Great Cinematic Collaborations: Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond

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Great Cinematic Collaborations: Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond

February 11th 2012 08:33

The Collaborators:
Billy Wilder (Writer/Director) & I.A.L. Diamond (Writer)

Billy Wilder first arrived in Hollywood in 1934 after leaving Europe due to the rise of Nazism, and in a few years he became one of the most in-demand screenwriters. During the 1940s he began to establish his reputation as a director, going on to make such classics as Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Stalag 17 (1953) and Sabrina (1954). In was in the mid-1950s that Wilder met I.A.L. Diamond another Hollywood screenwriter renowned for his caustic wit and the famed Wilder-Diamond team came into existence.

Wilder and Diamond collaborated on twelve films together over a period of twenty-five years, a partnership that endured throughout the rest of their lives. In 1980 they were the recipients of the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award for career achievement in screenwriting. Writing together in the same room, the two men had obviously found a partner who had similar tastes and passions, and make their work together more than the sum of its parts. Some trademarks of their partnership include great witty dialogue, fantastic pacing, a cynical but humorous world view, and quite often a pair of characters engaged in never-ending but friendly squabbling (which is said to also descibe their own working relationship).

The Apartment (1960)

The Collaborations:

Love In The Afternoon (1957)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
One, Two, Three (1961)
Irma la Douce (1963)
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
The Fortune Cookie (1966)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Avanti! (1972)
The Front Page (1974)
Fedora (1978)
Buddy Buddy (1981)

What Made Them Great:
As with any creative career, some of the works stand taller than others but Wilder and Diamonds best work together are amongst the greatest films of all time. These films never feel dated they dont play as period pieces, but exist as evergreens, always living in the moment.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

Finest Work Together:
It could have easily been a tie, but at the end of the day Some Like It Hot takes the gold medal. It remains a hysterically funny experience no matter how many times you take the journey with witty banter and one-liners flying thick and fast. Jack Lemmon (himself a great collaborator with Wilder and Diamond, starring in seven pictures for them) and Tony Curtis are flawless and make a great combination. Marilyn Monroe is at her most luminous with that combination of sex appeal and vulnerability that was uniquely hers. The pacing of the film is note perfect, and the whole production is filled with great inspiration and meticulous craft. The storyline is classic screwball, blended with the cheerful cynicism that Wilder and Diamond do best. And to cap it all off arguably the greatest final line of dialogue in cinema.

These are just some the reasons why the American Film Institute named it their Best Comedy Film Of All Time.

Some Like It Hot (1959)

For further reading check-out this great AFI interview with Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.

Previous Great Cinematic Collaborations:
Akira Kurosawa & Takashi Shimura

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