to make Hinkle look very injured with a bleak outlook.
Gingrich is single minded in his intent to defraud the big guys. However, Hinkle is truly conflicted over the situation. It's not about the financial fraud. It's that he feels guilty that his wife is there caring for him as though he were ill and he is actually fine. It's also that the football player that hit him, - Boom Boom - is guilt ridden over the situation and begins to go downhill, playing carelessly because he is preoccupied with guilt, drinking and getting in trouble with the law. What Hinkle does not know is that the wife knows everything about the scam. She isn't there because she cares about Hinkle. She wants her cut of the money so she can start a new dance act.
So how is this the best and worst of the end of the production code just as it rides into the sunset? It is the best in that it shows true friendship between two people of different races - Hinkle's friendship with Boom Boom, who is African American. It is the worst of the end of it because now Billy Wilder gets to outright show sex rather than imply it. As things get more permissive through the years the female characters in his films get dumber, greedier, less faithful, more buxom. You see the beginning of it in "Ace in the Hole" with Jan Sterling's character, but in this film and "Kiss Me Stupid" it comes to real fruition and borders on cartoonish. In Billy Wilder's unique case, the production code was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. It forced him into subtlety.
But at least Wilder brought together one of the great screen comedy teams of all time - Matthau and Lemmon in this, their first collaboration. Lemmon's every man with conscience worked great with the more cagey Matthau. And to think Matthau started out his career playing gangland heavies.
I'd recommend this one, but it has aged poorly in a few places.