One, Two, Three (1961)

James Cagney left the movie business for more than 20 years after finishing his role in One, Two, Three and it's no wonder; he needed at least that much time to rest up after the fastest-moving comedy made in the 1960s. It's often too furiously quick for its own good as the dialogue comes at the ears with Uzi-like speed. Cagney is the fast-talking, hard-driving, self-made man who heads up Coca-Cola's bottling interests in Germany. His attitude is similar to the man who once ran General Motors and said, "What's good for General Motors is good for America." And since there is nothing in Europe more American than Coca-Cola, Cagney is determined to bring it to everyone, East and West. Cagney would like to become chief of all the European operations and is working toward that end when Pamela Tiffin, the teenage daughter of St. John--one of the heavyweights at Coca-Cola's Georgia headquarters--arrives, and Cagney has to baby-sit her for two weeks as she makes her way through a tour of the Continent.

Cagney does his best to squire the dippy Tiffin, in the hope that his behavior will get him his desired promotion, but things go awry when she falls hard for Buchholz, a dedicated East Berlin Communist student. Cagney learns that St. John is coming to Germany at the same time he discovers Tiffin has married Buchholz. He plants a copy of that most capitalistic of papers, The Wall Street Journal, on Buchholz, figuring the youth will be clapped in irons and an annulment can be secured. Then he learns that Tiffin is expecting Buchholz's baby, so he has to get the kid out of jail and train him to be a capitalist in order to make him a suitable son-in-law for St. John. Cagney successfully springs Buchholz, purchases a royal title for him, and gives him a crash course in American business.

Buchholz impresses St. John so much that the pleased father-in-law hands the plum job of running Europe to his new relation, the father of his unborn grandchild. Cagney winds up going back to Atlanta with wife Francis. He did his job too well and lost the promotion he'd hoped for.

Cagney plays this part with such verve and energy that he seems to be a much younger man than he was (62) and even appears to be a new actor eager to impress the studio with his abilities. But that was always the way Cagney played things--to the hilt. Many of the jokes were taken right from the period's headlines and were already dated by the time the film was released. It was based on a one-act play by the master farceur Molnar and expanded beautifully by Wilder and Diamond.

Filmed on location in West Berlin and at the studios in Munich (where Wilder had been before the war), it won no awards except the laughter of those who saw it. Fapp got an Oscar nomination for his cinematography. Previn's score was perfect, and the use of several old ditties was excellent, including "Yes, We Have No Bananas" (Frank Silver, Irving Cohn).

Cast

James Cagney, C.R. MacNamara

Horst Buchholz, Otto Ludwig Piffl

Pamela Tiffin, Scarlett Hazeltine

Arlene Francis, Phyllis MacNamara

Lilo Pulver, Ingeborg

Howard St. John, Hazeltine

Hanns Lothar, Schlemmer

Lois Bolton, Mrs. Hazeltine

Dr. Baue,r Red Buttons

Production

Producer, Billy Wilder

Director, Billy Wilder

Writer,: Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (based on the play Egy, Ketto, Harom by Ferenc Molnar)

Cinematographer, Daniel Fapp (Panavision)

Editor, Daniel Mandell

Music Composer and Director, Andre Previn