“Matthau, with the role of a lifetime at his hands, seizes it and makes it wonderful. As the incompetent shyster, Matthau snarls, cajoles, is breezy and sniveling by turns...”
While taping a football game, cameraman Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) ends up slightly injured after a collision with star player ‘Boom Boom’ Jackson (Ron Rich). When Hinkle's scheming brother-in-law, lawyer Willie Gingrich (Walter Matthau), catches wind of the incident, he wants Hinkle to feign paralysis to scam the insurance company. Hinkle agrees to the plan, if only to win back his ex (Judi West). But Hinkle's growing friendship with a guilt-ridden Jackson has him questioning the ploy.
