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09 December 2022 / Mark Pawlowski
Issue: 8006 / Categories: Features , Profession , Media
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On a lighter note: courtroom comedies!

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Mark Pawlowski takes a look at some film comedies with a distinctively legal theme for the festive season

The Fortune Cookie (1966)

TV cameraman Harry Hinkle (played by Jack Lemmon) gets knocked out accidentally during a football game and his attorney (brother-in-law), Walter Matthau, gets him to feign partial paralysis in order to claim huge damages ($1m) from the stadium’s insurance company. The film is a delight to watch, not least because of Matthau’s wonderful portrayal of a scheming, fast-talking American lawyer racing through ever more futile efforts to outmanoeuvre the other side. The sequence in which Matthau attends the law offices of the attorneys acting for the insurance company in order to persuade them to settle, quoting from various precedents, is one of the many gems in the film. Not surprisingly, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film is included among the American Film Institute’s 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the top 100 Funniest American Movies.

Adam’s Rib (1949)

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