Wow! Such a good movie.

Overrated and overhyped

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Jack Lemon. What a natural. What an actor. Shirley MacLaine also very good. This film with all its convoluted twists and turns and knots and what not, has a beautiful love story at the center of it. It appears to be incredibly sweet, and touching, all the while supplying good comic relief, in particular with that bartender character and his insane anecdotes where he's been in every corner of the world and back, very good stuff - and the film does really well at developing lots of content in a plot that is fairly simple...but - and there's a big but (and I cannot lie) - it lingers for too long to a point where the viewer is ready to indulge and buy into the film's surrealistic plot for a while... but then it exaggerates just too much and a growing sense of silliness starts spilling out of it. In that, it's also too long: nearly two hours and thirty minutes, for such a cute, light story there's no reason whatsoever for that length.Could've been better as a shorter, more focused, less leaky story.Good stuff still. 7/10.

«What are you going to do now, Billy ?» someone asked Wilder after he received the Academy Award for his perfect film, The Apartment. The answer was One, Two, Three, then Irma La Douce with a re teaming of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine : both films were rather bullied by critics although the latter would score a box-office hit. But to compare The Apartment with Irma is in itself absurd : inevitably, it's less gripping, biting and moving. Yet, as it tells such a different story, which develops in a rather unexpected light, it did work out for me -at least more than this disastrous other mixture of pepper and sugar, The Emperor's Waltz.Set in Paris' hot spot of Les Halles in the 60's (but it does look much older at times), narrated by uncredited Louis Jourdan (who else could muse «don't you believe it» with such smooth ? ), here's the love story of a sexy, independent-minded prostitute and a naive happy-go-lucky cop. Fired from the corrupt police force because of his honesty, Nestor becomes Irma's pimp and lover. But his jealousy drives him to dress up as a British Lord to secure all of his business partner's attentions. What follows is a bunch of misunderstandings and ultimately a lavish church wedding, with prostitutes as bridesmaids and a very pregnant bride. Well, believe it or not.Yet, the fantasy is saved by its own dizzy charm- and there's plenty of it : a good combination of screwball comedy, light drama and witty dialogs only Wilder and Diamond could write- so good the characters say them several times. The real problem is the length. No Parisian farce should exceed two hours and this one would have deserved a quicker start. Irma's tear-jerking, phony stories, while the main credits still roll, could have been cut with no harm , and the same goes for the general slowness in the development, with too many too long sequences. One of these musicals without music, Irma still get an Oscar for Andre Previn's beautiful score. Its atmospheric themes, composed by Marguerite Monnot for the original operetta, make for a very pleasant listening, specially the intimate «Language of Love» and the only dance number, done with disarming skill and energy by the two leads. Settings too have that singling out quality: from the poetic Casanova street, designed by Alexander Trauner, complete with old shop signs, to Irma's homey studio and the real things : sunny Parisian bridges where poor Jack Lemmon had to swim out. Honestly, the whole thing looks better than Midnight in Paris.An other determinate point is the humanity depicted by behind the kookiness of characters and situations. They are crazy and unbelievable for sure, but in a lovable way. I could not care a bit for the boheme bunch of Can-Can, a film much similar to this one (at least, it has MacLaine as a light dancer), but this one won me over. Comic does drag a bit, but there are moments genuinely hilarious : the jail escape, Lemmon's British imitation: «The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain...I've seen every English movie in town», and about every time mysterious bartender Moustache is around, a character not so unlike «le maître de jeu» from La Ronde. And indeed, the lightness in the folly brings back the spirits of Max Ophuls or Luigi Pirandello, as well as some good old' slapstick.Apart from the pleasure of having Jack and Shirley together again, it's actually quite nice to see them as «a real couple», up to strange adventures but also conventional banter, kisses and fights. Both of the characters are eccentrics and first very puzzled at each other, but they're willing to get along and one can easily buy their quirky romance. Lemmon gives a wonderful spontaneity to Nestor, that constantly saves him from caricature. Honest to a fault, madly jealous and overenthusiastic, you actually care for the guy when he gets punched by Irma's pimp or cries with exhaustion after the girl mistakes his moonlighting for infidelity. And his flamboyance as middle-aged Lord X, chuckling and impotent, lets his natural versatility shine. He'll get another great double part in The Great Race. As for MacLaine, in a part previously meant for Marilyn Monroe, she's pleasantly at ease and injects her own touch to the cliché of the sweet prostitute with green stockings. Stoic and casual, Irma wants security, stability and respect : she's a serious businesswoman of the underworld, that never seems over-concerned about anything. But like every Wilder heroin, she has also a good deal of cute innocence: «You don't anything about men, because you've been with too many», Nestor tells her near the end of the story. A lot has been said about the filthy, racy mood - sure there are plenty not so subtle double entendres and some very plain lines, but with a general feeling of live and let live behind. Irma's stimulation of Lord X's blocked imagination are a wink to Some Like It Hot. And there's a graceful little scene, when Nestor and Irma are about to make love for the first time. While she's willing and practical, he gets shy and asks her to put her night mask while he undresses. After a fade, you find the mask on a sleeping, peaceful Nestor. The ending does not make much sense - nor does the reappearance of Lord X with all the clothes found months before by the cops, but who cares ? Like Moustache, masterfully played by Lou Jacobi, claims: that's another story. A story of hate, love, passion and death. All those things that make life worth living.

