Results: Billy Wilder, Multi Award Winner Motion-Picture Scenarist, Director, and Producer. His cinematic art was a mixture of Cynicism and Romanticism. In Part One I present a selection of some of his Comedies

"Some Like it Hot" tells the story of two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, who witness the the St. Valentine's Day Massacre! They want to get out of town and get away from the gangster responsible, Spats Colombo. They're desperate to get a gig out of town but the only job they know of is in an all-girl band heading to Florida. They show up at the train station as Josephine and Daphne, the replacement saxophone and bass players. They certainly enjoy being around the girls, especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk who sings and plays the ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by a millionaire, Osgood Fielding III. Mayhem ensues as the two men try to keep their true identities hidden and Spats Colombo and his crew show up in Florida for a meeting with several other crime lords. This film had multiple Oscar Nominations and won the Oscar for Best Costume Design, Have you seen "Some Like it Hot"?

"Irma La Duce" tells of a Naive, by-the-book French police officer Nestor Patou, is transferred to the Red Light district. Upon witnessing what must be a brothel, he calls the station, organizes a raid, and transports all the 'ladies' to the jail. Unfortunately, this disrupts the well-organized system of the police and the Pimps union. Not to mention inadvertently netting his station superior at the brothel. Fired, he goes to a bar to drink, is befriended by Irma, beats up her pimp, and finds that he is her pimp now. He does not like the thought of his girl seeing other men, so he comes up with a plan. One very rich customer. This film won the Oscar for Best Musical Score and many Nominations. Have you seen "Irma La Douce"?

"The Fortune Cookie" launched the partnership of Lemmon and Matthau. It tells the story of a TV cameraman Harry Hinkle, injured while filming a football game. Seeing an opportunity for big, easy money, his unscrupulous ambulance-chasing lawyer brother-in-law, enters the picture. He gets Harry to overstate his injuries and claim $1 million in pain and suffering. Harry's similarly-minded ex-wife suddenly reappear and tries to rekindle their relationship. Meanwhile, the football player who hit Harry struggles with the outcome of his actions. Walter Matthau Steals the Show in His Oscar-Winning Role. Have you seen The Fortune Cookie?

"The Apartment" tells the story of mild mannered C.C. Baxter who has been working at Consolidated Life, an insurance company, for close to four years, and is one of close to 32,000 employees located in their Manhattan Head Office. To distinguish himself from all the other lowly cogs in the company in the hopes of moving up the corporate ladder, he often works late, but only because he can't get into his apartment, located off of Central Park West, since he has provided it to a handful of company executives - Mssrs. Dobisch, Kirkeby, Vanderhoff and Eichelberger - on a rotating basis for their extramarital liaisons in return for a good word to the personnel director, Jeff D. Sheldrake. When Baxter is called into Sheldrake's office for the first time, he learns that it isn't just to be promoted as he expects, but also to add married Sheldrake to the list to who he will lend his apartment. Dobisch, Kirkeby, Vanderhoff and Eichelberger are now feeling neglected as Baxter no longer needs their assistance in moving up. So they get even, with surprising results. This film was made into a Tony Award Winning Broadway Musical titled "Promises Promises"adapted by Neil Simon, Music by Burt Bacharach and Lyrics by Hal David. have you seen....

This version of "The Front Page" was the first to mention the city by name and use actual Chicago newspapers. Billy Wilder felt that Chicago was the most exciting newspaper town in the country. When Hildy Johnson, the top reporter of a Chicago newspaper, announces that he is quitting to get married, his editor, Walter Burns, desperately tries to change his mind. When denial, cursing, and luring don't work, Walter resorts to tricks. It's the day before a supposed communist is to be hanged, and all Chicago waits with bated breath. Meanwhile, each of the city's papers has a man on the story trying to get a scoop or angle for themselves. With a train to catch at midnight to join his fiancé, Hildy is at first not interested, but events and his own habits work against him as the day unfolds, and he can't help but get roped in, especially when the man to be executed escapes and then almost literally falls into his lap. Have you seen......

"Buddy Buddy" reunited Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in a black comedy. It's the beginning of a ferociously funny friendship...in 1981's craziest comedy. Matthau is a hitman preparing to bump off the witnesses in a Mafia trial. Only one witness remains, and the hitman checks in at a hotel with the aim of shooting the witness from his window. Checking in next door is a depressed man, Jack Lemmon, suicidal because his wife is having an affair with her doctor. His issues accidentally stymie the hitman at every turn. When director Billy Wilder was hired by MGM to do an American version of the French comedy A Pain in the Ass (1973), he said, "I hadn't been working enough, and I was anxious to get back on the horse and do what I do--write, direct. This wasn't a picture I would have chosen." This was the last film Lemmon, Matthau and Wilder did together. Have you seen Buddy Buddy?