The Fortune

Nicky Wilson (Beatty) and Oscar Sullivan (Nicholson) are inept 1920s scam artists in Northeastern United States who see pay dirt in the guise of Fredericka Quintessa "Freddie" Bigard (Stockard Channing), the millionaire heiress to a sanitary napkin fortune. She loves the already married Nicky, but because the Mann Act prohibits him from taking her across state lines and engaging in immoral relations, he proposes that she marry Oscar and then carry on an affair with the man she wants. Oscar, who is wanted for embezzlement and anxious to get out of town, is happy to comply with the plan, although he intends to claim his spousal privileges after they are wed.