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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 12. 1964.

'Irma La Douce'.

'Irma La Douce'..

There was a time when Billy Wilder was regarded as the supreme cynic of the cinema. With films like Sunset Boulevard and Ace In The Hole he demonstrated his ability to portray the foibles of mankind with merciless accuracy and by the mid-fifties had established himself as one of America's major talents.

In recent years his attention has turned to comedy and Irma La Douce is his latest in this field. The film fails to measure up to his previous efforts, of which Some Like It Hot is the best. Despite a good script, once again written in collaboration with the mysterious Mr. Diamond, fine performances by the two leads, an impressive-looking set and an abundance of potentially screwball situations, the film fails to come off because of the lack of overall cohesion and a tendency to restraint rather than abandon.

Perhaps Wilder was so involved in re-creation of detail that he was incapable of investing the film with the zest characteristic of his other comedies. Notwithstanding anything lacking in the film as a whole, there are numerous minor delights. Jack Lemmon gives an hilarious interpretation of a bogus English lord, everyman's version of what the British think the Americans think the British are like. It is unashamedly caricature and all the more enjoyable as such. Shirley McLaine is her usual infectious self, if a little too ingratiating. Some beautiful lines ("You will be gentle, won't you?"), an assembly of motley supporting characters and a few fully developed zany situations add to the pleasures which the film provides.

It would have been interesting to see a Wilder-Peter Sellers combination but with the recent illness of the British star, it looks as though Kiss Me Stupid, with Dean Martin and Kim Novak, will be shelved, for the time being at any rate.