Some Like It Wilder
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45. Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, 322.
46. Lally, Wilder Times, 354.
47. Joe Baltake, Jack Lemmon: His Films and Career (New York: Citadel, 1986), 167.
48. I. A. L. Diamond, interview by Adrian Turner, Films and Filming, May 1982, 18.
49. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 251.
50. Portrait of a 60% Perfect Man.
51. Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, The Fortune Cookie, in The Apartment and The Fortune Cookie: Two Screenplays (London: Studio Vista, 1966), 123.
52. Lemmon, Twist of Lemmon, 113.
53. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 36.
54. Lally, Wilder Times, 360.
55. Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 62.
56. Wilder and Diamond, Fortune Cookie, 115.
57. Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard, 50; see also Lemon, “Billy Wilder’s Fortune Cookie,” 56.
58. Todd McCarthy, “AFI Lauds Jack Lemmon,” Variety, March 16, 1988, 6.
59. Mirisch, I Thought We Were, 236.
60. Lally, Wilder Times, 360; see also Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, 243.
61. Madsen, Billy Wilder, 147; see also Lemon, “Billy Wilder’s Fortune Cookie,” 59.
62. Madsen, Billy Wilder, 142.
63. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 36.
64. Wilder and Diamond, The Fortune Cookie, 131.
65. Frieda Lockhart, “Meet Whiplash Willie,” Signpost (London), February 15, 1967, 4.
66. Seidman, Film Career of Billy Wilder, 72.
67. Lockhart, “Meet Whiplash Willie,” 4.
68. Farber, “Films of Billy Wilder,” 11; see also Armstrong, Billy Wilder, 122.
69. Giannetti, Masters of the American Cinema, 322.
70. Wood, Bright Side of Billy Wilder, 51–52.
71. Seidman, Film Career of Billy Wilder, 32.
72. Dick, Billy Wilder, 112.
73. Farber, “Films of Billy Wilder,” 16.
74. Richard Schickel, “The Fortune Cookie,” Life, November 18, 1966, 18.
75. Walsh, Sin and Censorship, 318.
76. Sullivan, interview.
77. Doherty, Hollywood’s Censor, 334.
78. Jack Vizzard, interview by author, Berlin, May 19, 1977.
16. THE GAME’S AFOOT
1. “Sherlock Holmes Stories,” in Head, Cambridge Guide to Literature, 1020.
2. Allen Eyles, Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), 111.
3. Eyles, Sherlock Holmes, 39, 116.
4. Doherty, Hollywood’s Censor, 324. Breen, Shurlock’s predecessor, had blipped the line about the needle in the U.S. release prints of The Hound of the Baskervilles, but the words were restored when the movie was rereleased in the United States in 1975.
5. Charles Higham, The Adventures of Conan Doyle: The Life of the Creator of Sherlock Holmes (New York: Norton, 1976), 206, 267; see also Andrew Lycett, The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008), 175.
6. Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Bruce-Partington Plans,” in The Complete Sherlock Holmes (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 1076.
7. Dick, Billy Wilder, 142.
8. Ibid., 145.
9. Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” in Complete Sherlock Holmes, 194.
10. Jeremy McCarter, “Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes,” New York Times Book Review, December 30, 2007, 15.
11. Mark Shivas, “Yes, We Have No Naked Girls,” New York Times, October 12, 1967, sec. 2, p. 4. The title of the article is a joking reference to the “wild party” in Kiss Me, Stupid.
12. Mirisch, I Thought We Were, 295, 296. Some sources say the budget was $10 million, but Walter Mirisch would know the correct sum.
13. Eyles, Sherlock Holmes, 111.
14. Chris Steinbrunner and Norman Michaels, The Films of Sherlock Holmes (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel, 1978), 216.
15. Shivas, “We Have No Naked Girls,” sec. 2, p. 4.
16. Wood, Bright Side of Billy Wilder, 232.
17. Shivas, “We Have No Naked Girls,” sec. 2, p. 4.
18. Bernard Cohn, “Billy Wilder,” Positif, October 1969, 49–50.
19. Shivas, “We Have No Naked Girls,” sec. 2, p. 4; see also Wood, Bright Side of Billy Wilder, 150.
20. Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, 325.
21. Madsen, Billy Wilder, 134.
22. Steinbrunner and Michaels, Films of Sherlock Holmes, 218.
23. “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” in Variety Film Reviews, vol. 12, n.p.
