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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5050070007404
Format: PAL
Number Of Discs: 1
Region Code: 2
Sales Rank: 191429
Theatrical Release Date: June 05, 1963
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
In 1963, Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce was one of the biggest box-office hits of the year, grossing twice as much as The Great Escape and The Birds. Yet this popular movie has been almost completely forgotten by film history, even to fans of Wilder or stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine (the same trio had made a masterpiece, The Apartment, three years earlier). It doesn't represent the best work of those legends, but Irma provides tart entertainment. At least some of the movie's popularity can be chalked up to its subject, which was pretty risqué for the time: Lemmon plays a Paris policeman who falls in love with a prostitute (MacLaine). The script was adapted from a stage musical, but Wilder decided to cut the songs, instead developing the humor and romance into his own blend of bittersweet perversity; this Technicolor-fantasy Paris is kind of a dark cousin to Gigi. Lemmon is in his prime period of hand-wringing self-doubt, and MacLaine is perfectly in tune with his rhythms, especially in scenes that add tenderness to the sometimes queasy mix of moods. Ironically--given the nixing of the songs--the film won its only Oscar for André Previn's adaptation of the stage play's music into a wordless orchestral score. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - I've fallen head over heals for Irma...
Yet another Billy Wilder smash hit, `Irma La Douce' pits the wonderfully charming Shirley MacLaine against the hilariously witty Jack Lemmon in a comedy that is every bit as smart as it is unforgettable. This is one of those comedies that sneaks up on you, getting better and better as the film progresses onward to its end, and then the ending is one that takes you for a loop and makes you reevaluate your whole understanding of the film.
It's just wonderfully constructed from beginning ... Read More
Rating:  - Green Stocking Diaries
One character in "Irma La Douce" describes the love between Jack Lemmon's sad sack and Shirley MacLaine's heart-of-gold streetwalker as "cute". Herein lies my problem with the film. I liked it, though it was a little overlong, but I was expecting something a little edgier from director Billy Wilder and his co-scenarist I.A.L. Diamond. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they were adapting someone else's work instead of creating something original. Lemmon and MacLaine still have that distinct ... Read More
Rating: - Here's looking at you, Irma...
Is there any denying how beautiful Shirley MacLaine was in this film?
I just finished watching Irma La Douce with my wife, over dinner. It's a delightful comedy, also starring Jack Lemmon as a clean police officer, who raids a den of prostitution, is fired for his trouble, and then falls in love with one of the prostitutes. Jealous of all her clients, he concocts a scheme to dress up as an English Lord ("Lord X"), so as to monopolize all her time. His best-laid plan of course goes astray, but love ... Read More
Rating: - Too long, but full of charm
In an attempt to recapture the magic of The Apartment, director Billy Wilder reassembled the stars of that film, Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, in an adaptation of a popular musical -- and promptly removed the music. The result was Irma La Douce, a film that has been mostly forgotten my modern movie lovers even though it was a huge box-office success in 1963 (earning more than The Great Escape and The Birds combined!).
Part of the reason for the obscurity of Irma La Douce may be its highly contrived ... Read More
Rating: - JUST A CLASSIC
SINCE I WAS A CHILD, WHEN WATCHED THIS FILM IN TV, I DREAMT OF BUYING A COPY IN THE FUTURE.
FINALLY GOT IT AND IS REALLY A TREASURE LIKE THE BEST OF THE BOOKS, THAT YOU CAN SEE MANY TIMES WITHOUT GETTING BORED.
ESCELLENT MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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