Films with: Wilder, Billy

Ace in the Hole

The Ace in the Hole, in this case, is Leo Minosa, trapped in a cliff dwelling near Albuquerque, N.M. The publicity from his situation could build a winning hand for several people: Chuck Tatum, manipulative veteran newsman; Lorraine, his bored wife who dreams of city lights; Sheriff Gus Kretzer, boosting his re-election campaign; and young Herbie, a reporter who wants to make the big leagues. In 1951, there was no 24-hour cable news, and the Albuquerque paper was not on the Internet. The modern media age, however, was dawning. A veritable carnival sets up at the rescue scene, which may be one of the sources of the term "media circus."

DVD 5362

Apartment

An ambitious office clerk plans to get ahead by lending out his apartment to his boss, but falls in love with the boss's girlfriend.

DVD 2013

Avanti

A man travels to Italy to claim his dead father's body, and discovers he has been conducting an affair there for years. Things get complicated when he falls for the woman's daughter.

DVD 3110

Ball of fire

When a serious-minded professor and his high brow colleagues begin work on a new encyclopedia, he enlists the aid of a beautiful but shady night club queen to explain slang, unaware that she is on the run from the mob.

DVD 83

Double indemnity

Walter Neff is a smooth talking insurance salesman who meets the very attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and have an affair. They scheme together to murder Phyllis' husband for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go as planned. Barton Keyes is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out.

DVD 4498

Emil und die Detektive

The film describes how Emil, the boy from Neustadt, recovers money stolen from him on the train with the aid of a group of Berlin children and how they bring the thief to justice.

DVD 13165

Film unfinished

At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film in an East German archive was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May of 1942, the film became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. The later discovery of a long-missing reel, including multiple takes and cameramen staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage. Presented is the raw footage in its entirety, falsely showing the 'good life' of Jewish urbanites. Included is an interview, and more. "Directed by ... Billy Wilder for the U.S. War Department in 1945, [this film] was originally intended for screening in occupied Germany and Austria and featured a German language soundtrack ... [T]he first documentary to show what the Allies found when they liberated the Nazi extermination camps: the survivors, the conditions, and the evidence of mass murder."--

DVD 7892

Foreign affair

"Phoebe Frost, an upright Republican member of Congress, travels to Berlin to look into reports of corruption among the occupying American forces. She enlists an Army captain in her crusade and finds herself falling for him, unaware that he is the man romantically involved with a German cabaret singer who can lead army investigators to a high-level Nazi war criminal"--Container.

DVD 11629

Fortune cookie

A TV cameraman, trampled by a half-back while shooting a football game, and his shyster brother-in-law team up to defraud an insurance company in a million dollar law suit.

DVD 3218

Front page

Earl Williams, a convicted killer, escapes, throwing the Criminal Courts Building into chaos. Newspaper reporters attempt to "scoop" the story by holding Williams in a roll top desk in the press room.

DVD 859

Hold back the dawn

In this romantic story, Romanian immigrant George Ivonescu sneaks onto the Paramount studio lot in Hollywood to sell a story idea to director Saxon. Desperate for $500, George convinces Saxon to listen to the true story of George's life for the past year. At the outbreak of World War II, George flees from Europe to Mexico, from where he hopes to gain entry into the USA. Due to the quota system he is told he must wait five to eight years to immigrate. While in Mexico, George meets up with his former dance partner, Anita Dixon, who tells him that she got citizenship by marrying an American and leaving him shortly after. George, a gigolo and con man, immediately proceeds to seduce one of the American tourists who have invaded the town for the public holiday. His prey is shy schoolteacher Emmy Brown whom he intends to marry and 'dump' quickly in order to resume his affair with Anita. In a prime example of Hollywood self-reference (which the Wilder-Brackett writing team would later turn into a masterpiece with 'Sunset Boulevard'), the story is told by actor Charles Boyer to director Mitchell Leisen on the film set where he has just shot a scene from 'I Wanted Wings'

DVD 8193

Irma la Douce

Comedy about a young Parisian policeman and his romance with a prostitute

DVD 2011

Kiss me, stupid

Two would be songwriters hijack Dino as he passes through their town. Their attempts to charm him into listening to their songs encounter a problem when one man's wife is the head of Martin's fan club. A substitute is hired to claim his attentions. Things do not exactly work out as planned.

