Billy Wilder’s seventh movie, The Emperor Waltz, is a light comedy starring Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine. It was released in 1948. Billy was 42 years old. The title card at the start of the movie sets the stage… On a December night, some forty-odd years ago, His Majesty Francis Joseph the First, Emperor of […]
Entries from July 6th, 2011
Day Seven: The Emperor Waltz
July 6th, 2011 · No Comments · 1948, Bing Crosby, Charles Brackett, Color, Emperor Waltz, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Musical, Richard Haydn, Roland Culver
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Day Six: Death Mills
July 5th, 2011 · No Comments · 1946, Concentration Camps, Death Mills, Documentary, Ed Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder’s sixth movie, Death Mills, is a documentary about Nazi concentration camps released in 1946. Billy was 40 years old. I’m glad this was film only 21 minutes long. Despite it’s brevity, I feel like I just lost half my life. Or, rather, I feel like half of my soul was sucked out of […]
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Day Five: The Lost Weekend
July 4th, 2011 · No Comments · 1945, Adaptation, Charles Brackett, Charles R. Jackson, Doris Dowling, Howard Da Silva, Jane Wyman, Lost Weekend, Miklos Rozsa, Phillip Terry, Ray Milland
Billy Wilder’s fifth movie, The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman, was released in 1945. Billy was 39 years old. The story is about an ersatz writer named Don Birnam (Ray Milland), an alcoholic who goes on a drinking binge and loses a weekend; hence, the title of the movie. The Lost Weekend […]
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Day Three: Five Graves to Cairo
July 2nd, 2011 · No Comments · 1943, Adaptation, Anne Baxter, Charles Brackett, Erich von Stroheim, Five Graves to Cairo, Franchot Tone, World War II
Billy Wilder’s third movie, Five Graves to Cairo, a World War II tale starring Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, and Erich von Stroheim, was released in 1943. Billy was 37 years old. Opening title card: In June 1942 things looked black indeed for the British Eighth Army. It was beat, scattered, and in flight. Tobruk had […]
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Day Two: The Major and the Minor
July 1st, 2011 · No Comments · 1942, Adaptation, Charles Brackett, Day Two, Ginger Rogers, Inciting Incident, Major and the Minor, Mid Point, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Ray Milland
Billy Wilder’s second movie, The Major and the Minor, a light comedy starring Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers, was released in 1942. Billy was 36 years old. The Major and the Minor is Billy Wilder’s American-movie debut. According to film historian Robert Osbourne, Billy chose a light comedy — with a sure-fire box-office cast — […]
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You can call me Billy. But don't expect me to answer to that.