The Fortune (1975)

So much average

People are voting emotionally.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

I don't know why I sat through this movie. Perhaps I thought there would be some redeeming moment but it just got on my nerves and never left until the end credits rolled. With actors like Channing and Nicholson, I expected a decent film but alas! The direction loses (or has no) focus. The screenplay's a big mess though. The actors are loud. Although Nicholson himself isn't as bad because he's quite different from his other films and does provide a few funny moments. Channing too has one funny moment where she runs away with a chicken. Seeing the positive comments, maybe I missed something but anyway, for me it was a waste of time.

When I read about "Silkwood" in a movie encyclopedia, the caption said that Mike Nichols's career had come to a halt eight years earlier with "The Fortune". Watching the latter, I laughed but also felt like the movie was a little bit low for the director of "The Graduate" and "Catch-22". Portraying uptight Warren Beatty and over-conspicuous Jack Nicholson transporting Stockard Channing to California for what were deemed immoral purposes by the Mann Act in the 1920s, it seems like much of the flick consists of Beatty getting angry at Nicholson for not taking their predicament too seriously. But the last twenty minutes were a hoot, I will say that.So, this may be Mike Nichols's only movie that you sit around in your underwear and watch. I gotta pity the characters for having a landlady like the one portrayed in the movie. Also starring Scatman Crothers (that's right, the cook from "The Shining") and a very young Christopher Guest.

Stockhard Channing must be one of the most underrated comediennes about. This is an hilarious film. gridoon, who found it disappointing, seems to base his critique on the quality of the cast; Nicholson; Beatty & Channing. His expectations were probably pitched too high - and, sure, Five Easy Pieces is amazing, and Bonnie & Clyde is a classic. But The Fortune can stand on its own. It is very funny. The pace is hectic and the storyline has resonances of "It Happened One Night". The difference being that in the "The Fortune", the heroine is kidnapped - a botched attempt by two incompetents (Nicholson & Beatty). The so-called Swedish Syndrome seems to have rooted here, in that the captive falls for her captors & doesn't want to be saved. This film is well worth putting into DVD format - all Regions, please.