One, Two, Three. (U.)
Directed by Billy Wilder. 1961.
Starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis, Howard St. John, Hanns Lothar and Lilo Pulver. Out on Blu-ray from Eureka Masters of Cinema. 104 mins.
One, Two, Three is not one of the great movie titles and doesn't bear much relation to this farce about a harrassed Coca Cola executive Cagney in pre-Wall Cold War Berlin. It only really makes sense if you think of it in terms of being the countdown to the start of a song, a very fast song. It's Hey Hoy Let's Go, because Wilder 's follow up to Some Like It Hot and The Apartment is one of the most frantic movies this master of quickfire dialogue ever made. Reportedly the cover of Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's script bore the message, "This piece must be played molto furioso. Suggested speed: 110 miles an hour--on the curves--140 miles an hour in the straightaways."
Cagney is McNamara, the chief executive in Coca Cola's Berlin branch, who is trying to expand the brand behind the Iron Curtain and trying to get away from his family long enough to pursue his course of "German lessons" with his blonde secretary Ingeborg (Pulver.) Problems arise while he is trying to handle the visit of his boss's wayward teenage daughter (Tiffin) and finds out that she has secretly married an idealistic young commie Otto (Bucholtz.) Trying to extradite himself and his career prospects from this predicament necessitates a lot of toing and froing, people bursting through doors, transvestism and shouting, lots of shouting.
Ah, one does so loathe a good farce. I used to love them, back in the days of Fawlty Towers but gradually came to feel that most farces could be improved by adhering to the motto Less Haste, More Speed. They hurtle along and don't get anywhere. The script is adapted, very loosely apparently, from a play by the Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnar and though the film may have a car chase and location shot at the Brandenburg Gate it is still stagebound. Particularly in the last half hour, the whirl of movement in and out of McNamara's office becomes a tad wearing.
One, Two, Three looks dull, but it sounds glorious. The dialogue is consistently hilarious. Talking of their new life in Moscow Otto tells his bride, "They have assigned us a magnificent apartment. Just a short walk from the bathroom.” The script rattles them out and there's barely a duffer among them. (A few topical references have been lost to time though.) It's boldly funny too, prodding at German guilt over the war and Cold War anxieties. And it's not all talking, there are some great sight gags: a picture of Khrushchev that falls out of its frame to reveal a Stalin portrait stuck behind and the film gets remarkable mileage out of a cuckoo clock that plays Yankee Doodle Dandy and there is the.
The film was a flop when it came out, despite the very sporting efforts of the CCCP to drum up publicity for it and enhance its relevance by dividing Berlin with a great big wall even as Wilder was shooting it. The film's reputation has grown steadily since and as someone who has been a bit up and down with Wilder, I thought it was a riot.
One thing though and I say this with great caution but, honesty, I didn't really think Cagney was very good. He's there for his energy and his reputation, but he is so unrelenting, so unwavering, so lacking in variation he comes across as blunt and crude.
Stalag 17
Ace In the Hole
Some Like It Hot
The Appartment
Double Indemnity
Extras
Available to order from:
Amazon https://amzn.to/2IfCLl5
Directed by Billy Wilder. 1961.
Starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis, Howard St. John, Hanns Lothar and Lilo Pulver. Out on Blu-ray from Eureka Masters of Cinema. 104 mins.
One, Two, Three is not one of the great movie titles and doesn't bear much relation to this farce about a harrassed Coca Cola executive Cagney in pre-Wall Cold War Berlin. It only really makes sense if you think of it in terms of being the countdown to the start of a song, a very fast song. It's Hey Hoy Let's Go, because Wilder 's follow up to Some Like It Hot and The Apartment is one of the most frantic movies this master of quickfire dialogue ever made. Reportedly the cover of Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's script bore the message, "This piece must be played molto furioso. Suggested speed: 110 miles an hour--on the curves--140 miles an hour in the straightaways."
Cagney is McNamara, the chief executive in Coca Cola's Berlin branch, who is trying to expand the brand behind the Iron Curtain and trying to get away from his family long enough to pursue his course of "German lessons" with his blonde secretary Ingeborg (Pulver.) Problems arise while he is trying to handle the visit of his boss's wayward teenage daughter (Tiffin) and finds out that she has secretly married an idealistic young commie Otto (Bucholtz.) Trying to extradite himself and his career prospects from this predicament necessitates a lot of toing and froing, people bursting through doors, transvestism and shouting, lots of shouting.
Ah, one does so loathe a good farce. I used to love them, back in the days of Fawlty Towers but gradually came to feel that most farces could be improved by adhering to the motto Less Haste, More Speed. They hurtle along and don't get anywhere. The script is adapted, very loosely apparently, from a play by the Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnar and though the film may have a car chase and location shot at the Brandenburg Gate it is still stagebound. Particularly in the last half hour, the whirl of movement in and out of McNamara's office becomes a tad wearing.
One, Two, Three looks dull, but it sounds glorious. The dialogue is consistently hilarious. Talking of their new life in Moscow Otto tells his bride, "They have assigned us a magnificent apartment. Just a short walk from the bathroom.” The script rattles them out and there's barely a duffer among them. (A few topical references have been lost to time though.) It's boldly funny too, prodding at German guilt over the war and Cold War anxieties. And it's not all talking, there are some great sight gags: a picture of Khrushchev that falls out of its frame to reveal a Stalin portrait stuck behind and the film gets remarkable mileage out of a cuckoo clock that plays Yankee Doodle Dandy and there is the.
The film was a flop when it came out, despite the very sporting efforts of the CCCP to drum up publicity for it and enhance its relevance by dividing Berlin with a great big wall even as Wilder was shooting it. The film's reputation has grown steadily since and as someone who has been a bit up and down with Wilder, I thought it was a riot.
One thing though and I say this with great caution but, honesty, I didn't really think Cagney was very good. He's there for his energy and his reputation, but he is so unrelenting, so unwavering, so lacking in variation he comes across as blunt and crude.
Stalag 17
Ace In the Hole
Some Like It Hot
The Appartment
Double Indemnity
Extras
- Limited Edition O Card slipcase [2000 copies ONLY]
- 1080p presentation on Blu-ray
- LPCM audio (original mono presentation)
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Brand New and Exclusive Interview with film scholar Neil Sinyard
- Feature Length Audio Commentary by Film Historian Michael Schlesinger
- PLUS: A Collector’s booklet featuring new essays by film scholar Henry K. Miller, critic Adam Batty, and archival material
Available to order from:
Amazon https://amzn.to/2IfCLl5
