Some notes on Billy Wilder, written during the past year:

The Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder, 1942): 2/5

Avoided this for years due to potential "ick" factor of the plot: Ginger Rogers pretends to be 12 years old to afford a train ride back home, then must keep up the ruse when she meets cute with the Major (Ray Milland).  Wilder chose a light, frothy comedy for his first directorial effort to establish commercial credentials.  It manages to avoid the ick and stay cute, but it's still a contrivance with too many midwestern military school shenanigans and not enough laughs.

Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder, 1943): 2/5

Great opening scene of unconscious soldier in a moving tank in the middle of the desert; then it becomes stagebound in a hotel, with milquetoast Franchot Tone as the lead.  I was hoping Stroheim, playing Rommel, would liven this up with some Teutonic eccentricity, but no such luck.  In his interview book with Wilder, Cameron Crowe repeatedly tries to posit this film as a precursor to Raiders of the Lost Ark (presumably because both have maps, deserts, and Nazis), to which Wilder is flattered but understandably baffled.  Wilder took this story to prove to Paramount he could write and direct dramas, and indeed he would be allowed to follow this with Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend.

Ace in the Hole, rw (Billy Wilder, 1951): 3.5/5

A prescient portrayal of American culture's postwar corruption that is still recognizable today.  But this is where the hardness sets in.  After Sunset Blvd in 1950, Wilder inexplicably breaks off with longtime writing partner Charles Brackett; his films will lose considerable lightness of touch and humanity from this point onward, as he dominates his next writing partnership with IAL Diamond.  Brackett, years later, on Ace in the Hole:  "Billy used to say he thought it failed because it was too tough.  I don’t think he’s right about that.  Tough is all right.  I admire toughness.  I don’t admire hardness.  That picture wasn’t tough.  It was hard.  But then, Billy’s hard, isn’t he?"  Recommended read:  Matthew Dessem's essay on Wilder-Brackett in The Dissolve.

Sabrina, rw (Billy Wilder, 1954): 1/5

Two filthy rich brothers fight over Audrey Hepburn (age 25), a poor anorectic who is sent to cooking school in Paris but returns with no skills and no agency.  She likes the playboy brother (William Holden, age 36), but the older, responsible brother prevails (Bogart, age 55).  Bogart already looks shriveled and sickly and will be dead in two years from lung cancer.  Audrey, the poor princess and victim of paleolithic Hollywood casting practices, will continue to search for an aging prince to provide for her in Love in the Afternoon (Gary Cooper, age 56) and Funny Face (Fred Astaire, age 58).  Ick.

Witness for the Prosecution, rw (Billy Wilder, 1957): 3/5

Typical Agatha Christie yarn, with too many surprise witnesses and last-minute plot machinations.  Cheese, but well prepared cheese, with Laughton chewing it up.

Kiss Me, Stupid, rw (Billy Wilder, 1964): 3/5

Some wag accurately called this "one long traveling salesman joke," and it's punctuated by smutty adolescent one-liners throughout--no sign of "the Lubitsch touch" here.  First half is ruined by Ray Walston's incessant mugging and makes one yearn to see what Peter Sellers could have done with the role (he had a heart attack after six weeks of shooting).  It settles down a bit in second half, and some mature adult relationships are allowed to emerge.  Dean Martin is cool, classy, and charismatic throughout, and is the best thing about this.  Felicia Farr (real-life wife of Jack Lemmon, for whom the film was originally written) is also very good.  Kim Novak does her usual reluctant sex kitten in the tart-with-a-heart role written for Marilyn Monroe (whose presence would have overwhelmed this).

The Fortune Cookie, rw (Billy Wilder, 1966): 3/5

Great concept, but typical late Wilder: cynical bordering on caustic.