Billy Wilder was one of the Golden Age of Hollywood's greatest and most revered filmmakers, though he himself was born in Austria in 1906. After a single film he co-directed in the 1930s, he moved to America and began making movies there, finding success in the 1940s and further acclaim throughout the '50s and '60s. His output slowed during the '70s, his final film came out in 1981, and Wilder himself ended up living to the age of 95, passing away in 2002.
He left behind a remarkable filmography, and one that - unlike some directors active during cinema's earlier years - survives in totality to this day. He has 27 directorial credits to his name, but one of those films was a war documentary that's hard to include and rank among his other feature films. As such, what follows is a ranking of the 26 feature films he directed (and often wrote or co-wrote), starting with his lesser - though still decent - films and ending with his masterpieces.
26 'The Emperor Waltz' (1948)
Starring: Bing Crosby, Joan Fontaine, Roland Culver
The Emperor Waltz is an oddity within the filmography of Billy Wilder, and has a shot at being deemed the most obscure film the director ever made (were that to ever be a competition for whatever reason). It’s an old-fashioned and somewhat awkward musical, centering on a traveling salesman during the early 1900s trying to persuade an emperor to buy a gramophone.
It’s been suggested that Billy Wilder didn’t look favorably on this film, and the consensus from looking at user ratings on sites like IMDb and Letterboxd backs this dissatisfaction up. The Emperor Waltz is not a total disaster by any means, still being well-presented overall and featuring some decent star power thanks to the likes of Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine in the lead roles, but it’s far from an essential Billy Wilder film, at the end of the day.
25 'Buddy Buddy' (1981)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Paula Prentiss
Buddy Buddy was the final film Billy Wilder ever directed, and though it wasn’t a total misfire, it does stand as an example of the filmmaker potentially being on autopilot, or close to it. The premise sees two mismatched people brought together due to unusual circumstances: one a contract killer staying in a hotel, and the other a man also in the same hotel who’s distraught over his marital problems.
It was one of many movies starring the iconic comedy duo of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the pair best known for movies like The Odd Couple and Grumpy Old Men. It was also the third time the pair had collaborated together with Wilder as director, and one of many times Wilder worked with Lemmon. Those who like comedic crime movies or the duo of Lemmon and Matthau may find value within Buddy Buddy, but it’s otherwise probably skippable for most.
24 'Bad Seed' (1934)
Starring: Danielle Darrieux, Pierre Mingand, Raymond Galle
From 1981’s Buddy Buddy, the final Billy Wilder film, to 1934’s Bad Seed, which was his first movie, and also the only one he co-directed (with Alexander Esway) and the only film of his to be shot in a language other than English. In this instance, it’s a French movie made before Wilder went to Hollywood, and follows the exploits of a young man starved for cash, and thereby becomes incentivized to join a gang of car thieves.
There are plenty of great French crime movies, but Bad Seed isn’t quite one of them, though admittedly, it’s not too bad considering its age. It might be worth a watch for those who consider themselves rather passionate Wilder fans, given this film has his earliest directorial credit. Also, the fact it only runs for 77 minutes means it won’t waste too much of anyone’s time.
23 'Fedora' (1978)
Starring: William Holden, Marthe Keller, Hildegard Knef
Billy Wilder’s penultimate film was 1978’s Fedora, and it ended up being one of his more subdued and dramatic works. It shines a light on the inner workings of the American film industry, and has a plot that involves a man trying to get an actress to come out of retirement after some years spent out of the spotlight.
That premise might sound a little familiar to anyone who’s a fan of one of Wilder’s best-known movies about a certain boulevard released in 1950 (more on that later), but Fedora doesn’t have quite the same bite or depth as that film, nor his other great ones. There’s value here in seeing an aging filmmaker using one of his films to look back on the industry he worked within for decades, but for the most part, the movie really is just decent.
22 'The Spirit of St. Louis' (1957)
Starring: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith
Somewhat uncharacteristic of Billy Wilder, The Spirit of St. Louis showed what the filmmaker was capable of making within the biopic genre. Wilder directed plenty of movies about people who felt real, or may have been inspired by real people, but it was rarer for him to make genuine historical movies explicitly about people who actually lived.
