Billy Wilder

Double Indemnity
Lost Weekend, The
Sunset Boulevard
Ace in the Hole (The Big Carnival)
Stalag 17
Sabrina
Seven Year Itch, The
Witness for the Prosecution
Some Like It Hot
Apartment, The
One, Two, Three
Kiss Me, Stupid
Fortune Cookie, The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The
Avanti!
Fedora

I hear that the lack of any easily accessible copy of Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival is quite the tragedy, though.

I have only seen Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment, and I will heartily recommend them without any reservation whatsoever.

*gives an imaginary third person the raspberry*

I like Wilder fine, it'd just be more fun and interesting (and un-Crowe-ish, shudder) to bury rather than praise.

exhibit A: Love in the Afternoon

I have a list of films I've personally compiled. I haven't seen most of them, but it's a good quick reference for me.

It essentially is a masterlist compilation of a large number of other lists, but only from ones I felt were good, relevant, or had a number of interesting picks I wouldn't have found otherwise. Occasionally I've even included everything listed in the indices of very select books. My only rule is that it's all or nothing - I don't cherry pick what titles from those lists should make it, and therefore my personal taste has no value, aside from picking the lists themselves. It is currently holding at close to 4000 films, and pretty much from the first hundred on, as I slowly started compiling it, I've maintained a steady rate of having seen between 15 and 20 percent of it.

Edgar G. Robinson is also great in that one.

Sunset Blvd. has to be one of the most classic movie endings.

I don't know who the actor was in Stalag 17 that played the guy with the googly eyes who is obsessed with Betty Grable, but he should have been in 50 more movies, as he has great warped look.

i ask again: who can help me find a copy of ace in the hole?

that list above might come in handy

I watched Love In The Afternoon tonight and what a stupid movie. Why did they cast Gary Cooper alongside Audrey Hepburn? Were grandpa playboys not creeper in the late 50's? His lines were lame compared to her's and are we suppose to believe a young clever cellist living in france has no other options than a rich aging womanizer? The more Billy Wilder films I watch the less he impresses me. I'm beginning to think Ace In The Hole and maybe the Apartment are the only films I really enjoy of his. This film really pissed me off, almost as much as Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Both are stupid aging male fantasies clumsily getting the younger smarter woman. What a crock of shit.

down boy down

Fwiw, the Cooper part in LITA was supposed to be played by Cary Grant (who was also old, but not as decrepit looking as Cooper).

The new Harper’s has something of his about being a taxi dancer from an upcoming collection of his writing.

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/02/an-honest-living-billy-wilder-nightclub-dancer/

Rave reviews of the new book from Molly Haskell and J. Hoberman and some others with whom I am not familiar.

Oh, this must be drawing from the same well of journalistic writing that I had a German-language anthology from? Those are great.

One of my fav moments is when he profiles an American businessman and states that "only an American could enjoy drinking this strange 'coca cola'", foreshadowing for 123.

Excellent!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One%2C_Two%2C_Three
Check out the Saul Bass poster!

https://isv.m4uhd.tv/asset/2020/october/01/one-two-three-1961.jpg

Found the Coca-Cola thing, I think. Very funny.

“Hello, Mr. Menjou?”

HE SPEAKS A CHARMING GERMAN—HIS MOTHER IS FROM LEIPZIG

W. R. Wilkerson drinks Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola, which tastes like burned tires. But it is said to be very refreshing. W. R. Wilkerson is in love with Coca-Cola. He is now on his fourth glass. When someone is in love with Coca-Cola, you can bet your last pair of pants, with wonderful odds, that this fan is an American. And if he pours four glasses into himself at once, he is surely a tired American.