Tag Archives: Billy Wilder

Naughty Boys

Posted on September 8, 2006 by sheila

I am absolutely in love with this photo. It’s a total happy place photo. Look at Dino!! But look at both of them! Dino’s tux, Wilder’s checked cap, Dino’s handkerchief, the huge stage lights in the background, the air grimy … Continue reading →

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10 Minute Oscars

Posted on April 10, 2006 by sheila

… from Alex. I love that you included William Holden’s moment of being shot from Sunset Boulevard. You’re so right – there’s so much in that moment. Billy Wilder praised Holden for what an athlete he was – that he … Continue reading →

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Casablanca Premiered Today, 1942

Posted on November 26, 2005 by sheila

Reviews were actually – it was seen as just another melodrama that Warner Brothers had become so practiced at churning out – but the public loved it and it went on to win an Academy Award for best picture in … Continue reading →

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Casablanca Appreciation Day

Posted on November 26, 2005 by sheila

From The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II: “Bogart had competence,” says Billy Wilder. “You felt that, if that big theatre where you were watching Casablanca caught on fire, Bogart could save you. Gable had that same … Continue reading →

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Billy Wilder on Marilyn Monroe: “She had a kind of elegant vulgarity.”

Posted on November 5, 2005 by sheila

Billy Wilder had a notoriously difficult time directing Marilyn Monroe, and yet he knew that if he wanted movie magic, he had to put up with her neuroses. Here are his words, from Cameron Crowe’s Conversations with Wilder: “Whatever she … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Directors | Tagged , | 15 Comments

“Shut Up and Deal!”

Posted on March 30, 2005 by sheila

Shirley MacLaine, during the seminar she gave at my school, talked a lot about The Apartment, directed by Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon and Fred MacMurray. — In the final scene, where Miss Kubelik shows up at his apartment, and … Continue reading →

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The Spirit of St. Louis

Posted on January 4, 2005 by sheila

In line with this massive post I did on the Lindberghs – here’s something else. I love this story. It combines two of the Sheila obsessions: the Lindberghs, and Billy Wilder (who, of course, directed Jimmy Stewart in The Spirit … Continue reading →

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The Tone of Stalag 17

Posted on November 14, 2004 by sheila

What a strange movie. A comedy set in a German prison camp? Well, yes. That’s what it is. But, like with all of Wilder’s movies, he doesn’t sacrifice HEART in order to get the comedy. All those guys in the … Continue reading →

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On Ball of Fire

Posted on October 3, 2004 by sheila

There is one prolonged sparring-sexy scene between Cooper and Stanwyck in the library, which ends with them in a passionate clinch. She plays a show-girl who speaks almost completely in slang, and Cooper plays a sexually inexperienced grammarian who has … Continue reading →

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Billy Wilder: On Arriving In America

Posted on September 2, 2004 by sheila

Excerpt from Conversations with Wilder: I first saw America from the Aquitania. We were delayed half a day, we were up in the harbor. It was a snowing winter night. I stayed with my brother in his little house on … Continue reading →

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