Top Favorite BILLY WILDER Movies
Below is a list of my favorite movies directed (and written) by Hollywood legend, Billy Wilder:
TOP FAVORITE BILLY WILDER MOVIES
1. "Some Like It Hot" (1959) - Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon starred in Wilder's and co-writer I.A.L. Diamond's adaptation of the 1935 French film, "Fanfare of Love", about two 1929 musicians who disguise themselves as women after witnessing several murders committed by a local gangster and his men. One of the best comedies I have ever seen, hands down. Probably the best.
2. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) - Gloria Swanson and William Holden starred in this film noir/black comedy classic about a struggling Hollywood screenwriter who becomes drawn into an affair "with beneficiaries" with a former silent-film star with deranged fantasies of resurrecting her film career. Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson co-starred in this marvelous classic.
3. "Double Indemnity" (1944) - Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson starred in this film noir classic and adaptation of James M. Cain's 1943 novella about an insurance salesman drawn into a murder plot by a Southern California housewife. Mystery writer Raymond Chandler co-wrote the script.
4. "The Apartment" (1960) - Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine starred in this Best Picture Oscar winner about an insurance clerk who allows senior co-workers to use his Upper West Side apartment to conduct their affairs, in hopes of climbing the corporate ladder. Fred MacMurray co-starred.
5. "Sabrina" (1954) - Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn and William Holden starred in this excellent adaptation of Samuel A. Taylor's 1953 Broadway play, "Sabrina Fair", about a chauffeur's daughter romantically torn between the two sons of a wealthy Long Island family.
6. "A Foreign Affair" (1948) - Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrick and John Lund starred in this cynical, yet entertaining romantic comedy about a U.S. Army captain torn between a U.S. Congresswoman and an ex-Nazi cafe singer in early post-World War II Berlin.
7. "Stalag 17" (1953) - William Holden won the Best Actor Oscar for his excellent portrayal of a cynical U.S. Air Corps airman at German prisoner-of-war camp during the last months of World War II, in this excellent adaptation of Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski's 1951 Broadway play. Don Taylor and Otto Preminger co-starred.
8. "The Major and the Minor" (1942) - Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland starred in this very funny adaptation of Edward Childs Carpenter's 1923 play, "Connie Goes Home" and Fannie Kilbourne's 1921 Saturday Evening Post story "Sunny Goes Home". This was Wilder's debut as director of an American film.
9. "Ace in the Hole" (1951) - Kirk Douglas starred in this brutal tale about a former major-city journalist who exploits a story about a man trapped in a New Mexico cave in order to rekindle his career. Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur and Porter Hall co-starred.
10. "Love in the Afternoon" (1957) - Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn starred in this scintillating romantic comedy about a romance between an aging playboy businessman and the daughter of a French private detective, hired to investigate him; in this adaptation of Claude Anet's 1920 novel, "Ariane, jeune fille russe (Ariane, Young Russian Girl)". Maurice Chevalier co-starred.