One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961)

One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961)
Rating: 8.5

This film is based on a French theatrical farce and was adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. The film portrays an American executive for the Coca-Cola named C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney)who is stationed in West Berlin during the Cold War. Seeing as it is a farce, everyone in the film is an exaggerated caricature representing capitalism, communism, fascism, Americans, Southerners, Yankees, Soviets, Germans, etc. MacNamara is given the responsibility of looking after his boss's 17 year old, bourgeois, boy-crazy, daughter who ends up marrying a communist from East Berlin. The story takes off from there as a wacky frenzy of events begin to unfold. The jokes and dialogue, and sometimes obscure references are incredibly fast paced and sometimes hard to catch, but nonetheless hilarious. Sarcasm, satire, one-liners, and topical humor are prevalent and the script really carries the film along with a colorful cast of characters. This film isn't for everyone. In such an absurd farce as this, the viewer will be asked to suspend their disbelief; and perhaps some cultural background knowledge of the time period would be helpful before viewing, but if you have any sort of sense of humor this is a very entertaining film.