One, Two, Three
1961
*****
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis, Liselotte Pulver, Howard St. John, Hanns Lothar, Leon Askin, Til Kiwe, Red Buttons, Peter Capell, Ralf Wolter
The head of the Coca Cola company in West Berlin hopes to win a promotion and leave the torn city behind, but he has a mountain to climb after his boss' 17-year-old daughter marries an East German Communist under his watchful eye. Billy Wilder's Cold War satire is a fascinating time capsule of an era gone by, but most importantly it is a hilarious and lighting-paced comedy which ridicules communism, capitalism, and Nazi Germany in equal measure. James Cagney deliver the rapid-fire dialogue with style is one his last roles. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on Ferenc Molnar's 1929 play Egy, kettő, három and partly on Ernst Lubitsch's 1939 film Ninotchka.
