Irma La Douce [DVD]

A delicious treat for the lover of classic comedy, this movie abounds with quirky characters and witty dialogue. Lemmon and MacLaine are in top form, infusing their characters with charm and joie de vivre. Wilder's script is solid, the mis-en-scene is evocative of Toulouse Lautrec crossed with 'Guys and Dolls', and the comic pacing is as masterful as we've come to expect of Wilder's films. It is an all-around satisfying comedy experience.

Irma La Douce is a curious film with a curious history. Originally a French musical, it was translated and transferred to Broadway where it was a modest success. Hollywood liked the play's premise but not its songs so, when Billy Wilder came to make the film version, all the songs were dropped and it was done as a comedy (although some of the music was reworked by Andre Previn as themes for his background score).

The story is the stuff of farce. Jack Lemmon is a too honest policeman who gets fired for being overly zealous in the red light district. He promptly falls in love with the cause of his misfortune - a prostitute played by Shirley MacLaine. Almost by accident, Lemmon becomes her pimp but he is so in love with her that he resents her clients. So he devises a scheme in which he impersonates a rich English lord who buys all of Irma's time. To pay for this, Lemmon must work all day while MacLaine sleeps. Before long, crazy with exhaustion and jealous of himself, he decides to do away with his alter ego. At which point he is arrested for the murder of someone who never existed.

Amazingly, the film is not as funny as it might sound. Or, at least, it's not as funny as it might have been forty-odd years ago. When it was released, Irma La Douce was quite a racy film. But now it seems rather tame and almost naive. And at nearly two and a half hours, there seems to be quite long gaps between highlights. It is probably a sacrilege to suggest Billy Wilder was slightly lacking his trademark golden touch. But much of the style and pacing of the film seems uncertain. The colours are so garish and unreal that you wonder if black and white might have suited the material better. (There used to be an adage among film makers, in the good old days, that colour slowed down comedy.) The main sets are obvious sound stages yet the camera occasionally wanders into realistic locations, further confusing the look of the movie. And some more editing would have helped the film's pace.

Even so, there are a number of fun moments. Lemmon is always watchable, especially in the days before he began to take himself too seriously. His character of Nestor is right up there with some of his best. But his impersonation of the English lord is so broad and such a caricature that it blunts the intended humour. As Irma, Shirley MacLaine is bubbly and strangely sexy - just as she was in a whole series of silly films in the Sixties. She claimed that she researched her role by hanging out with real Parisian prostitutes. She needn't have bothered as her Irma is the typical Hollywood tart with a heart of gold. The supporting cast - especially the girls - do their bits well enough. Lou Jacobi, as the owner of the local bistro, gets most of the film's best lines. But that's another story...

Irma La Douce is an enjoyable enough comedy but everyone involved has done better work elsewhere. Compared to a similarly-theme film like Never On Sunday, it's a distant second. Still, it's a lot better than most of the more modern and allegedly more sophisticated "romantic comedies" made these days.

Hard working, honest and good-hearted policeman Nestor encounters a stunning, quirky but lovable and sweet natured prostitute by the name of Irma La Douce (Shirley MacLaine, a vision in bright green stockings!) while on the beat in the back streets of Paris.

Trying to arrest and imprison Irma and many of the other call-girls in the district leads him to unfortunately being fired. Weeks later he encounters the beautiful Irma again and in his bumbling drunk way manages to defend her against her abusive pimp-boyfriend.

Ironically, the heroic act influences Irma to take the homeless and unemployed Nestor in, with the full intention of supporting him with the money she makes from making love with other men. Unexpectedly, Nestor ends up falling madly in love with Irma, and wants to be the only man she will ever be with.

In a radical attempt to keep Irma off the streets, he concocts a crazy scheme which he is sure is foolproof - until it has to be put into action. Soon, he finds himself going to extreme lengths to keep the woman he loves all to himself.

Despite the serious themes of sex and prostitution, the movie is nothing more than a light uplifting romantic comedy, and the undertones of sex and prostitution (while in your face) are still so innocent that even the easily offended could watch this without feeling upset. This movie is very subtle and enjoyable and isn't too thought provoking.

A classic that really gave Lemmon and MacLaine the chance to shine together again. Definately a must for romantic-comedy fans!