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Synopsis: One of director Billy Wilder's biggest box office hits following his landmark comedies SOME LIKE IT HOT and THE APARTMENT the spectacular IRMA LA DOUCE -- adapted from the 1956 musical for the French theatre -- reunites Wilder with his Apartment stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, providing the latter with one of her most fondly remembered (and Oscar-nominated) early roles.

MacLaine is Irma, a popular Parisian prostitute whose new pimp is an unlikely procurer: Nestor (Lemmon) is a former honest cop who was just fired and framed by his boss after Nestor inadvertently had him arrested in a raid. However, Nestor's love for Irma is making his newfound vocation impossible, so he poses as a phoney British lord who insists on being Irma's one and only "client." But when "Lord X" appears to have become the victim of foul play...further comedic complications ensue!

IRMA LA DOUCE offers many of the same sardonic observations on human nature as Wilder's earlier comedies -- in addition to the same riotous humour and touching romance -- but on an even broader, more colourful canvas. Collaborating again with his regular screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond, Wilder delivers one of his most purely entertaining crowd-pleasers of the 1960s.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

1080p presentation on Blu-ray
LPCM Mono audio
Optional English SDH subtitles
Brand New and Exclusive Interview with film scholar Neil Sinyard
Feature Length Audio Commentary by critic and film historian Kat Ellinger
Feature Length Audio Commentary by film historian Joseph McBride
PLUS: A Collector's booklet featuring a new essay by Richard Combs, alongside a wide selection of rare archival imagery.

STREET DATE: MARCH 18.

I loved One, Two, Three the first and only time I saw it, so we'll see

Finch wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:56 pmThe artwork for One, Two, Three is excellent, pity the film is mid-tier Wilder at best.

It's not one of Wilder's best, but it's fine entertainment propelled by Cagney's last great performance.

There's only a handful of actors who arguably made every film they were in more interesting, more entertaining or just plain better, and for me Cagney is on that very short list.

Spoken as only someone who hasn't seen the Gallant Hours could! I like Cagney a lot, but his career is just full of dogs

Hah, well, did he make them worse?

This film for me was the equivalent of having to stand on a parade ground with a corporal shouting at you for two hours. Frenetic is about the best thing I can say about this unfunny film. I have a soft spot for Some Like It Hot, but heck, what a disappointment this was.

The MOC packaging looks great which is most of the reason I was interested, but MOC has released some real duds in recent years, and I'm nervous this would be one. Is Irma La Douce better?

I love Irma la Douce and hate this, but both are highly contentious Wilder films with vocal supporters and detractors. One, Two, Three is a really well-made barrage of flabbergastingly unfunny material that does not let up for a second. As I said in my original thumbnail on the film, I admired its construction but deplored what it constructed. If you're on the same wavelength as its comic inspirations, you'll love it. If not, you're fucked for 2+ hours (see Calugula's dead-on comments upthread)

I think I'm a bigger fan of the I.A.L. Diamond years - and I'm definitely less fond of the Brackett years - than most, but One, Two, Three is pretty handily Wilder's best for me. Relentless in both its pace and contempt for everything and everyone, the latter of which Wilder finally harnesses into something that damns himself alongside everyone else; the cynicism turns all the way. It's clear to me he saw a lot of himself in the Cagney character, and the film is at once certain of his superiority and bemused by his silliness, which gives to whole thing some juice that the rest of Wilder's work never really musters.

But again...if you highly value the rest of Wilder, I could see why this particular feeling is not something you'd value as much.

Well, I thought One, Two, Three was hilarious (as did a fairly packed audience at BAM). The first time I saw it was with a friend and his grandmother (who fled to America as a young Jewish girl with the rest of her family right before WWII), and our favorite bit involved Cagney's assistant.

Spoiler

C.R. MacNamara: Just between us, Schlemmer, what did you do during the war?
Schlemmer: I was in der Untergrund: the underground.
C.R. MacNamara: Resistance fighter?
Schlemmer: No, motorman. In the underground, you know, the subway.
C.R. MacNamara: Of course you were anti-Nazi and you never liked Adolf.
Schlemmer: Adolf who?

[But later, Schlemmer recognizes the reporter Untermeyer (played by Til Kiwe)]
Schlemmer: Herr Oberleutnant!
C.R. MacNamara: You two know each other?
Schlemmer: He was my commanding officer.
C.R. MacNamara: In the subway?
Schlemmer: No, after that, when I was drafted.
C.R. MacNamara: Aha! Gestapo!
Schlemmer: No, no, SS.

Drucker wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:06 pm The MOC packaging looks great which is most of the reason I was interested, but MOC has released some real duds in recent years, and I'm nervous this would be one. Is Irma La Douce better?

Unlike Dom, I didn't really care for Irma (I think the Lemmon/Matthau films aren't much as much as I like them both) but I found this great. But I'm a bit of a sucker for these non stop talking screwballs (which is odd since I usually hate a lot of dialogue in my films) so I guess you'll have to give both a shot to see

domino harvey wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:13 pm I love Irma la Douce and hate this, but both are highly contentious Wilder films with vocal supporters and detractors. One, Two, Three is a really well-made barrage of flabbergastingly unfunny material that does not let up for a second. As I said in my original thumbnail on the film, I admired its construction but deplored what it constructed. If you're on the same wavelength as its comic inspirations, you'll love it. If not, you're fucked for 2+ hours (see Calugula's dead-on comments upthread)

I think that's pretty accurate and I'm your camp. Heavy-handed, extremely old-fashioned and spectacularly unfunny. One of the worst film experiences I've ever had.

I personally find this mid-tier Wilder but Wilder is one of my favourites so mid tier Wilder is still very high quality in my book. Out of all of the ones I really like, I would put it behind Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, Five Graves to Cairo and Witness for the Prosecution but *slightly* ahead of The Apartment, Some Like it Hot and Sabrina. I have yet to see Irma La Douce and some of his other later stuff (as well as A Foreign Affair and The Major and the Minor from his earlier stuff).

"A film that draws laughs the way a catheter draws urine" - Pauline Kael.

The MoC disc runs 27 seconds shorter than the Kino Lorber disc. At least part of that is probably a KL logo, which tends to run around 11 seconds on their discs. Does anyone know what the rest of the runtime difference is?
On the MoC disc, the film does not have any opening or closing logos. Does anyone have the Kino disc? Does it include MGM and/or UA logo(s) at the beginning or end that would account for the difference?