In this instance, at least The Spirit of St. Louis has an interesting central subject, being about Charles Lindbergh, an ambitious aviator who, in 1927, made a solo trans-Atlantic flight that lasted 33 hours and saw Lindbergh traveling 3600 miles. Wilder captures the man’s life and focuses on this particular achievement of his in a way that’s relatively compelling (James Stewart is also reliably good in the lead role), though the film never truly or spectacularly soars, unfortunately, despite its high-flying narrative.
21 'Kiss Me, Stupid' (1964)
Starring: Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston
On paper, Kiss Me, Stupid does sound like it should – or could – be something of a Billy Wilder classic, but it ultimately falls a little short of greatness (while still being an alright watch). It sees the filmmaker right in his wheelhouse, given this is a blend of romance and comedy genres that dealt with some fairly risqué things for its time, and much of Wilder’s late ‘50s and early ‘60s works were defined by these sorts of traits.
It's ultimately a farcical story that involves lounge singers, songwriters, call girls, and disgruntled wives, all thrown into a comedic blender and generating some – but not quite enough – laughs along the way. Wilder at least assembled a good cast for what ended up being a decent movie, with Dean Martin and Kim Novak (of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo fame) doing their best to give Kiss Me, Stupid some extra energy, and kind of succeeding.
20 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' (1970)
Starring: Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely, Geneviève Page
There’s no shortage of Sherlock Holmes adaptations within the world of film and television, and not even Billy Wilder could resist putting his own spin on the classic detective character. The result was the flawed yet still underrated The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, which feels like a more comedic and even surreal take on the titular character than one might expect.
The humor and surprises found within The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes make it worth digging out, and it’s one of many compellingly written movies that Wilder co-wrote with his frequent collaborator I. A. L. Diamond. It might not please Sherlock Holmes purists, and it’s definitely a little messier than the films that showcase Wilder at his best, but it’s still a good bit of fun and an overall easy-to-appreciate movie.
19 'The Front Page' (1974)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Susan Sarandon
Seven years before Buddy Buddy, Billy Wilder directed both Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Front Page, which ended up being the director’s third-last movie. Considering it came so late in his filmmaking career, it’s honestly not bad, though getting released during such a great year for cinema (1974) has ultimately led to the film being buried, to some extent, by its contemporaries.
The Front Page is another fast-paced comedy by Billy Wilder, and narratively centers on a journalist who’s feeling exhausted from work (honestly, who can’t relate?) and wants to step away, though this puts him at odds, perhaps predictably, with his boss. The Front Page has a relatively simple premise, but this works in its favor, as it’s a straightforward, mostly enjoyable, and very much unpretentious comedy with two legendary funnymen in the starring roles.
18 'The Seven Year Itch' (1955)
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes
Going by pop culture, The Seven Year Itch could be up there with Billy Wilder’s most influential and well-known movies, considering the scene within it that features Marilyn Monroe’s dress being blown up by a passing subway train. Everyone’s likely seen at least a still image of that scene, but it’s one small part of a movie that, overall, works pretty well, even if it’s not entirely a classic.
The Seven Year Itch follows a pretty unlikable protagonist going through a midlife crisis, and he’s not quite as well-written as other flawed yet compelling main characters from Wilder’s better movies. Monroe is good for what she’s given, but her best work with Wilder would be shown in another movie later in the 1950s (it’ll be outlined all in good time). The Seven Year Itch is a good Wilder film, but not quite a great one, and it might not be as well-remembered if it weren’t for that subway/dress scene.
17 'Love in the Afternoon' (1957)
Starring: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier
Billy Wilder had a big year in 1957, considering there were three films of his that came out during those 12 months, and all belonged to different genres. One was the aforementioned biographical adventure film The Spirit of St. Louis, another was the courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution, and the third was another romantic comedy, this one called Love in the Afternoon.
Narratively, Love in the Afternoon revolves around a young woman in her 20s (played by Audrey Hepburn) falling in love with an older playboy (played by Gary Cooper), leading to various complications; some comedic, and some played for drama. It’s not an outstanding film, but parts of it hold up well enough for it to be something of a minor classic for its time, and it’s of course hard to resist a movie with two stars as big as both Hepburn and Cooper in the lead roles.
