Irma La Douce
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Movie Reviews of Irma La Douce
Movie Review: Good old classics are always a winner.
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember seeing this movie in theaters for the first time when I was quite young and loved it then. Over the years the story has remained crisp enough to still give you a good laugh and is a movie that should be in any collection the includes the 'golden oldies'. I think it is one of Jack Lemmon's best performances.Movie Review: Sweet Irma from Paris, Hollywood
Summary: 3 Stars
Irma La Douce is a curious film with a curious history. Originally a French musical, it was translated and tranferred 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. 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 does not exist.
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 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 colors are so garish and unreal that you wonder if black and white might have suited the material better. 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 humor. As Irma, Shirley MacLaine is bubbly and strangely sexy - just as she was in a whole series of silly films in the Sixties. Legend has it 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. Trivia lovers will enjoy spotting a pre-Incredible Hulk Bill Bixby as a French sailor. 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. Still, it's a lot better than most of the more modern and allegedly more sophisticated "romantic comedies" made these days.
Movie Review: Where's the music?
Summary: 2 Stars
I loved the musical when it first came out. I looked forward to the film release. I can't say how disappointed I was in the result. Why do directors so often think they can make a better story than the author intended?Movie Review: Irma la flop
Summary: 2 Stars
This is one of my least favorite Jack Lemmon movies. The plot was slow, the jokes weren't funny. I don't know, this just didn't do it for me. It didn't seem characteristic of Billy Wilder's usual witty style.