Movie · 1963 · Romance, Comedy · 2h 27m · NR · English
Curator score: 5.9/10 (51.7K ratings)
A story of passion, bloodshed, desire and death... everything, in fact, that makes life worth living.
Overview
When a recently fired policeman falls in love with a French prostitute, he doesn't want her to be with other men, so he creates an alter-ego in order to become her only customer.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.9/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.76/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Metacritic: 63
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Billy Wilder
Production
Phalanx Productions, The Mirisch Company
Cast
Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon, Lou Jacobi, Bruce Yarnell, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Holiday, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, Cliff Osmond, Diki Lerner, Herb Jones, Ruth Earl, Jane Earl, Tura Satana, Lou Krugman, James Brown, Bill Bixby, John Alvin
Where to watch
fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, off-kilter Billy Wilder farce with terrific chemistry between Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, but it’s also overlong, tonally erratic, and built on a premise that can feel ethically messy even by old-Hollywood-comedy standards. The pleasures are real: polished direction, Parisian spectacle, and a few very funny stretches. But it’s not as sharp or airtight as Wilder’s best work.
Best for
Billy Wilder completists
fans of Lemmon/MacLaine chemistry
viewers who like elaborate studio-era comedies
people open to sex farce with a bittersweet edge
Skip if
you want a tight, fast-paced comedy
you’re sensitive to outdated sexual politics
you prefer clean romantic logic
you expect the level of wit of The Apartment or Some Like It Hot
Overview
Billy Wilder turns a risqué French boulevard premise into a lavish studio farce, and the result is as polished as it is unruly. Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine are the main attraction: both are funny, warm, and easy to watch even when the plot starts wobbling under its own disguises and complications.
Worth noting
What makes the film interesting is also what makes it messy. It wants to be a romance, a sex comedy, and a social satire at once, and those gears don’t always mesh. Wilder’s eye for production design and comic timing keeps it moving, but the movie can feel overextended, with jokes and detours that land unevenly.
Bottom line
Still, there’s a strong appeal in its mixture of glamour and sleaze, tenderness and absurdity. It’s not one of Wilder’s essential masterpieces, but it is a distinctive one: a big, strange, old-school comedy that’s often more memorable for its mood and performances than for its plot mechanics.
Top Letterboxd reviews
ReCreation (3.5★) · 1324 likes
Easily the second best movie about Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine sharing an apartment.
russman (3.5★) · 888 likes
Didn't realize you needed so many degrees to be a bartender
Sara Clements (3.5★) · 541 likes
I don’t know what Billy Wilder was on when he wrote this screenplay, but I want it.
Raul Marques (4★) · 373 likes
For about an hour or so, I was almost convinced to be watching an undertalked masterpiece that got obfuscated by Wilder's impressive repertoire. The heightened art direction, from the elaborated Paris' streets set, to the eye-popping Technicolor cinematography, to the distinctive costumes, were all a perfect fit for a script that immaculately tied the bittersweet romance of 'The Apartment' with the silly sex-comedy antics of 'The Seven Year Itch'. Even the themes seemed magnificently progressive for its time period, with… more For about an hour or so, I was almost convinced to be watching an undertalked masterpiece that got obfuscated by Wilder's impressive repertoire. The heightened art direction, from the elaborated Paris' streets set, to the eye-popping Technicolor cinematography, to the distinctive costumes, were all a perfect fit for a script that immaculately tied the bittersweet romance of 'The Apartment' with the silly sex-comedy antics of 'The Seven Year Itch'. Even the themes seemed magnificently progressive for its time period, with… more
Sydney🚀 (3.5★) · 227 likes
An absolutely insane movie about a man who crashes out because he can’t handle his girlfriend being a sex worker, that was clearly trying to lean into the love for The Apartment and Some Like It Hot and the result is a tonally and ethically erratic sound stage bonanza, complete with an alcoholic dog and war stories and disguises and pimps and romance and prison escapes. I’m not sure if the stage production was widely acclaimed but it didn’t have Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine and this is indeed further proof that they are one of the greatest onscreen pairings of all time.
1959 · Comedy, Romance, Crime · 2h 3m · NR · Curator 9.7/10 (658.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
For Wilder’s most exuberant disguise comedy, with rapid-fire farce, gender play, and star chemistry that never sags.
1955 · Comedy, Romance · 1h 45m · NR · Curator 4.3/10 (115.2K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, TCM, Darkroom, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A breezier sex-comedy cousin with similar themes of desire, temptation, and comic male self-delusion.
1966 · Comedy, Drama, Crime · 2h 5m · NR · Curator 5.5/10 (32.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
If the appeal is Lemmon’s comic timing and Wilder’s dry cynicism, this is a strong follow-up with a sharper edge.
1963 · Comedy, Mystery, Romance · 1h 53m · NR · Curator 8.5/10 (289K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Philo, Pure Flix, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Bloodstream
For viewers who like glossy 1960s style, romantic banter, and a playful sense of deception.