Wilder. Wilder is one of the best screenwriters in film history. You won’t get a ton of argument from me if you want to call him the single best but regardless- any list without him in the top 5 is incorrect. This, however, is not a list of the best screenwriters of all-time but a list of the best directors. Wilder all but agrees with me- Wilder admits he became a director out of necessity—so no other director would screw up his writing. This may be an oversimplification and some self-deprecation but still—TSPDT has him as the 16th best director of all-time and this is simply incorrect. I’ve found that he certainly transcends being just a screenwriter at times (Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity in particular are remarkably directed) at times- but not at all times . I’ll get to it below but Some Like it Hot baffles me at #28 of all-time on TSPDT. I don’t get it. It’s not there in the text.
Best film: Sunset Boulevard. Gothic and savage. It’s wickedly funny and is certainly his best directed film in my mind. The ending is one of cinema’s great endings.
total archiveable films: 20
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 4 (Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, Some Like it Hot)
top 100 films of the decade: 6(Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot, Ace in the Hole, The Apartment)
most overrated: Some Like it Hot is #28 on TSPDT…. Holy hell.. I’m at #265. If you’re here to argue how funny it is, how good the performances are—absolutely. It’s impeccably written, riotous and the three leads are irreplaceable. If film is just entertainment sure—but if it’s art? The films I have at #27-31 are The Rules of The Game, Battleship Potemkin, Touch of Evil, Pulp Fiction, Ambersons, Taxi Driver… these films are superior works of art.
most underrated: Stalag 17 and Sabrina. Wilder actually only has 5 films in the TSPDT top 1000 (the same as my top 5). Stalag 17 is wonderfully cynical. William Holden (in his Oscar winning role) as a POW anti-hero spitting absolute fire for 2 hours. Sabrina is my #6 Wilder film and though I haven’t yet pushed my top 500 to 1000 I believe it would make the list.
gem I want to spotlight: Ace in the Hole. Kirk Douglas ripping heads off and chewing scenery here. Sense a trend (cynical as Stalag and as ferocious as Sunset Boulevard). You combine this dialogue with this performance and you get a top 1000 film pretty easily. It is dark and disparaging. One of the best films from both Wilder and Douglas.
stylistic innovations/traits: He’s certainly witty and can adapt and be romantic (Sabrina, Apartment), post-ww2 dark hardboiled skeptic (Double Indemnity, Lost Weekend) and that savage cynicism (Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole). I go back and forth in my head about where Wilder will ultimately as a director on my list when all of the contemporary directors have said what they want to say. Although I think Wilder is a style-minus director (in the context of this list/project) he’s made great films and has, despite my prior comment, crafted many of cinema’s most magnificent and iconic Hollywood scenes (certainly including Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Holden, Audrey Hepburn). His best work (Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity and to a less extend The Apartment) he puts on the master director’s hat and doesn’t just rely on his gift of the written word and supreme Hollywood acting talent. Sunset Boulevard uses the camera and shot choice in the opening pool shot and final “I’m ready for my close-up” scene. The Venetian blind lighting work in Double Indemnity is masterful and the office as a set-piece and architectural cue for Lemmon’s loneliness touches greatness in The Apartment.
top 10
- Sunset Boulevard
- Double Indemnity
- The Apartment
- Some Like it Hot
- Ace in the Hole
- Sabrina
- Stalag 17
- The Lost Weekend
- Avanti
- The Seven Year Itch
By year and grades
| 1942- The Major and the Minor | R |
| 1944- Double Indemnity | MP |
| 1945- The Lost Weekend | HR |
| 1948- A Foreign Affair | R |
| 1950- Sunset Boulevard | MP |
| 1951- Ace in the Hole | HR |
| 1953- Stalag 17 | HR |
| 1954- Sabrina | HR |
| 1955- The Seven Year Itch | R |
| 1957- Love in the Afternoon | R |
| 1957- Witness for the Prosecution | R |
| 1959- Some Like it Hot | MS/MP |
| 1960- The Apartment | MP |
| 1961- One, Two, Three | R |
| 1966- The Fortune Cookie | R |
| 1970- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes | R |
| 1972- Avanti | HR |
| 1974- The Front Page | R |
| 1978- Fedora | R |
| 1981- Buddy, Buddy |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
I honestly believe he should be Top 5 I mean this man did everything from film noir (Double Indemnity,Sunset Boulevard), Courtroom Drama (Witness for the Prosecution), Romantic Comedy (The Apartment, Sabrina, Seven year itch), Comedies( Some Like it Hot), War Drama(Stalag 17), and a drama about Alcoholism (The Lost Weekend), But I respect your opinion tho.
@Randy– Thanks again for sharing. Genre dexterity isn’t a major criteria for me in comparison with what Ozu, Bergman, Kubrick, Scorsese and some of the others accomplished in my top 10. I think Welles is a much greater artist than Wilder and I have Welles at #9. By comparison (and that’s only by comparison with the very greatest) Wilder feels more like an exceptional writer and the director of some great films.
