The deal with the house and the car....
....I must have listened to this scene about 10 times and still didn't get it.
How did Tony Curtis' character end up with a house, a new Rolls, and still make $12,000 on the deal?
It's not clear to me that he did make the $12,500. I got the feeling that Mort Sahl's character Lingonberry just fast-talked him into thinking he was making that, and that he took the cash for himself. That makes more sense, not that anything needs to in this movie.
Basically, Lingonberry had paid $75,000 for the house. Let's say he paid cash back during the Eisenhower administration. He also has the old Rolls, which had cost $27,000, but is now worth $12,500 at low blue book. He has gone to the bank, and has taken out a $100,000 mortgage on the house, presumably because it's gone up in value (but, he says the banks are crazy). If he already owned the house outright (as is implied), then the bank just loaned him $100,000 cash, secured by the house.
So, he sells the $75,000 house and the $12,500 car to Carlo, and either gives Carlo $12,500 cash or doesn't, but he tells him that he's "made" that money: $100,000 - ($75,000 + $12,500) = $12,500.
What Lingonberry doesn't say, and nobody else mentions, is that Carlo has to assume the mortgage, so he now owes the bank $100,000, regardless of where that money went. Based on the way he goes through it so fast, with Tony Curtis being all bewildered by it all, I got the feeling that Lingonberry was sticking him with the whole $100,000 loan while walking away with $12,500 cash.
Wow! 2 years later and I still don't get it! LOL! Just Kidding! I watched this again! I don't who got screwed worse, Tony Curtis, or me having to watch this turkey again! LOL!
shareThat part is a satire of real-estate wheeler-dealer con-artistry. The "too good to be true" bait that gets you to bite on their hidden hook. It's just a bit exaggerated for comedy but how many people have we seen selling "No Money Down" real-estate courses?
Also, this film is not a "turkey," it's a great screw-ball comedy with excellent characterizations, especially in the parts played by Curtis, Webber and Joanna Barnes. The "screwball" genre is one where lots of whacky physical things happen, such as the VW rolling down the hill, the house sliding down the hill and flipping over, Curtis falling out of the plane and getting rescued in mid-air by Sharon Tate, Curtis' face staying buried in water after he lands in the pool by parachute, etc.