One,
Cats: Comedy|This has got to be the fastest paced Billy Wilder picture ever. The story unfolds like a machine gun but in a good way. James Cagney stars as the head of Coca Cola in West Germany. He has eyes on the postion of Head of European Bottling. To please his boss back in Atlanta Cagney agrees to baby sit his daughter and keep this wild belle out of trouble while she is in West Berlin. Unfortunatly Scarlett has fallen for a card carrying member of the party. Also Scarlett does not quite get the Communist life style. Even more unfortunate is the discovery that Scarlett has married her Bolshevik boyfriend and with a good reason. This throws a huge monkey wrench into the life works of our hero (Cagney).
Jaqmes Cagney is brilliant, moving through this picture like a dancer on meth. He is hysterical. He also hated making this picture so much that he did not work for another five years and then it was only as a narrator of a children’s TV special. He also did not get along with Billy Wilder (Humphrey Bogart didn’t either) but maybe that was all part of a plan because Mr. Wilder left us one brilliant political / cold war satire. Safe for the kids and a history lesson (sort of) not to be missed.
Wednesday January 30th at 9:30 PM on Turner Classic Movies
November 27th, 2007 at 10:29 am
One of my favorites!! Some fun behind-the-scenes stuff you may not know…the movie was shooting in Berlin when the Wall went up in the summer of 1961…they had to re-do the script with the voice-over prologue to bring it up to date for audiences seeing it upon release, and they had to move the production to Munich. Also, Horst Buchholz (Otto) cracked up his car during filming and broke some ribs…they had to shoot around him until he was well enough to continue with the picture.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Thank you so much for reviewing one, two, three! When I first saw it last year I found it hilarious and wonderful, and I would highly encourage you (anyone reading this) to see it, especially if you are a history buff…