The Role of Women in Billy Wilder's 'The Fortune Cookie'

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Dresden Technical University (Sprach-, Literatur-, Kulturwissenschaften), course: Film Comedies, language: English, abstract: Billy Wilder can certainly considered to be one of Hollywood's best known film directors. Many of his movies such as Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot have gained international popularity up until today. The comedy being of interest to this term paper, The Fortune Cookie, however, is one of Wilder's less famous productions. Still, it was nominated for the Screenplay Academy Award which it did not win. On the following pages, I am particularly going to discuss the role of women in the movie. Therefore, the focus will lie on the individual female characters appearing as well as the ways in which they are presented. Since The Fortune Cookie is a comedy, some comical aspects in relation to women within the picture are going to be looked at. Finally, the air of females and their contribution regarding plot promotion will also be taken into consideration. The paper's structure is dominated by three main parts. In the first section, general background information such as a short synopsis, a description of non-female figures et cetera will be provided. The subsequent paragraph deals with the women staged in the motion picture describing their development as well as their significance to the story. For better understanding, some screenshots featuring women in typical situations during the film are added. Ultimately, the last main chapter gives a possible interpretation of the aforesaid information and also tries to analyze the progress of the plot in relation to the film's female characters.