"Irma la Douce" is a charming "comedy" that has few laughs, but a lot of charisma going for it. There aren't any real knee slappers in this thing, no pre-teen 21st century body function jokes, no super brilliant every-lines-a-quip modern era monologues and banter, nor does it even harken back to Howard Hawkes' era where dialogue was given machine gun deliver. So, what does this film have? Jack Lemon and Shirely McClaine, and a well rounded supporting troupe of highly talented thespians. The film is more about having a fun attitude than actually delivering any jokes (of which there are few to none). The film doesn't have any of the traditional "this is funny" cues for the audience. It's all about creating a fun world in which a romantic fantasy can be created.The straight laced policeman whose beat is usually playgrounds and pedestrian routes with domestic foibles. Enter the girl with loose morals who trades in on her body for social and financial security. Their worlds are diametrically opposed. They meet. Clash. And fall in love. Or, rather, the male finds the untamed female too desirable to let her go. So her pursues her. How does it end? You need to see the film to find out.It's a story about romance, jealousy, unpredictable circumstances, and, a little sex. Read that last phrase as VERY LITTLE, thank goodness. We're talking late 50s / early 60s, when sex was just making a comeback into the fringes of mainstream society. It was still taboo, but, if it was flavored right, then people who had their interest perked, could feel better or alright about accepting a g-rated sex-comedy because they wouldn't be embarrassed because everyone else was doing it, and no one else was being embarrassed by it either.So it is with "Irma La Douce". All the sex is implied. A welcome relief from today's very sex-charged media circus that dominates net and airwaves. Even though Imra and her peers are women of negotiable virtue, they have hearts, and are willing to give them to the man who meets their standards. Again, to find out what they are, you have to see the film.I used to see the thing on weekend afternoons, or occasionally on some local indy station's 8 O'Clock evening movie (remember those?), and have fond memories of a film that has no real social thorns in spite of the fact that it exhibits (or discusses in an off beat way) the Parisian sex industry, corruption of Le Gendarme (French cops), and what overcomes all social ills if the two hearts in question are willing enough.That's kind of what "Irma la Douce" is all about. Give it a try.It's a bit of a slow film with no real laughs, but it should raise a smile here and there.

This film was written and directed by genius, Billy Wilder. This film is not one of his finest but it's worth watching with Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine in it. Shirley plays the title role of a Parisian street walker with a poodle named Coquette who has kidney stones and drinks a little. Anyway, Lemmon's played Nestor, an honest policeman who raids the Hotel Casanova. While he thinks he will get a medal, his boss fires him for the raid. Anyway, the film is about prostitution in a light-hearted manner even in the 1960s. Irma invites Nestor to come and stay with her since he's jobless and homeless in her apartment. Anyway, Irma likes the color green and even wears green stockings. There is a lot of humor in this film if you watch all of it. Lou Jacobi is wonderful as the Mustache who helps Nestor land his dream girl.