DVD 3219

Lost weekend

A would-be writer's dissatisfaction with his life leads him on a three-day binge. This film gives an uncompromising look at the devestating effects of alcoholism.

DVD 1503

Love in the afternoon Hao ŭi yŏnjŏng /

She plays the cello. He plays the field. She's coltishly young. He's worldly and mature. Lovestruck conservatory student Ariane knows she's not like millionaire American playboy Frank Flanagan. But if she pretends to be just as much a cosmopolitan lover as he is, maybe the magic of l'amour will take hold.

DVD 10718

Menschen am Sonntag ein film ohne schauspieler = People on Sunday : a film without actors /

Erwin drives taxi #1A 10088. Brigitte is a salesperson in a music store. Wolfgang has been many things, but is now a traveling wine salesman. Christl is a film extra. Annie is a fashion model. Berlin. One Satuday. One Sunday. On their day off in Weimar-era Berlin, four of these five spend the day by the Nikolassee lakeside. Amidst flirtation, they play records, swim, picnic and walk in the forest, enjoying a respite from city life, and the everyday grind that they cannot escape. In a manner prefiguring the Italian Neorealists, these non-actors play versions of themselves in loosely outlined scenarios. The sense of what an ordinary day might have been like in this particular place and time is enchantingly captured in this bit of cinematic amber.

DVD 8566

Ninotchka

Garbo plays a dour, severe Soviet official who comes to Paris on business involving the sale of some czarist jewels. But soon business turns to pleasure as she discovers the special magic of Paris and finds herself succumbing to the charms of a suave Frenchman named Leon D'Algout (Melvyn Douglas). The plot bubbles merrily as Ninotchka chooses between romance and duty--and must even confront a rival for Leon's affection in the exiled Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire).

DVD 4448

One, two, three

A man will lose his job if he can't talk his boss' daughter out of marrying a Communist in West Berlin.

DVD 3220

Private life of Sherlock Holmes

Holmes travels to Scotland to help a woman search for her missing husband.

DVD 3221

Sabrina

The daughter of the chauffeur returns from Paris and dazzles the family's two sons.

DVD 2026

Seven year itch

A husband of seven years, alone in New York while his family vacations, fantasizes an affair with the TV model in the upstairs apartment.

DVD 1504

Some like it hot

Two unemployed muscians accidently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and flee to Miami disguised as female musicians.

DVD 2012

Some like it hot

Two musicians disguise themselves as women and join an all-female band in order to evade the Mafia, since they witnessed the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

DVD 12956

Song is born

DVD 6635

Stalag 17

A group of American G.I.'s in a German POW camp during World War II suspects the opportunistic Holden of being the spy in their midst.

DVD 344

Sunset Blvd.

Pursued by creditors, Joe swerves into a driveway of a seemingly abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. He finds Norma, an ex-screen queen dreaming of a dramatic comeback and her husband/servant living there. She takes a fancy to Joe and, learning that he is a scriptwriter, persuades him to help her with her comeback screenplay. Being broke he accepts. He falls in love with a young script reader, but Norma breaks up their romance. Thinking she is mad, he tries to leave, but Norma kills him in a scene which she believes is the highlight of her comeback movie.

DVD 3688

Witness for the prosecution

A man is accused of murdering his wealthy woman friend in order to secure his inheritance. The defendant's mysterious wife stuns the courtroom by giving damaging testimony against her husband. The web of intrigue is finally unwoven in a shocking, chilling conclusion.

DVD 2243