As his last movies fade from memory, many of the earlier ones directed (and cowritten) by Billy Wilder (1906-2002) are being recognized as masterpieces — not that, with the exception of "Ace in the Hole" they went unlauded on their initial release. "Double Indemnity" is now regarded as the archetypal cinema noir and "Some Like It Hot" topped the AFI list of American comedies, "Sunset Boulevard" was turned into a musical, "Sabrina" was remade, etc.

I have championed two of his commercially unsuccessful 1960s movie— One, Two, Three (1961) and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)—along with his last commercial success, The Fortune Cookie (1966) and mostly concur with Jankp's enthusiastic endorsement of Avanti! (1972), and something of a cult has developed around what I consider the dreary remnants of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) (see Macresarf1, counsel for the defense of that one).

The most profitable of Wilder's movies was the 1962 "Irma la Douce." Indeed, at the time, it was the highest grossing comedy movie ever. It reunited Wilder with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine the stars of his Oscar-winning 1960 "The Apartment." I saw "Irma" once during the 1970s and thought it not very funny and not very winning. For one thing, in common with all Wilder's movies after "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957)—and, yes, I am including "Some Like It Hot" and "The Apartment"—"Irma" runs too long: 143 minutes.

"Irma la Douce" was a stage musical, and Wilder set out to direct it as a musical movie, but kept cutting songs until none were left. (MacLaine was a dancer, and one dance remains.) I don't recall any hit songs from the Broadway musical, and music from it was used by André Previn in the movie's soundtrack (one which one Previn an Oscar). Even without anyone bursting into song, "Irma" retains a lot of the irreality of musicals. It is a fairy tale about a (relatively) happy hooker and the "nice guy" who becomes her pimp but does not approve of her profession and wants her all to himself.

The theme of (male) jealousy and going to extraordinary lengths to keep the beloved from making it with other men recurs in "Kiss Me, Stupid." There Ray Walston supplies a surrogate for the visiting womanizer Dean Martin to keep him off Walston's wife, played by Felicia Farr, Jack Lemmon's real-life wife. (The surrogate is a sweet Kim Novak resigned to being a sex object.) A pimp living off the earnings of one prostitute presents a greater challenge for monopolizing the beloved. Increasing stable size would be one means, but Jack Lemmon's Nestor Patou undertakes a totally unbelievable scheme: doing heavy labor while Irma sleeps to make money, then adopting a transparent disguise of being an English lord whose parts were lost during the war and who pays Irma to play cards with him twice a week, so that she will not have to have sex with any customers.

I don't have any trouble believing that a man might undertake extreme and silly measures to try to ensure his monopoly over a woman. (If a woman does, it's not a comedy...) What is unbelievable is that these measure are supposed to work. For them to work,
(1) Irma has not to notice that her bed is empty while she sleeps during the day,
(2) Irma has not to notice how tired Nestor is when she (supposedly they) wake up in the evening,
(3) Nestor's wages in the meat market have to generate enough income to match Irma's weekly earning plying her trade,
(4) Irma has not to notice the resemblance between Nestor and her Lord X,
(5) Nestor has to be plausible as an emasculated English aristocrat,
and (6) no-one notices Nestor going in and out of the pimp bar's basement on an external elevator on the street where all the prostitutes loiter.
Many of these require Irma to be very stupid, though other elements of the plot require her to be fairly savvy. The only one of these six prerequisites of success for Nestor about which I can suspend disbelief is #5, and this only because the French characters speak American English.

I often find the comic Jack Lemmon's spluttering fussiness more irritating than amusing (generally sympathizing with the Walter Matthau characters in their many pairings). Those who find it entertaining would find "Irma" a better movie than I do. However, Lemmon also seems too old for the part of a beginning policeman (his position at the start of the movie).

MacLaine is supposed to have been on the scene for a while, and does not seem too old for the part of Irma. The original plan was to cast Elizabeth Taylor in the part. That I find hard to imagine. Taylor lacked the insouciance for the part. Lord knows she could smolder, but sex was serious for Taylor, even when it was her business (Butterfield 8). MacLaine's cuteness cloys, but she is convincing in the fantasy of the happy hooker.

The original plan was for Charles Laughton to play the lovable scoundrel barkeeper Moustache. The great ham Laughton probably would have brought more to the part of Moustache, which is the best written one (perhaps honed by rehearsals of Laughton on his deathbed by Wilder). Lou Jacobi is funny and the cynics always have the best lines in Wilder movies.

The cast also includes an uncredited James Caan as a soldier more interested in listening to the radio broadcast of a Dodgers game than in the prostitute he is going with to the hotel that rents rooms by the hour (passing Howard McNear, the neighbor on "Bewitched," as the desk clerk). Bruce Yarnell, as Hippolyte, the pimp who was running Irma until he is knocked cold in a farcical brawl by Nestor, is totally unfunny, and the names of other prostitutes are less funny than they are supposed to be.

There are some funny parts, including Nestor's arrival at the police station in a paddy wagon filled with prostitutes he has arrested (and his appeal to their clients to be witnesses of the crime of prostitution), the return of Lord X, Irma telling off Hippolyte, and the reason Nestor is rehired. However, I think the movie would be better if an hour was cut out of the middle (Lord X) part. I've already mentioned that I think that all Wilder's later movies run on too long.

The soundstage Paris set looks like an MGM musical rather than Paris. (There is some stock footage from Paris, but none with any of the actors.)

Considering that the Hollywood Production Code was still very much in place and the massive attack by the Catholic Legion of Decency on "Kiss Me, Stupid," a year later, it is remarkable that "Irma la Douce" was accepted. Although like "Stupid" it focused on fidelity, Irma and Nestor are not married, Irma and every other woman shown in the movie is a prostitute, Nestor is living off the earnings of a prostitute, Irma is nude in a number of (discreetly shot) scenes, authorities are corrupt buffoons, etc. Even married couples were outfitted with twin beds by the Production Code. I don't think that Irma and Nestor kiss, and they do not simulate sexual coupling, but they are in the same double bed (with Irma announcedly nude, a forbidden word...), there are a number of "dirty jokes," etc.

That "Irma la Douce" was smuttier than Hollywood movies of the time were allowed to be undoubtedly explains some of its box office success, along with the popularity of its stars (and some fans of the play?). Wilder liked the money "Irma" made but was quoted later as saying he'd have liked to reshoot 95% of it. I wish that (1) he'd undertaken a "director's cut" that really cut extraneous material, and (2) he'd recorded commentary tracks on all his movies. The DVD of "Irma" is lacking in extras, only including the theatrical trailer (the widescreen aspect ratio is 2.35:1, BTW).


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age