One, Two, Three (1961)

Director: Billy Wilder

Genre: Comedy

Movie Type: Farce, Political Satire

Main Cast: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis, Liselotte Pulver

Release Year: 1961

Country: US

A Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin tries to keep the boss's daughter from marrying a Communist.

C. R. MacNamara(James Cagney), a fast-talking Coca-Cola sales representative in West Berlin, is attempting to introduce the beverage behind the Iron Curtain, hopeful that such a coup will result in his promotion to head of European operations. His hopes are dashed, however, when he learns that his company is not interested in dealing with the Russians; instead, he is ordered to chaperone his boss's daughter, 17-year-old Scarlett Hazeltine, during her 2-week stay in Berlin. The girl's visit lasts 2 months, in which time she secretly marries Otto Ludwig Piffl, a beatnik Communist from East Berlin. MacNamara learns the horrifying news at the same time he receives word that Hazeltine is arriving in West Berlin the next day. Frantic, MacNamara plants on Otto a copy of the Wall Street Journal , which gets him arrested by the East German police. After arranging to have the marriage certificate removed from official files, MacNamara learns that Scarlett is pregnant; aware that he must present Hazeltine with an ideal son-in-law, MacNamara gets Otto out of the East Berlin jail, buys him a royal title, and converts him into a well-groomed capitalist. He is so successful that Hazeltine decides that Otto is the man to head Coca-Cola's European operations; MacNamara must settle for a vice-presidency in the Atlanta office.

Cagney was an extremely versatile performer who was adept in musical and comedic roles as well as drama. In One, Two, Three, he really excels and is able to give full justice to the madcap lunacy found in the screenplay written by Wilder and his frequent collaborator I.A.L. Diamond. It’s difficult to imagine any other actor who could pull off this role half as well as Cagney. On the surface, MacNamara is not a likeable character, but Cagney manages to make him simply gruff and grumpy in a way that the viewer can’t help but like the guy regardless of whether you like what’s he doing, reminiscent of the persona Walter Matthau later would adopt in many films. The rapid-fire delivery Cagney uses to such good effect here is a logical continuation of the style he developed in his gangster roles.


The set piece of the film is an eight-minute stretch where MacNamara does a high-toned makeover on the beatnik Piffle, bringing in a parade of tailors, barbers, haberdashers, etc., and rattling off pages of exacting dialogue with perfect articulation and precision – precisely as Wilder wrote it (it reportedly took many takes and some strained tempers). This dovetails into a mad car chase to the airport and a sharp finish. Audiences laugh – and then quiet themselves to not miss out on the next joke – Wilder’s pace leaves little room for reaction time, just a raised eyebrow or a quick breath.


Adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a Ferenc Molnar play, Wilder's rapid-fire comedy ferociously satirizes the Cold War divide between East and West. Featuring a peerless James Cagney in his last starring role and set in West Berlin, the breathless farce sends up everything from soft-drink capitalism to Communist hypocrisy, Soviet disorganization, male lechery, female giddiness, postwar Germany, and American pop culture. With a relentless stream of one-liners and numerous comic set pieces, such as a prisoner tortured with endless plays of "Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" and a mad tabletop striptease that shakes a portrait of Stalin off its perch, Wilder and Cagney never let up the pace for a moment, down to the final Pepsi Cola punch line. Earning critical accolades for its wit and its star, One, Two, Three received one Oscar nomination, for Daniel L. Fapp's crisp widescreen black-and-white photography. (Fapp won the color cinematography Oscar that same year, for West Side Story.) One, Two, Three became a popular hit in Germany after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.




The non-stop action is brilliantly scored by Andre Previn, who makes great use of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance to accompany the film's multiple manic car rides through Berlin. 


At the time of its release, One, Two, Three did not do well at the box office, including the U.S. and Germany. At least one Berlin newspaper film critic gave it a bad review. However, the film, which went unseen for over 20 years, was received enthusiastically in Germany when it was re-released in 1985. One, Two, Three was given a grand re-premier at a large outdoor showing in Berlin which was broadcast simultaneously over television. The film went on to spend a year in the Berlin theaters as it was rediscovered by West Berlin citizens.


Dialogues


C.R. MacNamara:Ten minutes early! That's a hell of a way to run an airline! Planes are supposed to be late, not early! 


C.R. MacNamara: Of course you were anti-Nazi and you never liked Adolf. 
Schlemmer: Adolf who? 


C.R. MacNamara: Schlemmer you're back in the SS, small salary! 




C.R. MacNamara: Cigarette? Cigar? 
Peripetchikoff: Here, take one of these. 
C.R. Macnamara: Thanks. Hm, 'Made in Havana'. 
Peripetchikoff: We have trade agreement with Cuba. They send us cigars, we send them rockets. 
C.R. Macnamara: Good thinking. 




C.R. MacNamara: You know something? You guys got cheated. This is a pretty crummy cigar. 
Peripetchikoff: Do not worry. We send them pretty crummy rockets. 




Borodenko: When will papers be ready? 
C.R. Macnamara: I'll put my secretary right to work on it. 
Mishkin: Your secretary? She's that blond lady? 
C.R. Macnamara: That's the one. 
Peripetchikoff: [after conferring with the others] You will send papers to East Berlin with blond lady in triplicate. 
C.R. Macnamara: You want the papers in triplicate, or the blond in triplicate? 
Peripetchikoff: See what you can do. 


Otto: I'll pick you up at 6:30 sharp, because the 7:00 train for Moscow leaves promptly at 8:15. 




Scarlet: Do you realize that Otto spelled backwards is Otto? 
Phyllis MacNamara: How about that? 
Scarlet: You'll like him. He looks just like Jack Kennedy, only he's younger and he has more upstairs. 
Phyllis MacNamara: More brains? 
Scarlet: More *hair*. And of course, ideologically, he's much sounder. 
Phyllis MacNamara: Maybe we voted for the wrong man. 
Scarlet: That couldn't happen in Russia. 
Phyllis MacNamara: They don't make mistakes. 
Scarlet: They don't *vote*.