How many slots difference between your ranking and TSPDT’s ranking is needed for you to declare a movie overrated? 200? 300? 100?
For example, you call Wilder’s Some Like It Hot overrated but you’ve still ranked it as a MP (~top 300).
@Drake- I love a lot of different eras of cinema, typically my all time favorite films are the ones from the New Hollywood period and a lot of the foreign cinema from the silent period up through about the 60’s, mainly because those films showcase a unique directorial style. The main period of cinema that I’ve found to be a bit difficult in getting into is the Hollywood Golden Age. While I love some films and directors from then, especially directors like Welles, Hitchcock, and Wilder, it’s often difficult for me to really fall in love with a director from that period because I find there’s very little of a unique directorial style with most of them. Who would you say are some great “style-plus” directors from the Hollywood Golden Age that have a distinct voice?
You mention that Billy Wilder is one of the top screenwriters and could be the best. Who else is in the running for you? Among director-screenwriters I’d say it’s got to be Wilder, Joseph Mankiewicz, PTA, and Bergman. For the ones who didn’t direct their best scripts, I think Towne, Schrader, Herman Mankiewicz, and Sorkin.
Francis Ford Coppola, Kubrick, Welles, and others are hard to be sure about because they only partly wrote their scripts.
The people you mention are really good. Glad you didnt reference the overrated screenwriter Tarantino. The Coen brothers might be the best of all time and another writer that is very good is Charlie Kauffman. Just watched his eternal sunshine last night and it was very good. Andrew Nichols the guy who wrote gattica and Truman show is talented. DW Griffith wasn’t a writer but he wrote inter titles that speak a thousand words. Woody allen of course is great. Some of Spielberg’s writing, wes anderson too. Also, Aaron Sorkin’s is alright I suppose.
Oh yeah also James agree and john huston
The people you mention are really good. Glad you didnt reference the overrated screenwriter Tarantino. The Coen brothers might be the best of all time and another writer that is very good is Charlie Kauffman. Just watched his eternal sunshine last night and it was very good. Andrew Nichols the guy who wrote gattica and Truman show is talented. DW Griffith wasn’t a writer but he wrote inter titles that speak a thousand words. Woody allen of course is great. Some of Spielberg’s writing, wes anderson too. Also, Aaron Sorkin’s is alright I suppose.
Obviously the glaring omission from those 2 lists (and more accomplished as a screenwriter than most of the individuals included) is Tarantino.
No mention for the Coens, William Goldman, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Lawrence Kasdan, Kurosawa, Cameron, Chaplin and more????
I can’t mention Kurosawa for every category all the time. Don’t want to be dismissed as a fanboy. 😛
Big agree on Coens and Allen in particular. Goldman certainly needs to be mentioned, but I ended up declining to mention him on purpose. The others didn’t occur to me. It’s not the writing I think of primarily with any of the others (or PTA from the initial post for that matter). With Tarantino (or the Coens or Allen or Bergman) I certainly think of other brilliant things other than writing, but writing is essential to their identities as filmmakers.
Drake isn’t Wilder the most overrated director on your list?
He has movies number 26, 35 and 56 and instead you have him with 0 in the top 100
@James Robbins mentioned a few minutes ago that Some Like it Hot is # 22 on TSPDT and i really agree here, it’s crazy overrated, the movies they put behind this are
L’Aventura, Blade runner, lawrence of arabia, touch of evil, Andrei Rublev, Rear window, in the mood for the love, all these movies superior to this
If Wilder was not a screenwriter (i.e. his movies were just as well written, but by someone else) yet had films of the exact same quality, would he drop further down the list? How far?
@Graham– another interesting hypothetical. You know being a “writer/director” isn’t something I factor in much… what do you think?
Thanks. I generally agree that whether or not a filmmaker is a screenwriter should not factor much into a strictly directorial list. The main reason Wilder sits inside of the top forty here is of course his filmography, and if his films are just as well written in this alternate situation as I suggested in my question, his filmography would be of equal quality. However, I wonder if Wilder would historically be as well-known of a director if he had never sat behind the screenwriting typewriter. The clever ending lines and energetic exchanges of dialogue that permeate Wilder’s screenwriting are simply an irremovable aspect of his films’ greatness.
The Apartment is now a Must-See film. Is it still better than Some Like It Hot?
@Zane- I have not had a chance to revisit Some Like It Hot since the 1959 and 1960 pages completed February 2021
@Zane – which do you think is stronger? I love them both but think The Apartment is the the better film, I love the CC Baxter character, a lovable down on his luck protagonist. Visually I love many of the wide angle shots used, particularly the one of the empty rows of benches and the way the rows of empty desks at the office are shot. I also thought using Christmas was brilliant, nothing really feels more lonely/empty than spending the holidays alone. Of course if you asked me tomorrow I may start making the case for Some Like It Hot ha, both are phenomenal though, can’t really go wrong.
