The Fortune

Ramshackle farce with a few funny moments, mainly thanks to Nicholson's largely inspired comedic work, but little else. Mike Nichols is adept at coasting along on clever scripts,but he's clearly unable to salvage wayward material like this. In particular, the running gag which comprises the last half hour or so of the film wears incredibly thin. Beatty and Channing seem to be trying,to little avail, while Nicholson walks away with the film. He's particularly adroit in the first 20 minutes,before the film gets lost in it's own series of ambling vignettes. Still can't hold a candle to the old W.C. Fields or Laurel & Hardy films. Watch one of those instead.