Billy Wilder was one of a kind. There hasn’t been anyone in Hollywood since, who combined his wry humor, his smarts for good stories, and his love for great dialogue. Wilder became a director because he was fed up with the fact that directors kept changing his scripts, and always gave more importance to the story and characters, rather than the spectacular shots. He won five Academy Awards, two for directing, and three for his screenplays, and he’s still considered one of the best screenwriters ever. Wilder even had a legendary set of rules (ten to be exact) about good filmmaking. Without further ado, here are Billy Wilder’s best movies, ranked:
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7 Sabrina (1954)
Paramount Pictures
Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn) is the daughter of the chauffeur of a super-rich family, the Larrabees, who has two sons: responsible workaholic Linus (Humphrey Bogart), and rich playboy party guy David (William Holden). When she comes back from studying abroad, both brothers are mesmerized by her, and a love triangle begins. This movie is Audrey Hepburn’s all the way. It’s one of her best films, as she’s magnetic, romantic, and beautiful, and we fell in love with her at the same time that both brothers do. The beats of Sabrina might seem trite after fifty years of rom-coms, but this is the movie that did them for the first time. Both Bogart and Holden are great in this story. The script and directing by Wilder are energetic and fun for this love story that created a template that many have followed.
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6 Ace in the Hole (1951)
Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a has-been reporter who, to revive his career, exploits a story to the bitter end, when a man gets trapped in a mine. Douglas gives a tour de force performance in this movie, where he’s the absolute center. He’s both the star and villain of the film, as Ace in the Hole tackles some of the press problems, its relationship with power, and what someone is willing to do to get fame and money. As always, Wilder was ahead of its time. You could modernize some of it (change selling newspapers with getting clicks), and it could work as a story of ethics in journalism in the 21st century. The movie was a failure, as people didn’t want a dark story about the press back then, but with every year, it gets better and better, as it for-saw some of the problems we have now with journalism, social media, and the truth.
5 The Lost Weekend (1945)
Don Birnham (Ray Milland) is an alcoholic writer trying to leave the bottle behind. When his girlfriend and brother go to a concert, he does everything in his power to find some alcohol and get drunk as fast as he can. That’s how his lost weekend starts. The Lost Weekend was the first time a Hollywood movie realistically tackled alcoholism (until then, drunks were always the comic relief) with a sad, decadent, tearful, claustrophobic, and shameful portrayal. The performance by Milland and the script by Wilder give the movie the edge needed to show the world how alcoholism works and can destroy you. The movie might look a bit melodramatic by our standards, but back then, it made an impression on everyone. The film won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (both for Wilder), and Best Actor (Ray Milland). It also won the Cannes Grand Prix, being one of the only two films ever to have won both Best Picture and Cannes Grand Prix (the other being Marty).
4 Some Like It Hot (1959)
United Artists
Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemon) are two jazz musicians who are on the run from the mob after seeing a massacre. To leave Chicago, they dress as women and infiltrate an all-female band. Shenanigans, love and an incredible repartee between the leads ensue. Joe falls in love with Sugar Kane (Marylin Monroe in her best role ever), while Joe finds himself being chased by wealthy millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown). Some Like It Hot is a classic. The film is full of superlatives. It’s one of the best (and funniest) comedies ever, with an incredible Marylin Monroe performance, and still has the greatest last line in a movie. If that wasn’t enough, the film was pivotal in supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Wilder tackled an issue Hollywood didn’t touch, and gave it a fun and unique spin. Working with two of his favorites (Lemmon and Monroe), the movie was going to be spectacular. Even if “nobody is perfect”
3 Sunset Boulevard (1950)
A screenwriter is found dead in a pool. That’s the start and end of Sunset Boulevard, as the whole movie is narrated via flashback by the victim. Joe Gillis (William Holden) is the writer, and Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), an almost forgotten silent movie star, might be the killer. Sunset Boulevard is a movie about the dark side of Hollywood; an industry that uses you until they find a younger, prettier version of yourself. It’s one of the best film noirs of the forties and fifties, and the first that mixed the film industry with the genre; a perfect combination as there’s no better femme fatale than Hollywood itself. The film benefited from having Wilder write it, as he always did his best in the noir genre. This time, he used many self-referential meta jokes about his industry (until The Player, no movie used the idea of combining both again). Wilder does great work, but the film wouldn’t work without the incredible performance of Gloria Swanson as the old, megalomaniacal silent movie star. You can see why she was a movie star in the past, but also that she’s delusional and her dreams of a comeback are misguided, bringing death-full consequences for all involved.
2 The Apartment (1960)
C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a low-level insurance clerk who lends his apartment to his bosses for their affairs and, in return, gets quicker promotions at work. The scheme is working until he finds out that Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the woman he has a crush on, is one of those mistresses. With The Apartment, Wilder criticized the hypocrisy of the American dream and capitalism. Is it good that Baxter can climb the work ladder by lending his home, so his bosses can cheat on their wives? Probably not. Does it work? Absolutely. The movie is at times, a romantic comedy, and at other times, an outright drama with moments that still hurt when we think about them. The movie is so well-thought-out that Fran, the woman that can help or stop his ascending work career, is an elevator girl; someone who literally gets him up and down the office building. The chemistry between Lemmon and MacLaine is incredible; they have a nice rapport, and their interactions are easy, organic, and fun.
1 Double Indemnity (1944)
Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is an insurance salesman who gets seduced by Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) and gets convinced to kill her husband and make it look like an accident, so she can get the insurance money. Barton Keyes (Edward G Robinson) is Neff’s boss and mentor, and must show it wasn’t an accident, so he can save the insurance a lot of money, without knowing his actions might condemn his friend.
Double Indemnity is THE movie that defines film noir. It’s also a great cat-and-mouse thriller, with great performances by the three leads, especially MacMurray, playing against type and Stanwyck as the seductress, and she nails the role. Wilder told Sight and Sound: “It was very hard to get [Barbara] Stanwyck and [Fred] MacMurray for Double Indemnity. They just didn’t like the idea of playing murderers; he in particular was afraid of what it could do to his image.” But, it was a great career move, as both are still remembered for their work in this movie. Wilder wrote it with one of the greatest noir novelists ever, Raymond Chandler. Even if the experience wasn’t the greatest for him, it’s undeniable that together they wrote a masterpiece. The best noir movie ever. One of the greatest movies in Hollywood’s history. One that we’re still talking about, almost eighty years later.
Double Indemnity is Billy Wilder’s best movie, and, considering he has some of the greatest movies of the forties, fifties, and sixties, that’s saying a lot. He’s part of Hollywood’s royalty. Without his films, many of the auteurs that came after wouldn’t have someone to look up to and see that with great scripts, characters, and ideas, anything is possible.
