Brightlyme
i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.
Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Bessie Smyth
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
TownRootGuy
Luckily she's much younger here.This show is not bad, not bad at all. It has some eye candy AND while it's no French tickler, it's more fun than getting the pimp-hand.Irma is worth seeing but I can't watch this more frequently than every 7 - 10 years.
JasparLamarCrabb
Coming on the heels of the multi-Oscar winning THE APARTMENT and the hyperactive cold war comedy ONE, TWO, THREE, IRMA LA DOUCE, with its story of a Parisian prostitute & the gendarme bent on rehabilitating her, would appear to be the ideal project for director Billy Wilder. It's spicy, walks a fine line between good & bad taste and stars Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine. It's not a great movie, but it is very good. It's chief virtue is the audacious performance of MacLaine. She's a hooker with anything but a heart of gold. As with THE APARTMENT, she's well matched with Lemmon, essentially playing two roles and playing them very well. Wilder and co-writer I.A.L. Diamond populate the film with quite a number of memorable sex jokes. The high gloss cinematography by Joseph LaShelle is great as is the very stylized art direction by Alexandre Trauner. The supporting cast features Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi, Wilder regular Joan Shawlee and, somewhere in there, the great French actor Moustache.
Martin Teller
Wilder reunites Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, perhaps an attempt to bring back the magic of THE APARTMENT. A failed attempt. The film is an unfunny, tedious drag. Most of Wilder's comedies run relatively long, but it's a lot more painful when the gags don't hit their mark. Compare this to SOME LIKE IT HOT: both center around an elaborate and rather unbelievable deception, but SLIH works because it's actually funny. Here, the lame slapstick and repetition of the same dumb jokes (if you didn't know the movie was going to end with "but that's another story" then you weren't paying attention the first dozen times it was said) wears thin and gives the viewer time to think about how flimsy the whole setup is. Lemmon's character is a clueless knucklehead, and MacLaine (although adorable as always) just looks bored. Interestingly, the film is adapted from a stage musical, but Wilder chose to cut all the songs. Perhaps they might have lent the project some much-needed charm, or perhaps they would have just made it feel even longer. And perhaps I'm taking it too seriously, but the quaint portrayal of prostitution is a bit objectionable (and besides, MacLaine would do the "hooker with a heart of gold" thing a lot better in SWEET CHARITY). Now don't get me wrong: there are some good moments. I'm already struggling to remember them, but there were definitely a few things that brought a smile to my face (some of the references are pretty clever). The overall experience, however, is a slog -- the worst I've seen from Wilder so far.
Robert J. Maxwell
Billy Wilder had an effective way of insinuating pathos into a comedy. It's always a temptation, I suppose, for writers and directors to do something "serious." Comedies are supposed to be all froth and no substance, while drama is to be paid attention to and applauded. But it's hard to blend the two. Woody Allan did it once or twice, as in "Annie Hall." Shakespeare's "dark comedies" weren't as successful as either his comedies or his tragedies -- that's in my opinion anyway, and I happen to be the world's leading expert on Walter Shakespeare.In Wilder's case he made some straight dramas ("Double Indemnity") and some exceptional straight comedies ("Some Like It Hot"). After 1960 he began to produce comedies with touches of sadness and they more or less worked. "The Apartment" was an example of this trend and so is "Irma La Douce." Jack Lemon is the ex cop who inadvertently becomes the pimp of Shirley MacLaine, the eponymous Irma, in Paris. They fall in love of course. She insists on supporting him in the finest fashion but he grows jealous because, after all, every passerby is banging the woman he loves. MacLaine, possessed of greater savoir-faire, is puzzled by Lemon's discomfort.So Lemon borrows 500 francs from his friend Mustache, dresses up as an English nobleman, and in this disguise arranges to meet his girl twice a week and pay her enough money, just for playing solitaire, that she can dispense with all her other clients. Lemon, dumb as an ox, beams with pride as he pulls this stunt off, until Mustache reminds him that although money is now changing hands, none will be coming in. He borrows from Mustache, the phony Englishman gives it to MacLaine, she gives it to Lemon, and Lemon gives it back to Mustache. So in order to keep this system an open one, Lemon begins to sneak out of the flat and work all night in the market, an unsustainable effort. Then it gets complicated. Lemon is arrested for his own murder.It all comes together and works, in a stage-bound and slightly old-fashioned way, rather like Wilder's later "The Front Page." The performances are very good indeed. MacLaine is matter-of-fact about her profession, very pretty, and sexy too, pale and slender. Lou Jacobi is Mustache and does fine with the role of the grandiose friend who teaches Lemon how to be "British." But Lemon is superb as the nervous and exhausted lover. Andre Previn's score is lively or wistful, as the circumstances demand, though it may depend on Borodin.It's pretty funny and you'll probably enjoy it.