I think I may have just found Randy? Check the comments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DezU5Ij_fts
Still on Hawks but started watching and felt like doing a review
Ace in the Hole (1951) Directed by Billy Wilder
Notes
Starts with Kirk Douglas riding on back of truck
3:48 “tell the truth” poster in newsroom
4:15 Kirk Douglas as veteran newspaper writer Charles “Chuck” Tatum walking into Albuquerque Newsroom
4:28 “I wasn’t expecting New York Times but even for Albuquerque this is pretty Albuquerque” great writing
I love Chuck’s speech complaining about everything he misses about New York, there is another gem around 8:40 min “no Yogi Berra! What do you know about Yogi Berra, Miss Deverich? Yogi? Why, it’s a sort of religion, isn’t it? You bet it is! A belief in the New York Yankees!”
12 min mark Chuck and Herbie start trip to cover story ending the 1st act, impressive opening 12 minutes in setting up C
17:10 close up shot on Chuck is effective, you can see wheels turning in head listening to woman whose husband is stuck in cave
20:44 “one man better than 84…human interest”
21:20 another effective close up on Chuck’s face
22:29 shots in cave using flashlight
huc
28:44 strong silhouette shot with Chuck, creative way to get noir like silhouette shots during daylight
33 min great profile shot of Chuck making phone calls as he barely can contain his excitement about the potential of the story, a min later zoom in on the man trapped in cave
43:16 effective use of dissolve edit following the trapped man’s wife, Lorraine Minosa, about to leave town before turning around, seemingly convinced by Chuck’s argument
48:38 close up on Chuck and Sheriff making deal right in middle of crowded diner
51 min the scene with Chuck and the Sheriff intimidating the contractor so they can extend the amount of time it will take to get trapped man out for their own benefits is as cynical as it gets
55:40 great overhead shot of event
57 min hilarious scene with man being interviewed once there is massive crowd which includes a mention of “Pacific All Risk Insurance” which is a reference to Double Indemnity; it is the company Walter Neff and Barton Keyes work at
1:00:52 great frame in frame
1:07:16 for a brief second Chuck looks regretful as Leo thanks Chuck for everything
1:26:35 Chuck and Sheriff speak in small room away from everyone, these 2 pulling the strings in private works as contrast to scenes in open space with crowds of people unaware of corruption
1:27:38 half of frame white dust as Chuck makes way to Leo with a Priest, Chuck can barely stand to watch
1:40:50 high angle shot of Chuck elevated to announce Leo’s death
1:41:41 great use of window as frame overlooking the event which has become a show, a full on circus
Thoughts
This is razor sharp writing, hilarious and vicious satire of American News Industry
Its part noir, part satire and just like Sunset Blvd, Billy Wilder is not going for subtly
Speaking of noirs there is really no femme fatale although not for a lack of trying! Jan Sterling’s character Lorraine, the wife of the man trapped in the cave, certainly makes moves Douglas Chuck Tatum in one of the coldest rejections you will see, of course his rejection is based purely on the fact that a disloyal wife of the trapped man doesn’t fit the feel-good story that Chuck is going for
Chuck Tatum is one of the more underrated movie characters in my opinion; he is intense, vicious, determined, and has a level of confidence that borders on absurd as he backs down from no one and basically orders everyone around including town officials, law enforcement, etc. with the funniest part being that they basically all listen to him
Great overhead shots, this event is a spectacle drawing thousands of people, with Tatum as the Rock Star masterminding with the corrupt sheriff
The cave scenes are shot approximately using close ups and medium shots creating a claustrophobic feeling contrasted with the overhead and high angle shots of the boundless landscape outside of the cave, however while there are some great shots overall it is not as strong visually as Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Blvd (1950) which probably keeps it from clearcut MP status and while Paths of Glory (1957) is the stronger film I think this is Douglas best performance that I have seen
I lean closer to MS than MP but for me its close enough that I’ll call it right on the border
Verdict: MS/MP
My ranking of Wilder`s films that I`ve seen:
1. Sunset Boulevard MP
2. Double Indemnity MP
3. The Apartment MP
4. Some Like It Hot MS/MP
5. Stalag 17 HR/MS
6. Ace in the Hole HR
7. Sabrina HR
8. The Lost Weekend HR
9. Witness for the Prosecution R/HR
10. The Fortune Cookie R
11. The Seven Year Itch R
15 Best Performances
1. Swanson- Sunset Boulevard
2. Stanwyck- Double Indemnity
3. Holden- Sunset Boulevard
4. Milland- The Lost Weekend
5a. Lemmon- The Apartment
5b. MacLaine- The Apartment
7. Monroe- Some Like It Hot
8. Douglas- Ace in the Hole
9. Hepburn- Sabrina
10. G. Robinson- Double Indemnity
11. Lemmon- Some Like It Hot
12. Holden- Stalag 17
13. MacMurray- Double Indemnity
14. Curtis- Some Like It Hot
15. Matthau- The Fortune Cookie