Love in the Afternoon
- Release Date
- May 29, 1957
- Director
- Billy Wilder
- Cast
- Gary Cooper , Audrey Hepburn , Maurice Chevalier , John McGiver , Van Doude , Lise Bourdin
- Runtime
- 130
- Main Genre
- Comedy
16 'Five Graves to Cairo' (1943)
Starring: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff
It’s always interesting to see a World War II movie made while the war was still ongoing, and Five Graves to Cairo is no exception to this. It’s a relatively straightforward yet ultimately compelling thriller set during wartime, following the struggles a man goes through to survive in Egypt, and make some sort of escape, after he’s left behind by the retreating British Army.
Five Graves to Cairo is also interesting because of how early it was released during Billy Wilder’s career, being his third film overall and his second that he was the sole director of. Because of this, it does lack the polish of some of his later masterpieces, but it’s still very good considering how little directing experience Wilder had before 1943, and undoubtedly, much of Five Graves to Cairo ends up holding up pretty well.
15 'Avanti!' (1972)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive Revill
While Avanti! isn’t quite great enough to rank among the very best movies of the 1970s, it does inevitably emerge as a highlight from the final years of Billy Wilder’s filmography. It’s once again a movie starring Jack Lemmon, and additionally can be classified as a good old reliable romantic comedy, here having a story that involves a businessman traveling to Italy as part of arranging his deceased father’s funeral, only to make some surprising discoveries about the man while there.
Despite the plot getting kicked off because of a death, Avanti! is pretty light-hearted stuff, all things considered, and proves to be a fun romp that’ll likely scratch an itch for anyone looking for a silly and over-the-top farcical comedy. Lemmon could play the sort of role he has here in his sleep by this point, and as is almost always the case, he proves to be the perfect actor to be front-and-center in a Billy Wilder production.
14 'Sabrina' (1954)
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart
There are so many Humphrey Bogart movies out there that perhaps it’s not too surprising he at one point crossed paths with Billy Wilder. The former stars in the latter’s Sabrina, which is another Billy Wilder film featuring Audrey Hepburn (made three years before the aforementioned Love in the Afternoon) with William Holden – an actor who collaborated with Wilder several times – rounding out the main cast.
Sabrina is more about the two men played by Bogart and Holden (brothers in the film) competing for the affection of Hepburn’s character. That’s understandable, considering her beauty and elegance, but some might find it a little weird nowadays that two men who look considerably older than Hepburn are both pursuing her character romantically (Bogart especially, as he was born 30 years before Hepburn). That aside, Sabrina is still an entertaining and good-for-its-time movie, and was also remade several decades later with Harrison Ford in 1995.
13 'The Fortune Cookie' (1966)
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich
The Fortune Cookie is a movie that ranks surprisingly high among Jack Lemmon’s movies, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes. Walter Matthau also shows up here, perhaps not too surprisingly, and this was not only the first time Wilder, Lemmon, and Matthau all collaborated as a trio, but also the first time (of many) that Lemmon and Matthau starred in a film together as a duo.
Plot-wise, The Fortune Cookie revolves around an injured man’s brother-in-law deciding to start a civil case out of the incident, given he’s a lawyer with a tendency to ambulance chase. Things unravel in a farcical manner, and the results prove very entertaining, especially if you’re a fan of old-school Hollywood comedies. It’s one of the looser and more chaotic entries in Wilder’s filmography, but such qualities ultimately help make The Fortune Cookie as entertaining as it is.
12 'The Major and the Minor' (1942)
Starring: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson
Billy Wilder’s first American movie and the first he was the sole director of was The Major and the Minor, an engaging comedy starring Ginger Rogers (minus Fred Astaire, though). Rogers plays a young woman who tries to pass as a 12-year-old girl so that she can get a cheaper train fare, only for this decision to have her taken in by a military school instructor, and effectively sent “back to school.”
It’s an outlandish idea for a movie, and while The Major and the Minor does feel distinctively old-school in many ways, those who are able to get on its level should find a decent amount to enjoy here. The film is still funny, even all these decades later, and it’s valuable to watch now to appreciate where Wilder was at the start of his directing career, and thereby better understand how he was to grow in the coming years as a filmmaker.
