Four-star movie: One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
Director: Billy Wilder
1961
This was James Cagney's last major role, and he was great in it. He's onstage about 90% of the time. That said, this was a stupid and obnoxious movie unless you're able to put yourself in the comic book mindset this movie is set in. It's set in the Berlin of 1960, just before the Berlin Wall went up.
All the Americans are greedy and materialistic, and all the Communists are sneaky and either evil or greedy. People change their allegiances at the drop of a hat, and all the main German characters are secret ex-Nazis -- but not very good ones, they quickly assure you.
The timing was unfortunate on this, since once the Berlin Wall was in place, the whole premise didn't seem so funny, and in fact it was initially a box-office flop. However, it was re-released 1985 in France and Germany and became a box office success, especially in West Berlin. Go figure.
(I've been watching a lot of movies over the past week or two, and am trying to catch up on posts about them, so there will be several coming up. Once the new TV season starts, things will slacken up considerably.)
Director: Billy Wilder
1961
This was James Cagney's last major role, and he was great in it. He's onstage about 90% of the time. That said, this was a stupid and obnoxious movie unless you're able to put yourself in the comic book mindset this movie is set in. It's set in the Berlin of 1960, just before the Berlin Wall went up.
All the Americans are greedy and materialistic, and all the Communists are sneaky and either evil or greedy. People change their allegiances at the drop of a hat, and all the main German characters are secret ex-Nazis -- but not very good ones, they quickly assure you.
The timing was unfortunate on this, since once the Berlin Wall was in place, the whole premise didn't seem so funny, and in fact it was initially a box-office flop. However, it was re-released 1985 in France and Germany and became a box office success, especially in West Berlin. Go figure.
(I've been watching a lot of movies over the past week or two, and am trying to catch up on posts about them, so there will be several coming up. Once the new TV season starts, things will slacken up considerably.)