The Fortune (1975) ( Spite and Malice )

The Fortune (1975) (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Spite and Malice
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Golden Globes

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
84 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1975 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Mike Nichols

Written By:
Carole Eastman

Actors:
Stockard Channing ..... Fredrika Contessa 'Freddie' Biggars / Sullivan
Jack Nicholson ..... Oscar Sullivan aka Oscar Dix
Warren Beatty ..... Nicky Wilson
Ian Wolfe ..... Justice of the Peace
Rose Michtom ..... His Wife
Brian Avery ..... Airline Steward
Florence Stanley ..... Mrs. Gould
Dub Taylor ..... Rattlesnake Tom
Nira Barab ..... Girl Lover
Christopher Guest ..... Boy Lover
Scatman Crothers ..... Fisherman
Tom Newman ..... John the Barber
Jim Antonio ..... 1st Policeman
Vic Vallaro ..... 2nd Policeman
Richard B. Shull ..... Chief Detective Sergeant Jack Power

Synopsis:

Nicky Wilson (Beatty) and Oscar Sullivan (Nicholson) are inept scam artists who see pay dirt in the guise of Fredericka Quintessa Bigard (Stockard Channing), the millionaire heiress to a sanitary napkin fortune. She is in love with the already married Nicky, but because the Mann Act prohibits him from taking her across state lines and then engaging in immoral relations, he proposes she marry Oscar and then carry on an affair with the man she really wants. Oscar, who is wanted for embezzlement and anxious to get out of town, is happy to comply with the plan, although he intends to claim his spousal privileges after they are wed. Once they reach Los Angeles, the two men try everything they can to separate Freddie from her inheritance, without success but with enough determination to arouse her suspicions. When she announces she plans to donate all her money to charity, Nicky and Oscar panic and come to the conclusion murder might be their only recourse if they're going to achieve their goal.

Three's a crowd in Mike Nichols's period caper comedy - or is it? To dodge the 1920s Mann Act barring the transport of women across state lines for 'immoral purposes,' not-yet-divorced Nicky (Warren Beatty) has felonious buddy Oscar (Jack Nicholson) marry Nicky's runaway heiress sweetheart Freddy (Stockard Channing) so they can all escape New York for Los Angeles. The three set up house together, but trouble starts brewing when odd man out Oscar decides to get Nicky's attention by exercising his rights as a husband to Freddy. Exasperated with being stuck in the middle of the bickering pair, Freddy threatens to donate her impending inheritance to charity, inciting Oscar and Nicky to hatch a plan to bump her off and keep the money. But Freddy just will not die, prompting the three to reconsider the whole arrangement. With a period setting and pair of stellar lead actors similar to the 1973 blockbuster The Sting, a screenplay by Five Easy Pieces author Carol Eastman (under the name Adrien Joyce), and deft comedy director Nichols, The Fortune seemed like a can't-miss proposition. But it resoundingly flopped, as audiences preferred to see Beatty in his earlier 1975 starring role as a racy L.A. hairdresser in Shampoo, and to wait for Nicholson's later 1975 incarnation as an archetypal iconoclast in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As with other late '60s-early '70s period films like Beatty's own Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Fortune lends an updated sensibility to its old-fashioned milieu, complete with a very modern happy ending.

Two bumbling hustlers in the 1920s attempt to gain the fortune of an heiress. Nothing will stop them . not even murder.

This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 10 March, 2012.

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