One, Two, Three (1961)
Directed by Billy Wilder

Film Review

Definitely one of the maddest, fastest and funniest film comedies of all time.  One, Two, Three is a typical Billy Wilder concoction of sharp social satire and exuberant farce, which begins at a gentle canter and ends up as a frantic steroid-enhanced steeplechase.  As in the Lubitsch comedy Ninotchka (1939) which he scripted, Wilder shows that capitalism and communism are equally worthy of ridicule, and he also has time to take a few satirical swipes at American family life, the French libido and German bureaucracy.  If you're a genius, you can laugh at anything.

Wilder may have written and directed the film but it is James Cagney who brings it to life.  In one of his best comedic roles, the 61-year old Cagney rattles off his lines so fast that it's almost a test of endurance for the audience to keep up with him. The authoritarian godfather-like executive he portrays so brilliantly immediately brings to mind the tough gangster roles for which he is best known.  It's nice to see Cagney on the brink of re-enacting his famous stunt with a grapefruit half - seen in The Public Enemy (1931) and then quote Edward G. Robinson's famous last line from Little Caesar (1930).  This was to be Cagney's penultimate film appearance.  It would be twenty years before he returned to the screen for his swansong, in Milos Forman's Ragtime (1981).

This may be Cagney's film, but his co-stars Horst Buchholz and Pamela Tiffin manage to make their mark - Buchholz as the ferociously idealistic West-hating communist and Tiffin as the sweet American lass with a knack for causing trouble.  The talented young German actor Horst Buchholz had established his international reputation with his part in The Magnificent Seven (1960) and throughout the 1960s he would appear in many high-profile films.

One other key ingredient in the film's success is André Previn's racy score, which emphasises the unflagging pace and energy set by Cagney's performance and Wilder's direction - particularly through its appropriation of the Sabre Dance from Khachaturian's Gayane ballet.  Daniel L. Fapp's stylish black and white photography is of an unusually high calibre for a mainstream comedy and brought the film its only Oscar nomination.  One, Two, Three may not have achieved the acclaim of Wilder's other films, but it is certainly one of his most enjoyable and enduring contributions to the art of comedy.

Film Synopsis

C.P. MacNamara is the head of Coca-Cola's operation in West Berlin and has a reputation for ruthless efficiency.  His well-ordered world begins to crumble when his boss lands his 17-year old daughter, Scarlett, on him during her visit to Germany.  MacNamara knows that if anything goes wrong he will end up in a back office in Atlanta instead of getting the cushy London transfer he has set his heart on.  Sure enough, something goes wrong.  Scarlett goes and gets married to a wild young Communist, Otto Ludwig Piffl, and is about to rush off and start a new life with him in Moscow.  Hearing that his boss is due to arrive in 24 hours to collect his daughter, MacNamara comes up with what looks like the perfect solution: he sets Otto up as a Western spy so that he is arrested on his return to East Germany.  Then the second bombshell goes off.  Scarlett is pregnant with Otto's child.  Could this be the end for MacNamara?