DATE=3-29-02

TYPE=English Feature

NUMBER=7-36122

TITLE=OBIT: Billy Wilder - Film Director, Writer and Producer

BYLINE=Keming Kuo

TELEPHONE=619-0936

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=vicki swaney

CONTENT=

NO VOICED VERSION_

INTRO: One of America's finest film directors, Billy Wilder, has died at the age of 95. Best known for directing such classic films as "Some Like It Hot," "The Apartment," and "Sunset Boulevard," Billy Wilder created movie masterpieces since the 1930's, not only as a director, but also as a writer and producer. _____ pays tribute to the great moviemaker, Billy Wilder.

TEXT: Born Samuel Wilder in 1906 in Vienna, Austria, Billy Wilder intended to become a lawyer. But he gave up his university studies to become a reporter, first for a Vienna newspaper and later for a paper in Berlin. Because of his Jewish faith, Mr. Wilder fled to Paris after Hitler came to power; his mother, whom he left behind, died in a concentration camp.

At twenty-eight, a spirit of adventure and the lure of Hollywood brought Billy Wilder to the United States. With no knowledge of English, he had difficulty writing for films at first. Eventually he teamed up with another screenwriter, Charles Brackett, and the two were employed by the Paramount studio.

Today most people know Billy Wilder for the films he directed later in his career; but according to American Film Institute film historian Eddie Cockrell, it was Wilder's writing that earned him his place in the Hollywood pantheon. Unlike many other screenwriters, Mister Cockrell says, Billy Wilder was a master of the genre of the "comedic drama":

TAPE: CUT ONE -- COCKRELL :48

"Billy Wilder learned the craft of writing when you couldn't deal with the subjects that Billy Wilder likes to deal with -- sex and the war between the sexes. So Billy Wilder cut his screenwriting teeth [i.e., developed his skill] on metaphor and analogy, which is the kind of light yet acerbic touch that you just don't find in contemporary movies. Certain of Billy Wilder's movies represent the most caustic refraction of American morals and sensibilities that have ever been filmed, including "Ace in the Hole," with Kirk Douglas; "One, Two, Three," with James Cagney; and "The Fortune Cookie," which marked the first teaming of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. So any appreciation of Billy Wilder would have to revolve around his consummate skills as a screenwriter."

TEXT: But at the age of thirty-six, Billy Wilder began to seek greater artistic control over his films, and started directing as well as writing them. In 1945, his direction of "The Lost Weekend," a drama about alcoholism, won him Hollywood's highest honor, an Academy Award, or "Oscar"; he also shared an Academy Award in the screenwriting category. He would go on to win a total of six "Oscars" in a career spanning five decades.

[OPT] In one film he co-wrote, "A Foreign Affair," Billy Wilder mocked the ignorance of U.S. Congressmen, and showed how American soldiers traded goods on the black market and socialized with German women. Although the movie was much criticized when it was first released, Mr. Wilder said "A Foreign Affair" showed his mixed emotions about Berlin, and provided insights about his Jewish heritage. [END OPT]

Billy Wilder also played a major role in developing the talents of some of America's most famous actors. [OPT] At a 1985 American Film Institute tribute to the screenwriter-director, actor Walter Matthau described his professional indebtedness to Billy Wilder:

TAPE: CUT TWO -- MATTHAU :13

"Billy Wilder is responsible for any success I may have had in the movies. He's a master at meticulous preparation, at directing. He's a master at writing." [END OPT]

TEXT: In a 1990 interview, actor Jack Lemmon, who starred in many of Billy Wilder's films, singled out the director for his inventiveness behind the camera:

TAPE: CUT THREE -- LEMMON :27

"There is probably no filmmaker that has created so many outstanding films for so many years, for about fifty years. He has not only kept up with the times, he has 'caused' times. He has created and done films that have made other filmmakers say, 'Gee!' And they'll change and they'll think. He was continually original. He has also touched nerves. He can make you laugh and make you cry. But he can also make you think." [END OPT]

TEXT: Three of Lemmon's best-known films were directed by Billy Wilder: the comedy/drama "The Apartment," the Parisian fairy tale "Irma La Douce," and the riotously funny "Some Like It Hot," [OPT] which first brought the director and actor together:

TAPE: CUT FOUR -- LEMMON :39

"He had seen a couple of films I had done and he had liked, thank God. And when he was going to film, 'Some Like It Hot,' then he thought of me, along with actor Tony Curtis. He came up to me at a restaurant one night and said, 'I've got this story here, about two fellows who saw the St. Valentine's Day Massacre [i.e., a Chicago gangland shooting]. They're musicians and they see the killers, but the killers see them. So they've got to disguise themselves. And they put on women's clothes, and they join an all-girl orchestra. And if you want to play the part, you're going to be in drag [i.e., women's clothes] for ninety percent of the picture. Do you want to do it?' I said, 'Yes,' thank God, because it was him [i.e., Wilder]. (If it had been) anybody else? Forget it." [END OPT]

TEXT: [OPT] Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" has one of American film's funniest endings: Jack Lemmon, dressed as a woman, rides off in a boat with a male admirer, played by actor Joe E. Brown -- who doesn't realize or care that Mr. Lemmon's character is actually a man:

TAPE: CUT FIVE -- SFX ("Some Like It Hot") v.o. :37; m.o. :42

LEMMON: "Osgood? I'm gonna level with you: we can't get married at all!"

BROWN: "Why not?"

LEMMON: "Well... in the first place, I'm not a natural blonde."

BROWN: "That doesn't matter."

LEMMON: "I smoke! I smoke all the time!"

BROWN: "I don't care."

LEMMON: "I'm a terrible pass: for three year's now I've been living with a saxophone player."

BROWN: "I forgive you."

LEMMON: "I can never have children."

BROWN: "We can adopt some."

LEMMON: "You don't understand, Osgood. I'm a man!!!"

BROWN: "Nobody's perfect."

TEXT: The final scene for the 1959 film "Some Like It Hot," starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe -- and directed by Billy Wilder. [END OPT]

Billy Wilder's last films were made in the early 1980's. But in 1990, his lifetime achievement in the cinema was recognized when he received the Kennedy Center Honors, here in Washington. [REST OPT] At a White House ceremony, President Bush saluted Billy Wilder and his fellow honorees for the "genius, power and magic" that they brought to the arts.

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