24. Doug McClelland, Hollywood Talks Turkey: The Screen’s Greatest Flops (London: Faber, 1981), 279.
25. Stephen Bourne, Brief Encounters: Homosexuality in British Cinema (London: Cassell, 1996), 221; see also Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 301, and Lally, Wilder Times, 372.
26. Richard Valley, Sherlock Holmes: Classic Themes from 221B Baker Street, CD liner notes (Studio City, CA: Varese Sarabande, 1996), 4.
27. Steinbrunner and Michaels, Films of Sherlock Holmes, 217.
28. Wood, Bright Side of Billy Wilder, 180.
29. Shivas, “We Have No Naked Girls,” sec. 2, p. 4.
30. The Making of “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” documentary (MGM Home Entertainment, 2003).
31. Robert Stephens with Michael Coveny, Knight Errant: Memories of a Vagabond Actor (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995), 96, 98.
32. Ibid., 101.
33. Shivas, “We Have No Naked Girls,” sec. 2, p. 4.
34. Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 301.
35. Making of “The Private Life.”
36. Rozsa, Double Life, 208–9.
37. Tony Thomas, Music for the Movies (New York: Barnes, 1973), 96–97.
38. Rozsa, Double Life, 208–9.
39. Horton, “Music Man: Miklos Rozsa,” 4.
40. Gene D. Phillips, Stanley Kubrick: A Film Odyssey (New York: Popular Library, 1975), 178.
41. Mirisch, I Thought We Were, 298.
42. Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 350, 98.
43. Mirisch, I Thought We Were, 299; see also Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, 328.
44. Steinbrunner and Michaels, Films of Sherlock Holmes, 220.
45. Dick, Billy Wilder, 147.
46. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four, in Complete Sherlock Holmes, 173.
47. Jonathan Rigby, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” in Sherlock Holmes on Screen: The Complete Film and TV History, ed. Alan Barnes (London: Reynolds and Hearn, 2008), 139.
48. Vincent Canby, “ ‘The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,’ ” New York Times, October 30, 1970, 15.
49. Pauline Kael, Deeper into Movies (New York: Bantam Books, 1974), 236.
50. Making of “The Private Life.”
51. Eyles, Sherlock Holmes, 112.
52. Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, 328.
53. Lally, Wilder Times, 373.
54. Michael Pointer, “Holmes Lives!” American Film, November 1975, 69.
55. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 38.
56. Eyles, Sherlock Holmes, 112.
57. Wilder, “Going for Extra Innings,” 98.
17. THE PERFECT BLENDSHIP
1. Nora Sayre, “Falling Prey to Parodies of the Press,” New York Times, January 1, 1974, 8.
2. Ben Hecht, “The Front Page Now and Then,” November 18, 1961, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.
3. Ben Hecht, the Shakespeare of Hollywood, documentary, directed by David O’Dell (Lucasfilm, 2007); see also Roquemore, History Goes to the Movies, 161.
4. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., “The Front Page,” in Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, ed. Mark Carnes (New York: Holt, 1995), 202.
5. Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 94; see also Wilder, interview by Prelutsky, 190.
6. Hawks, interview.
7. Joseph McBride, “Shooting The Front Page,” Boston Real Paper, July 3
1, 1974, 13.
8. Ibid., 15.
9. Joseph McBride, “In the Picture: The Front Page,” Sight and Sound 43, no. 3 (1974): 212. There is considerable overlap between this article and McBride, “Shooting The Front Page.” I quote the Sight and Sound version only when it contains material not included in the Boston Real Paper version.
10. Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, The Front Page: Unpublished Screenplay (Los Angeles: Universal, 1974), 9.
11. Gemünden, Foreign Affair, 152.
12. John Baxter, “Henry Bumstead,” in Pendergast and Pendergast, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 4:173.
13. Deutsch, Me and Bogie, 161.
14. McBride, “Shooting The Front Page,” 132.
15. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 38.
16. Michael Wilmington, “Saint Jack,” Film Comment 29, no. 2 (1993): 14, 15.
17. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 283–84.
18. Dick, Billy Wilder, 118; see also Doherty, Hollywood’s Censor, 334.
19. Richard Heffner, interview by author, New York, June 13, 1975.
20. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 38.
