The Fortune (1975)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

During the 1920's, the Mann-Act criminalizes transporting women across State lines for immoral purposes. Nicky Wilson (Warren Beatty) and Oscar Sullivan (Jack Nicholson) are inept con-artists trying to take rich heiress Fredericka Quintessa Bigard (Stockard Channing). She falls for Nicky but he's already married. Oscar marries Freddie in order to run away to L.A. across state lines. Her father threatens to disown her. The boys fight over her for her money.This movie threw me. I expected good characters, and good acting from a Mike Nichols movie but he adds a screwball element to his comedy this time. I didn't see it coming. It takes me a little time to get used to it. I'm shaken by Oscar suddenly walking the wing on the plane. I don't think it's Nichols' strong suit. It's a lot of wacky screwball comedy that don't really generate laughs. The energy isn't there. He needs quicker edits and sharper gags. His brand of comedy isn't quite that. At its core, there are the three great actors and they shine.

I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, and while there were comedy, it was very dark and delivered by actors not well-suited to my particular taste.Stockard Channing was the mistress to Warren Beatty's character (I'm not that familiar with him but certainly wouldn't have recognized him). And she was rich ("The Fortune" of the title) and knew that's all Beatty wanted her for. But in order to comply with the Mann act, she had to be married to Jack Nicholson's character (legally). Beatty claimed Nicholson was his brother. Explaining the naughty antics to the landlady (Florence Stanley, someone I've liked a lot over the years) turned out to be a challenge, but somehow they met them. It seems Nicholson wanted to do what he could legally, even though the whole thing was a scam so Beatty could do what Nicholson was doing. All of this took a while for me to figure out, since I kept thinking I knew what was going on and then kept being proved wrong.What made this movie truly worthwhile was the zany ending. Very funny, lots of action and confusion--but this time it was the good kind of confusion.

STOCKARD CHANNING has her first starring role in this wacky 1920s comedy in the sort of part made for Elaine May who played the same sort of character in "A New Leaf" ('71). Why Nichols didn't put his wife in the central role, I'll never know. She would have been more ideally cast than Channing, although she manages well in the part.But the film really belongs to WARREN BEATTY and JACK NICHOLSON as the hapless fortune hunters whose every scheme goes awry as they try to get rid of the heiress, intending to bilk her for her fortune.Overall, it's reminiscent of the kind of screwball comedy prevalent in the '30s, but it's even more frantic and noisier than those comedies. The threesome really carry the film with the exception of a good role for FLORENCE STANLEY as their nosy landlady. Unfortunately, Channing's character gets on the viewer's nerves more than once with her whining and crying fits.Nicholson has a different take than usual on his role while Beatty is a bit more suave as the brains of the operation. Both of them make fatal mistakes.The black humor is a bit heavy-handed at times and it's an uneven blend of laughs and slapstick. Nichols makes good use of jazz music on the soundtrack, punctuating all the wacky situations with sly humor.Not bad, really, but could have had a tighter script. The performances are certainly not to blame but it's a shame Elaine May wasn't available.

*******CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!**********I am more than pleased that I finally got to see "The Fortune". After learning about it through various media, I was a little nervous about what I would find. But it didn't take long before the modest chuckles turned into belly laughs, for this is one HILARIOUS movie with real life good friends Beatty and Nicholson playing so well off each other, and obviously having a hoot doing so! Beatty is the bossy "brain" of the outfit. Married, unable to divorce and - due to the M.A.N.N. act - unable to take his mistress (Stockard Channing) legally across state lines to consummate their affair, he has come up with a brilliant scheme. His - in his eyes inferior to him - friend Nicholson can substitute as the groom, thereby making their traveling with a female completely legal. They move to California and during their travels it is already hinted at that the mistress is actually an heir to a great fortune, which Beatty tries to deny as long as possible. Upon their arrival in California it doesn't take long for Nicholson to develop (lusty) feelings for the heiress and soon consummates his "marriage" to her for real, in the absence of Beatty who is working as a car salesman. A fall-out follows during which the heiress comes to realize the two men are really only after her impending FORTUNE, and she threatens to give it all away to charity. The fear of that happening causes the two, unbelievably incompetent, men to bond and plan out another scheme> the heiress must die, so that they can get to her fortune. A slew of incredibly funny slapstick murder attempts follow and the acting Beatty and Nicholson show in these scenes is beyond hilarious. A must see for anyone who's in for intense laughter and joy.