Irma La Douce

Only Billy Wilder could write a sweet, charming, hilarious romantic comedy where his leading lady plays an indifferent prostitute. The man who made a living churning laughs out of the most cynical of situations made it four for four when he followed up his masterpieces “Some Like It Hot” and “The Apartment”, and the vastly underrated “One, Two, Three!” with “Irma La Douce”, a delightful fable reuniting his two stars from “The Apartment”: Shirley MacLaine as the titular heroine (taking her one step further to ruin from a confidence-less working girl/mistress in “The Apartment”) and Jack Lemmon in a dynamic double performance as exasperated Nestor Patou and his alter ego, Lord X. The film also features a wonderful supporting performance by Lou Jacobi (in a role intended for Charles Laughton) as Moustache, the de facto narrator and conscience of the piece. The plot, if handled by anyone else, would be written off as convoluted and superfluous, but Wilder and his writing partner I.A.L. Diamond were masters of the five (or six) act structure, as the film deliberately plays out, milking every situation for all its worth. Really though, the story is Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine playing off each other, possessing chemistry most directors would kill for. Attention must also be given to the film’s elaborate Rue Casanova set as well. While the majority of Wilder’s films are mostly static, this film plays out across the gorgeous set, as well as some fine Parisian exteriors which give the film an extra cache. Running at a leisurely 147 minutes (a hefty running time for any film, let alone a romantic comedy), the film sprawls through four distinct story arcs, which basically boil down to boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. The genius of Billy Wilder was that even when he was brushing with excess and indulgence (his later films’ padded running times hint at greater creative freedom, and a growing displeasure with studio imposed edits), his jokes were always funny and his characters always true. Jokes and gags that would come off as superfluous and unnecessary in other films are always inspired and worthwhile in Wilder’s, a forgiveness which few directors are granted from critics and audiences.

As the film begins, Nestor Patou is an overly enthusiastic patrolman, walking his first beat on the Rue Casanova. Recently promoted after rescuing a boy from drowning at his previous beat (a tame childrens’ park, a joke amongst the other policemen), Nestor is shocked when he discovers the rampant prostitution. He proceeds to arrest the entire network of pimps, girls and their johns, capturing his captain in the process; all this despite the protest of Moustache, the owner of the bar that serves as unofficial headquarters of the Rue Casanova. Fired from the police force for embarrassing the captain and disrupting standard business practices, Nestor sadly returns to the Rue Casanova looking for Irma, the pretty red head he noticed during his arrest. After witnessing her being roughed up by her pimp, Nestor steps in on her behalf and in a hilarious “fight” completely inadvertently manages to knock the pimp (the local tough, natch) out, securing Irma’s affection and the respect of all the other pimps who elect him their new leader. Swept up in a new career, Nestor hatches a new scheme to keep Irma from selling herself on the street: posing as a wealthy, mysterious, older Englishman, known as Lord X. Jack Lemmon throws himself into the more unrestrained role of Lord X, with a maniacal cackle and herky jerky walk, as well as referencing pretty much every popular film about the British of the past 30 years (“Gunga Din”, “Lives of a Bengal Lancer”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, etc). Initially flush with a loan from Moustache, Lord X agrees to visit Irma twice a week, each time giving her 500 francs and in exchange she does not sleep with any other men. Irma is at first confused by Lord X’s intentions, he seems content simply talking and playing solitaire with her, but soon she falls in love with the mysterious gentleman, never suspecting he is Nestor trying simply to do the right thing. To sustain the 1000 francs he has promised to Irma as Lord X, Nestor begins waking up early in the morning, sneaking out of the apartment and working several jobs before returning home just as Irma awakens. During this time Irma gets increasingly frustrated with Nestor, as she cannot figure out why he is constantly exhausted and disinterested in her. Nestor soon realizes she may prefer Lord X to him, which results in him taking drastic action.

Nestor plans on “retiring” the Lord X character to win back Irma’s affections, but as he throws the Lord X costume in the river, a passerby suspects that Nestor, who emerges from behind the tree Lord X just went behind moments before, has killed him, and soon Nestor is arrested for the murder of Lord X. Nestor thinks he can explain everything to the police, but Moustache hatches a plan: the only way to convince Irma of your love is to admit to killing Lord X in a fit of jealous passion. This being Paris, he claims, they will be compelled to free you to be with the woman you love. Moustache’s plan half works; Irma’s love for Nestor is rekindled, but Nestor is throw in jail. A few months later Moustache breaks him out and in a hilarious moment, Lord X is reborn (literally emerging from the Siene at the exact spot Nestor was to have killed him), and vindicates Nestor. Nestor and Irma are free to marry and in the background of the wedding a mysterious stranger watches the proceedings: Lord X! As the audience wonders what is going on, Moustache appears and says “but that’s another story”, a refrain of a phrase he has used several times throughout the film, each time usually to get Nestor to go along with a scheme of his (when he convinces Nestor he can get him off for the murder of Lord X by rationalizing he was once a lawyer, “but that’s another story”). Noting that this was Billy Wilder’s highest grossing film is surprising considering some of his classics like “Some Like It Hot” and “Sunset Boulevard”, but when you consider the two stars at the peak of their careers, the overwhelming amount of chemistry they shared on the heels of “The Apartment”, and the sheer number of laughs the film has, its not that big a shock. One can wonder how different the film would have been with Marilyn Monroe in the lead, Billy Wilder had a longstanding love/hate relationship with the star, always coaxing an incredible performance from her, but using every last strain of patience in the process and in the end he opted for the more stable Shirley MacLaine. Watching the film today, it appears quite perfect.