21. Ibid.
22. McBride, “In the Picture: The Front Page,” 212.
23. Dick, Billy Wilder, 119.
24. Pauline Kael, Reeling (New York: Warner Books, 1977), 362.
25. Joseph Morgenstern, “The Front Page,” Newsweek, December 23, 1974, 79.
26. Andrew Sarris, “The Front Page,” Village Voice, December 25, 1974, 8.
27. Andrew Sarris, “Billy Wilder Reconsidered,” in Lopate, American Movie Critics, 307.
28. Armstrong, Billy Wilder, 124.
29. Hopp, Billy Wilder, 169.
30. “Julius J. Epstein: A King of Comedy,” interview by Pat McGilligan, in McGilligan, Backstory, 187.
31. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 271.
32. “Entretien avec Billy Wilder sur Avanti!” interview by Michel Ciment, Positif, January 1974, 7. Bridgett Chandler translated the cited passages.
33. Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, Avanti! Unpublished Screenplay (Los Angeles: United Artists, 1971), i.
34. “Entretien avec Billy Wilder sur Avanti!” 5.
35. Ibid., 8.
36. Ibid., 5.
37. Ibid.
38. Wilder and Diamond, Avanti! Unpublished Screenplay, i.
39. “Entretien avec Billy Wilder sur Avanti,” 6.
40. Ibid., 8.
41. Dick, Billy Wilder, 97.
42. Staggs, Close-Up on Sunset Boulevard, 369.
43. Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 351.
44. Mirisch, I Thought We Were, 301.
45. “Entretien avec Billy Wilder sur Avanti,” 5, 6.
46. Ibid., 8.
47. Ibid.
48. Dick, Billy Wilder, 97.
49. David Sanjek, “Avanti!” in Welsh and Erskine, Video Versions, 17.
50. Seidman, Film Career of Billy Wilder, 110.
51. Dick, Billy Wilder, 98.
52. Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, 332.
53. Seidman, Film Career of Billy Wilder, 110.
54. Geoff Brown, “A Bite as Fierce as His Bark,” Times (London), June 18, 1996, 34.
55. Jay Cocks, “Avanti!” Time, December 25, 1972, 109.
56. Jon Bradshaw, “I Am Big. It’s the Pictures That Got Small,” New York, November 24, 1975, 40.
57. “Avanti!” in Variety Film Reviews, vol. 13, n.p.
58. Sarris, “Billy Wilder Reconsidered,” 307.
59. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 38.
60. “Dialogue on Film: Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond,” 125.
61. Sinyard, Directors, 44.
62. McBride, “Shooting The Front Page,” 15.
63. Bradshaw, “I Am Big,” 40.
64. McBride, “Shooting The Front Page,” 15.
65. Mirisch, I Thought We Were, 302.
18. TWILIGHT YEARS
1. Bradshaw, “I Am Big,” 39.
2. Ibid., 43.
3. “Dialogue on Film: Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond,” 130.
4. Bradshaw, “I Am Big,” 43.
5. Blowen, “Art of Billy Wilder,” 52.
6. Zinnemann, interview.
7. Rex McGee, “The Life and Hard Times of Fedora,” American Film, February 1979, 18.
8. Stephen Farber, “A Cynic ahead of His Time,” New York Times, December 6, 1981, C21.
9. Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard, 552.
10. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 39.
11. Mary Blume, “Fedora: Walking on the Wilder Side,” Los Angeles Times Calendar, October 2, 1977, 39.
12. Hirsch, Dark Side of the Screen, 119.
13. Vincent Canby, “Wilder’s ‘Fedora,’ ” New York Times, May 6, 1979, sec. 2, p. 15.
14. Wilder, “Going for Extra Innings,” 44.
15. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 291.
16. Wilder, “Going for Extra Innings,” 42.
17. McGee, “Life and Hard Times,” 18.
18. Karasek, Billy Wilder, 482; see also Wilder, “Going for Extra Innings,” 44.
19. Riva, Woman at War, 154.
20. Dan Yakir, “Fedora: Another ‘Uneasy’ Role for Marthe Keller,” New York Post, April 13, 1979, 27.
21. Verina Glaessner, “Gerry Fisher,” in Pendergast and Pendergast, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 4:256.
22. McGee, “Life and Hard Times,” 31.
23. Blume, “Walking on the Wilder Side,” 39.
24. McGee, “Life and Hard Times,” 32.
25. Ibid., 31–32.
26. Miklos Rozsa, audio interview by Rudy Behlmer, 1974, Spellbound, DVD, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Criterion, 2002).
