One, Two, Three (1961) ( 1, 2, 3 )

One, Two, Three (1961) (Blu-Ray) (*)

~~$23.99~~ $17.97

Original Title: 1, 2, 3
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Golden Globes
Oscar Academy Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby TrueHD )
English ( Mono )
French ( Dolby TrueHD )
French ( Mono )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
108 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Featurette
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1961 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Billy Wilder

Written By:
Ferenc Molnár
Billy Wilder

Actors:
James Cagney ..... C.R. MacNamara
Horst Buchholz ..... Otto Ludwig Piffl
Pamela Tiffin ..... Scarlett Hazeltine
Arlene Francis ..... Phyllis MacNamara
Howard St. John ..... Wendell P. Hazeltine
Hanns Lothar ..... Schlemmer
Leon Askin ..... Peripetchikoff
Ralf Wolter ..... Borodenko
Karl Lieffen ..... Fritz (chauffeur)
Hubert von Meyerinck ..... Count von Droste Schattenburg
Loïs Bolton ..... Melanie Hazeltine (as Lois Bolton)
Peter Capell ..... Mishkin
Til Kiwe ..... Reporter
Henning Schlüter ..... Dr. Bauer
Karl Ludwig Lindt ..... Zeidlitz

Synopsis:

In his last starring film, James Cagney plays Coca-Cola executive C.R. MacNamara. Assigned to manage Coke's West Berlin office, MacNamara dreams of being transferred to London, and to do this he must curry favor with his Atlanta-based boss, Hazeltine Thus, MacNamara agrees to look after Hazeltine's dizzy, impulsive daughter, Scarlett, during her visit to Germany. Weeks pass, and on the eve of Hazeltine's visit to West Berlin, Scarlett announces that she's gotten married. Even worse, her husband is a hygienically challenged East Berlin Communist named Otto Piffl. The crafty MacNamara arranges for Piffl to be arrested by the East Berlin police and to have the marriage annulled, only to discover that Scarlett is pregnant. In rapid-fire 'one, two, three' fashion, MacNamara must arrange for Piffl to be released by the Communists and successfully pass off the scrungy, doggedly anti-capitalist Piffl as an acceptable husband for Scarlett. MacNamara must accomplish this in less than 12 hours, all the while trying to mollify his wife, who has learned of his affair with busty secretary Ingeborg. Seldom pausing for breath, Billy Wilders film is a crackling, mile-a-minute farce, taking satiric scatter shots at Coca-Cola, the Cold War (the film is set in the months just before the erection of the Berlin Wall), Russian red tape, Communist and capitalist hypocrisy, Southern bigotry, the German 'war guilt,' rock music, and even Cagney 's own movie image. Not all the gags are in the best of taste, and most of the one-liners have dated rather badly, but Cagneys mesmerizing performance holds the whole affair together.

Billy Wilder's Cold War satire, derived from an energetic Molnar comedy the director had seen in 1929, probably owes as much to NINOTCHKA, perhaps the best known film of his idol Ernst Lubitsch. It stars James Cagney as C.J. MacNamara, a Coca-Cola executive who comes to West Berlin to promote the sugary brew on the other side of the Iron Curtain, hoping, in the process, to be promoted to the post of director of West European operations. He soon learns that his real job is babysitting his boss's 17-year-old daughter Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin), who has secretly married volatile Communist Otto Piffl (Horst Bucholz) during her soujourn. By the time McNamara learns this small detail, his boss (Howard St. John) is about to arrive in Berlin. After he gets Piffl arrested by the East German police, who torture him by forcing him to listen to "Itsy-Bitsy-Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini" repeatedly, C.J. finds out that Scarlett is pregnant, and realises he has only twelve hours to get Piffl released and turn him into an acceptable son-in-law for his boss. Wilder's anarchic satire targets Communism, Coca-Cola, rock n' roll, bureaucratic inefficiency, teenage lust, middle-aged lust, and everything else which wanders into range in this briskly paced farce, which features a vigorous James Cagney in his last leading screen role.

Comedy about Coca-Cola's man in West Berlin, who may be fired if he can't keep his American boss's daughter from marrying a Communist.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 30 November, 2020.