11 'A Foreign Affair' (1948)
Starring: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund
A Foreign Affair isn’t exactly a war movie, though it was made a few years after World War II ended and is set during the conflict. However, it is more of a romance and/or comedy movie, all revolving around a complex love triangle between an army captain and two women: one a U.S. congresswoman, and the other a singer who also happens to be an ex-Nazi under investigation.
That might sound like the set-up for something tragic or heavy, but Wilder makes it all relatively breezy, and though it’s not one of his most famous movies, it’s still a good one and arguably feels underrated overall. Benefitting immensely from the presence of Marlene Dietrich (who collaborated with Wilder once again almost a decade later with Witness for the Prosecution), A Foreign Affair is outlandish but also a good deal of fun, and another winner within Billy Wilder’s filmography.
10 'Irma la Douce' (1963)
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon, Lou Jacobi
Shortly after the immensely successful The Apartment, Billy Wilder, Jack Lemmon, and Shirley MacLaine re-teamed to make the good – yet not quite as great – Irma la Douce three years on from that aforementioned Oscar winner. Like that film, Irma la Douce is another romantic comedy, here set in Paris and centering on a police officer who falls in love with a prostitute, and then, because of his frenzied love, goes to desperate lengths to stop her from seeing the kinds of clients she used to see.
The most admirable thing about Irma la Douce is how daring it was by the standards of the 1960s, helping to push American cinema forward and become less restricted. It’s also notable for causing a mix-up on Oscar night, albeit one not quite as drastic as the La La Land/Moonlight mix-up 50+ years later, which involved MacLaine’s brother, Warren Beatty. Unfortunately, the bloated runtime of Irma la Douce (nearly 2.5 hours!) stops it from being an undisputed classic, though there’s more than enough good here to ensure it’s worth a watch.
9 'Stalag 17' (1953)
Starring: Robert Strauss, William Holden, Don Taylor
While Stalag 17 is, on the surface, a movie about prisoners of war, it does manage to be surprisingly funny for a film within such a genre. It takes place around Christmas of 1944, and follows a group of American soldiers all doing their best to survive a bad situation, waiting out the final stages of the war in the hope that its conclusion will lead to their freedom.
Stalag 17 does feel a little like a hang-out movie, albeit one that’s set within a location one wouldn’t ordinarily expect a hang-out movie to take place in. It makes this work, though, and isn’t afraid to get a little more serious tonally when it needs to. It’s one of the better-balanced dramedies within Billy Wilder’s filmography, and another film of his released during the 1950s that demonstrates how creatively on fire he was during that decade.
8 'Ace in the Hole' (1951)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur
Ace in the Hole is a movie that shows how movies can be satirical without necessarily also being comedies. This 1951 film starring Kirk Douglas is one of the grittier and more downbeat within Billy Wilder’s filmography, following a journalist getting wrapped up in a media circus surrounding an alarming story that involves a man trapped in a cave.
It might sound like it could be darkly funny or biting, and perhaps in an alternate universe, there is a version of Ace in the Hole that functions more as a dramedy. But in our current universe/timeline, Ace in the Hole is bleak and ostensibly a drama, yet a gripping one that’s aged surprisingly well. For as long as journalists engage in such bad behavior – and get incentivized to do so by higher-ups and/or readers – Ace in the Hole’s message and thematic material will remain regrettably relevant.
7 'One, Two, Three' (1961)
Starring: James Cagney, Liselotte Pulver, Horst Buchholz
Going from one extreme to another, while Ace in the Hole is one of the most bitter and downbeat Billy Wider films, One, Two, Three – made a decade later – is one of his funniest and breeziest. The plot here involves a worker for the Coca-Cola company wanting to do all he can for a promotion, including looking after his boss’s rather carefree daughter.
When she travels to Berlin and he follows her, things get even wilder, and it’s at that point where One, Two, Three enters the world of farcical comedy and never looks back. Those after a fun time will certainly get it, and it’s also a movie that holds immense value for showcasing the range of its lead actor, James Cagney, as his fantastic performance here feels far removed from the sorts of characters he played in the classic gangster movies that made him a star.