Richard Armstrong. Billy Wilder: American Film Realist.

Young, Harvey

Richard Armstrong. Billy Wilder: American Film Realist. McFarland, 2000. 164 pages; $32.00 hardcover. Craftsman and Commentator

The blurb on the back cover of Richard Armstrong's Billy Wilder: American Film Realist offers a user (and indeed, a reviewer) friendly introduction to the intended goal of the author's book project. It reads, "Born in Austria but named after Buffalo Bill, Billy Wilder arrived in Hollywood thoroughly versed in American culture--and promptly began turning out movies more 'American' in setting and sensibility than those helped by his homegrown colleagues. [... Armstrong's book] closely examines a selection of Wilder's films from 1941 through 1981. These films show Wilder at his best--as a hard working Hollywood craftsman and an astute commentator on the 'American Century.'"

Armstrong, a writer, researcher, and editor who lives in Cambridge, England, offers a useful introduction to sixteen of Billy Wilder's American films. With each essay--there is a separate essay for each film--the author offers a melange of facts from Wilder's life, production histories of his films, brief allusions to extant critical work on those films, and new critical commentary by Armstrong himself. It is important to note that the author's analysis on the "American" quality of Wilder's motion pictures roots itself primarily in the fact that the films he studies were all made in the United States and/or were produced by a US motion picture studio (i.e. Paramount, Warner Brothers). The text does not, in any great detail (with the exception of its discussion of location shoots and the American star system), comment on the "American Century."

Billy Wilder: American Film Realist begins with a short introduction in which Armstrong outlines his project, a project even more succinctly described on the back cover, and then proceeds with a critical investigation of nearly a score of Wilder's films including Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and The Front Page. Each study spans approximately eight pages. The quality of the essays varies greatly but generally suffers from the author's efforts to incorporate his abundant research material and critical insights into so few pages. An example of this appears in the following excerpt drawn from Armstrong's discussion of Double Indemnity:

"By 1944, Hollywood monochrome photography had reached the zenith in sound cinema which it reached in silent cinema around 1926. Double Indemnity cinematographer John Seitz had himself been a cameraman since the silent period. His work here is some of the most efficient ever achieved in the classical period. Notice the economy with which Walter's abrupt departure from Phyllis and her hold over him is contained in a shot over her shoulder as she watched him leave."

In the preceding, it is clear that the author has three goals. He wants to introduce the importance of monochrome photography, to relate this technology to the film's cinematographer, and to closely read a moment in the film where its use (monochrome photography) is apparent. Unfortunately, spatial restrictions on this section must have demanded that editing be done and the result is that none of the three goals are reached. Reviewing the excerpt, it is not clear why Armstrong mentions monograph photography or the silent film experience of Seitz. Without needed contextualization, one cannot be entirely sure to which scene the author is referring.

At other moments, Armstrong's valuable contribution to the study of Wilder is compromised through his use of problematic prose. In one telling example, the author refers to Marilyn Monroe in his discussion of The Seven Year Itch in the following manner: "With breasts like the brake lights on a Cadillac and a derriere as inviting as a triple cheeseburger, she is the epitome of the American dream of Abundance Declared, and the system which marketed it." Together, these moments of conjecture and hyperbole dilute the author's analysis and lessen the promise of this worthwhile project.

On a more positive note, Armstrong's text proves to be extraordinarily handy, as many auteur studies are, for its filmography and bibliography. Although only the films discussed in the book appear in the filmography, it is worth noting that the author does include an abbreviated credit listing for the majority of these films. The bibliography features fifty-three Wilder-themed books and nearly one-hundred articles. In light of the extensive research performed in support of the book and documented within it, Billy Wilder: American Film Realist offers a useful and most likely productive starting point to any reader looking to learn more about the emigrant director.

Harvey Young

Cornell University

hjy4@cornell.edu