Quote of the Day (Joan Collins, on Film Great Billy Wilder)

Favorite occupation: "Watching a Billy Wilder movie while eating Belgian chocolates."—Joan Collins, quoted in "The Proust Questionnaire: Joan Collins," Vanity Fair, January 1995

I’m all with “Dynasty’s” diva on this one. Mention even only about a half-dozen of the movies of Billy Wilder—born on this date in 1906--and you’re likely to find something that’s appeared on at least one all-time best film list: Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, or my favorite of the bunch, The Apartment.

If, as Dustin Hoffman observed, every actor has at least one Ishtar on their resume, then every director has at least one minor-league Heaven’s Gate on theirs. (Pity the one with a major-league Heaven’s Gate on theirs.) Even most of Wilder’s box-office misfires, however, have something interesting and even redeeming about them, including The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Fedora, and one that has really grown to something like cult status with the years, Ace in the Hole. (See this prior post of mine on the moral and spiritual dimensions of this dark, dark film.)

The March/April issue of Believer Magazine, focusing on film, includes a brief appreciation--and, better yet, a DVD attached--of a film Wilder wrote before fleeing Nazi Germany: People on Sunday. The movie, co-directed by future Hollywood mainstays Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity, A Man for All Seasons) serving as assistant cinematographer, is definitely on my “to watch” list for the summer.