27. Ness, “Miklos Rozsa,” 724.
28. McGee, “Life and Hard Times,” 31–32.
29. Ibid., 32.
30. Wilder, “Going for Extra Innings,” 42.
31. Andrew Sarris, “Fedora,” Village Voice, April 16, 1979, 12.
32. McGee, “Life and Hard Times,” 32.
33. Hopp, Billy Wilder, 171.
34. Aljean Harmetz, “At 73, Billy Wilder’s Bark Still Has Plenty of Bite,” New York Times, June 29, 1979, C12.
35. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 39.
36. Staggs, Close-Up on Sunset Boulevard, 373.
37. Lally, Wilder Times, 399.
38. Richard Schickel, “Old Hat: Fedora,” Time, May 21, 1979, 86.
39. “Dialogue on Film: Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond,” 112.
40. McGee, “Life and Hard Times,” 18.
41. Vincent Canby, “Wilder’s Fedora,” New York Times, May 6, 1979, sec. 2, pp. 15, 35.
42. “Billy Wilder: Obituary,” Times (London), March 30, 2002, 1.
43. Crowe, Conversations with Wilder, 352.
44. Morris, “Private Films of Billy Wilder,” 39.
45. “William Holden: An Untamed Spirit.”
46. “Death of William Holden,” New York Times, November 18, 1981, 1. Martin Sopocy is at work on a book on Holden that deals in more detail with Holden’s last years. It will be the first book on Holden in twenty years.
47. Farber, “Cynic ahead of His Time,” C21.
48. Kenneth Geist, Pictures Will Talk: The Life and Films of Joseph Mankiewicz (New York: Scribner, 1978), 195.
49. Wilder, “Going for Extra Innings,” 45, 41; see also Geist, Pictures Will Talk, 195.
50. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 299.
51. Gene D. Phillips, Beyond the Epic: The Life and Films of David Lean (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), 383; see also Farber, “Cynic ahead of His Time,” C21.
52. Madsen, Billy Wilder, 60.
53. Karasek, Billy Wilder, 467; see also Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 300.
54. Lemmon, Twist of Lemmon, 117.
55. Lally, Wilder Times, 407.
56. Klaus Kinski, Kinski Uncut, trans. Joachim Neugroschel
(New York: Viking, 1996), 299.
57. Lally, Wilder Times, 408.
58. Richard Hadley Jr., “Billy Wilder and Comedy: An Analysis of Buddy Buddy” (PhD diss., University of Southern California, 1989), 186.
59. Barton Palmer, “Lalo Schifrin,” in Pendergast and Pendergast, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 4:743.
60. Diamond, interview, 21.
61. Hopp, Billy Wilder, 177.
62. Vincent Canby, “ ‘Buddy Buddy,’ ” New York Times, December 11, 1981, C12.
63. Kevin Thomas, “ ‘Buddy Buddy,’ ” Los Angeles Times Calendar, December 11, 1981, 1.
64. David Ansen, “Some Like It Not,” Newsweek, December 14, 1981, 124.
65. I screened the film for some of the staff of Rush Medical Center, Chicago, on September 10, 2008.
66. Baltake, Jack Lemmon, 255; see also Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 301.
67. MacMurray, interview.
68. Wilder, interview by Porfirio, 107; see also Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 248.
69. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 301, 2.
EPILOGUE
1. Gerald Mast and Bruce Kawin, A Short History of the Movies, rev. ed. (New York: Longman, 2008), 191.
2. Portrait of a 60% Perfect Man.
3. Yeck, “I. A. L. Diamond,” 4:210.
4. Billy Wilder, “Movies Forever!” New Republic, June 9, 1982, 23. This is a transcript of Wilder’s speech when he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
5. Wilder, interview by Schlöndorff.
6. Freeman, “Sunset Boulevard Revisited,” 79.
7. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 301, 303.
8. Richard Corliss, “The King of Comedy: Billy Wilder,” Time, April 8, 2002, 70.
9. Kirkham, “Saul Bass and Billy Wilder,” 21.
10. Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard, 575–78.
11. Corliss, “King of Comedy,” 70.
12. Kakutani, “Ready for His Close-Up,” 14.
13. Aljean Harmetz, “Billy Wilder: The Storyteller,” Modern Maturity, February–March 1993, 31.
14. Roger Ebert, “International Poll,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 11, 2002, A25.
15. Chandler, Nobody’s Perfect, 324.
16. “Write Stuff,” 82.
17. Gene D. Phillips, Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000), 199.
18. Stephen Frears, interview by Lester Freedman and Scott Steward, in Reviewing British Cinema, ed. Wheeler Dixon (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 237.