The Fortune (1975) on Netflix
PG19751h 28mComedyCrimeRomance
Nicky Wilson and Oscar Sullivan, inept scam artists in the 1920s, set their sights on Freddie Bigard, a millionaire heiress. She loves the married Nicky, who proposes she marry Oscar instead.
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- Netflix2.2/5
- IMDb5.7/103,470 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes29%
Trailer
Plot summary
Nicky Wilson and Oscar Sullivan are inept scam artists working the Northeastern United States in the 1920s. Their mark is Fredericka Quintessa Bigard, known as Freddie, a young millionaire who stands to inherit a sanitary napkin fortune. Freddie loves Nicky, but he is already married, and the Mann Act bars him from taking her across state lines for immoral relations. Nicky's solution is for Freddie to marry Oscar, who is wanted for embezzlement and eager to leave town, so that Nicky can carry on with her. Oscar agrees to the arrangement, though he means to claim his spousal privileges once the wedding is done. The three travel to Los Angeles, where the men look for ways to part Freddie from her inheritance.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Fortune (1975)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Mike Nichols wanted Bette Midler to play heiress Freddie, but changed his mind after Midler, seemingly unaware of his career, insulted him by asking what films he had previously made, and cast relative newcomer Stockard Channing instead.
- Screenwriter Carole Eastman, credited as Adrien Joyce, was fired from The Fortune after objecting to the cuts Mike Nichols was making to her script and his push to make it less satirical and more slapstick.
- While filming The Fortune, Jack Nicholson learned from a Time fact-checker that the woman he believed was his sister was actually his mother and the woman who raised him was his grandmother, and his friend Cass Elliot died in her sleep.
- Warren Beatty got The Fortune financed by bundling it with his Shampoo screenplay, which he had been developing since 1967, and convincing Columbia Pictures head David Begelman to pay for both films.
- A street for The Fortune was built in a corner of the former RKO Forty Acres back lot, where the "Stalag 13" sets for TV's Hogan's Heroes had stood, and an apartment building used was a The Day of the Locust set.
