Billy Wilder's first post-World War II return to Berlin, "A Foreign Affair" (1948), was a blend of romance, thriller, and comedy that included an American man accustomed to local ways (John Lund), an ethnocentric American woman wreaking havoc on a visit (Jean Arthur), and a pouty German sex toy (Marlene Dietrich). By the time Wilder returned to shoot another picture in 1961, the rubble had been cleared at least from the western sector and instead of a soldier in the army of occupation, the American prospering in Berlin was the local Coca Cola executive, C. P. MacNamara (James Cagney). The female American visitor with more clout than sense this time was Scarlett Hazeltine, the daughter of his boss (Pamela Tiffin), who snuck out at night for a liaison with humorless young communist in the eastern sector, Otto Ludwig Piffl (Horst Bucholz in a part closer to the title role in "Ninotchka" that Wilder co-wrote and Greta Garbo played).
When I first saw "One, Two, Three" on tv as a preteen, I thought it was hilarious. It was the first film with James Cagney that I saw. I thought his machine-gun delivery delightful, and Horst Bucholz titillating eye candy. I had trouble believing that anyone could be as stupid as Scarlett, but enjoyed Arlene Francis as the unbemused Mrs. MacNamara.
Having enjoyed the movie at a young age, I was reluctant to risk disappointment by seeing it again. I was relieved that I still found the leads funny, still found Bucholz (who just died) sexy in it, and found Tiffin a bit less annoying, though still very much a caricature of the spoiled, egocentric Southern belle.
Wilder and cowriter I. A. L. Diamond satirize (Coca Cola) capitalism, (idealistic) communism, authority-worshipping Germans (under a thin veneer of denazification) Cold War profiteering on both sides (just before the Berlin Wall went up), manipulating the police, male and female lusts, and more.
To become head of European operations for Coca Cola, MacNamara wants to open the market of the Soviet Empire to Coca Cola and deals with three Soviet commissars (more or less lifted from "Ninotchka," too). And he is under pressure from his mistress/secretary Ingeborg (Lilo Pulver) to spend more time with her. He seems on the verge of success in both endeavors when he has to babysit his boss's daughter, which means his wife can't go away on a vacation, which means he has no time for his mistress. The he is beset with the problems of Scarlett's highly unsuitable romance. He resolves that but has to undo his handiwork and turn Otto Ludwig into a presentable partner for Scarlett before her parents arrive.
Such comedies as he appeared in, Cagney was amusing (The Bride Came C.O.D., Mister Roberts, and Strawberry Blonde, the last only sort of a comedy). He won his Academy Award in a musical (Yankee Doodle Dandy) and specialized in brash gangsters (Public Enemy, Roaring Twenties, White Heat). He disliked the experience of filming outside the US so much that he retired after "One, Two, Three" (he came out of retirement twenty years later in "Ragtime" and, two years later, a fitting finale in "The Terrible Joe Moran" with Art Carney and Ellen Barkin).
I've never seen any of Horst Bucholz's German-language movies (I'd really like to see him as Thomas Mann's charming rogue, Felix Krull) , but he was very good in "The Magnificent Seven, "Tiger Bay," and "Nine Hours to Rama," films in English released between 1959 and 1963. (I can't remember "Fanny" with Leslie Caron in the title role, though I know I saw it once upon a time.) Francis had a kind of Ann Sothern drollness, but made few movies (but a lot of tv game shows, including at the time of this movie, "What's My Line?") Wilder admire Tiffin's comic timing, but her Hollywood career fizzled by the mid-1960s.
The soundtrack by André Previn (augmented by Katchachurian's "Saber dance") and crisp black-and-white cinematography of Daniel Fapp (nominated for an Oscar and winning one that year for "West Side Story") help showcase the Wilder/Diamond lines and the superb performance by Cagney.
"One, Two, Three" was not a commercial success at the time, seemingly rendered outdated by the construction of the Berlin Wall during its filming, but since the reunification of Germany, "One, Two, Three" has been a popular farcical look back Wilder's next movie, "Irma la Douce," was his biggest commercial success, but in my opinion is not nearly as good. Indeed, I prefer the much maligned film after that, ("Kiss Me, Stupid") to "Irma," though I wonder what it would have been with Charles Laughton (as Moustache, the part played by Lou Jacobi).
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