Arlene Francis Alert

[Fedya]

Frequent What's My Line? panelist Arlene Francis makes one of her few movie appearances in One, Two, Three, airing Feb. 20 at 6:00 PM ET on TCM.

In this 1961 movie, Francis plays the long-suffering wife of James Cagney's character.  Cagney plays an executive with a large Atlanta-based soft-drinks maker (as they'd say on vintage game shows) heading up the company's West Berlin office.  For Cagney to advance, he's got to look after the boss's daughter Scarlett (the wonderfully vacuous Pamela Tiffin).  Unbeknownst to him, however, she takes the company car and the chauffeur and goes to East Berlin every night (the movie is set just before the construction of the Berlin Wall; indeed, the Wall went up during filming and director Billy Wilder had to tack on a scene at the beginning explaining that the action is set before the Wall went up) to meet the nice Communist boy Otto (Horst Buchholz).  They get married, and Cagney has to get the marriage annulled if he wants to climb the corporate ladder.  He's able to do this, but only after doing it does he discover that Scarlett has gotten pregnant by Otto.  Oops.

The movie is a hilarious farce, and unbelievably fast-paced, although some people may find it dated since it's from 1961, and the Cold War is long since over.  (Frighteningly, there are posters here born after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Boy does that make me feel old!)  Francis' part isn't all that big, but she plays it well, more than holding her own with the rest of the cast.  I'd only mention it here because of Arlene Francis' presence, but the movie is well worth watching on its own merits.

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'Fedya\' post=\'178224\' date=\'Feb 19 2008, 01:36 PM\']
Frequent What's My Line? panelist Arlene Francis makes one of her few movie appearances in One, Two, Three, airing Feb. 20 at 6:00 PM ET on TCM.[/quote]

This is great movie with significance beyond Miss Francis' appearance.

It's a kick-ass farce, directed (and possibly written, in part) by Billy Wilder ("Some Like it Hot"). Watch for Wilder's timing, in which he allows an extra beat after punch lines for the laughter of a large audience to not obliterate the next piece of dialogue.

And it was Jimmy Cagney's last film. In it, you'll see the scene that motivated Cagney to retire. The script has him shouting a long string of orders, snapping his fingers with each command. Cagney said he required far too many takes to get it right, and decided then and there to hang it up. Sad, because it's a spectacular performance.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

[Eric Paddon]

Actually, Cagney did come out of retirement about 20 years later to do one last film, "Ragtime."

[Fedya]

Cagney also did some TV movies, although for all intents and purposes, One, Two, Three was the start of Cagney's retirement, and Randy is correct about Wilder's rapid-fire dialogue (or Cagney's inability to deliver it to Wilder's satisfaction) being one of the reasons for Cagney's decision to retire.

Obviously, Randy and I have heard the same stories about Cagney, since I referenced the same scene he mentions in my blog post.  It's nice to see somebody else shares my odd taste in movies.  ;-)