Comic Cagney Shines

Since today is the great Billy Wilder’s birthday, I decided to focus on one of his lesser viewed films.

There are three reasons to see this classic comedy that you might have missed!

One: The Script

This hilarious film is based upon a play by Ferenc Molnar and was adapted for the screen by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. It is tight, quick and quite funny. The lines are thrown at the viewer in rapid-fire succession. The first time you watch the film you will miss some of the jokes because you are chuckling, snorting or laughing out loud at the joke previous. The second half of this film reminds me of 'Airplane' by Zucker/Abrams/Zucker. They just throw joke after joke at you and let you pick out what you enjoy. The film has intellectual jokes, political puns, cinema homages and slapstick humor all combined. Diamond and Wilder collaborated on some of our greatest films. They combined on ‘Some Like It Hot’, ‘The Apartment’, ‘Irma La Douce’ and ‘The Fortune Cookie’ among others. Great fun!