Plot
Uniformed policeman Charlie Lang is kind and generous. He loves his job, and enjoys a strong rapport with the Queens neighborhood where he lives. His wife Muriel works in a hairdressing salon. Unlike Charlie, Muriel is greedy and selfish and materialistic; she constantly complains about their situation in life.
Waitress Yvonne Biasi, also kind and generous, is newly bankrupt. Her estranged husband Eddie, whom she cannot yet afford to divorce, has taken Yvonne's credit card and spent 12 thousand dollars without her consent. The court holds her responsible for the entire bill; moreover, Yvonne's nasty boss docks her pay for the time she spent in court, even though Yvonne gave ample notice.
Yvonne hits it off with Charlie, while waiting on him at the diner where she works. Since Charlie doesn't have enough money for a tip, he offers Yvonne double the tip tomorrow...or, if she prefers, half of his prospective lottery winnings. He wins a $4 million share of a $64 million lottery prize the next day. Charlie makes good on his offer to split the prize with Yvonne, despite Muriel's protests. Charlie and Yvonne become instant celebrities; Muriel sees this as an opportunity to become a spokesperson for her favorite beauty products.
Yvonne buys the diner where she works, and promptly fires her miserly ex-boss. She also sets up a table, with Charlie's name, at which people who cannot afford food can eat for free. Meanwhile, Charlie is wounded in the process of foiling two would-be-robbers at a grocery store. Following a well-deserved commendation, he takes mandatory leave from the NYPD.
Charlie and Yvonne are invited to a gathering, on a chartered boat, for the lottery winners...and also for numerous members of high society. Both Yvonne and Charlie miss the cruise because he had to go and make change for her taxi driver. Muriel - who has become a bigger monster than ever in the face of sudden riches - doesn't bother asking the boat to wait for Charlie; she flirts with the wealthy Jack Gross, and the two start an affair.
While Muriel blows him off in favor of Jack, Charlie drowns his sorrows with Yvonne. The media reports on Yvonne and Charlie treating numerous subway passengers to a free ride, and on them taking a sandlot baseball team to meet the New York Yankees.
Muriel throws Charlie out of their apartment and demands a divorce, ostensibly because she's fed up with his overall simplicity, but also in order to marry Jack. That same evening, Yvonne leaves her apartment after her husband Eddie shows up - threatening to stay until and unless he gets $50 thousand from her (intending to found his own theatrical company). Quite innocently, Charlie and Yvonne run into each other at the Plaza Hotel, where they wind up spending the night together.
At Muriel's and Charlie's divorce proceedings, she demands all the money that Charlie won for herself. Charlie acquiesces without protest, but then draws the line when she also demands all the money that he gave Yvonne. The case goes to court, which rules in Muriel's favor.
Yvonne, feeling guilty at having bankrupted Charlie and wrecked his already-sour marriage, pushes him away. But he's now in love with her, insisting that he doesn't care about the money and is far better off without Muriel. Yvonne reciprocates.
While ruminating about their future at Yvonne's closed diner, the new couple graciously provide a homeless man with soup at the Charlie Lang Table. This derelict is actually undercover photojournalist Angel Dupree, who is revealed to be the film's narrator; he takes photos of Yvonne and Charlie for the next day's headline in New York Post ... wherein Angel praises their willingness to support him, even in their own "darkest hour".
As Charlie and Yvonne are preparing to move out of NYC, they receive mail from hundreds of New Yorkers who read Angel's expose. The mail consists of encouraging letters, along with "tips for the cop and the waitress" totaling about $600 thousand, which pays off all the couple's debts.
Right after Muriel becomes "Mrs. Jack Gross", he turns out to be a con artist - who flees the country with all her money. She moves back in with her mother in The Bronx, and returns to her old job giving manicures. Yvonne finally divorces Eddie, who not only never gets the $50 thousand but ends up driving a taxi.
Charlie returns to the police force, while Yvonne reclaims the diner. They get married and, for their honeymoon, enjoy a hot-air balloon-ride over Central Park.
Real-life incident
In 1984, Phyllis Penzo was a waitress at a pizzeria commonly frequented by Yonkers, New York, police officers. In March of that year, Officer Robert Cunningham, a regular patron and longtime friend of Penzo, suggested that the two split a lottery ticket, each of them choosing three of the six numbers, in lieu of his leaving her a tip. Penzo agreed, and though she subsequently forgot about it, when Cunningham discovered that the ticket had won a $6 million prize, he honored their verbal agreement and split the money evenly with Penzo. [4] [7] [8]
Beyond this basic premise, the film is entirely fictional, with the backgrounds of the film's characters and the events depicted in the film subsequent to their lottery win bearing no resemblance to the actual lives of Penzo and Cunningham. As a result, neither Penzo nor Cunningham were required to authorize the film, nor were they entitled to collect royalties from its proceeds. [9] The closing credits of the film include a disclaimer stating that although the film was inspired by actual events, at the time of production both Penzo and Cunningham were happily married to their respective spouses. [10]
