Luckily she's much younger here.This show is not bad, not bad at all. It has some eye candy AND while it's no French tickler, it's more fun than getting the pimp-hand.Irma is worth seeing but I can't watch this more frequently than every 7 - 10 years.

For maybe the first, I don't know, 45/50 minutes, I was with it as much as I was any of the major Billy Wilder films from the period right before this (take your pick - Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, One-Two-Three, and then from the early 50's which I'll count as part of his time making some of the sharpest, cynical but truest comedies ever, often with romance or a jaundiced view, so far as the Code allowed or he could squeeze through). There's the set up of the One Honest Cop put on the beat of the red light district (sort of) in Paris, and he immediately hauls in the street-walkers, but there's one, the Irma of the title, who thinks he's actually a swell enough guy.Then he gets into a bar fight with her louse of a pimp (and damn is that a hilarious/entertaining fight, among those you never forget from the movies, serious, it's as good in its way as anything in, I don't know, Road House). And then a relationship is kindled and a scene like the one between Nestor and Irma when she first brings him up to her place and they slowly but surely get into bed - the kind of scene that Wilder excels at, full of sly humor and innuendo but it's all bare-naked and honest too, and this romance seems like it could lead to a story about feminism and sexual identity (no, really) and how MacLaine's character is being independent while in that "Oldest Profession" and what Lemmon's character is going to do about it....And then the plot really kicks in, which is one of those plots where a lie leads to another and another and another, but instead of having some satire to it, or at least something I could cling to, it's a farce. It's an idiot rom-com plot. You know the kind, right? It's where you look at a character and repeatedly say, 'you're an idiot', and in a way that really means to say, 'hey, guy, you should know better, right? No? Alright, let's see where this goes.' I was even still with it up until about 2/3rds of the way in (is that the 100 minute mark, who knows) when the farce is taken to a whole other level. I won't say any other details, but it goes into such an area that I gave up thinking of this as any kind of reality. My issue with this movie, which is given its all by Lemmon as he eventually is playing two "characters", one of course Nestor, who is what we usually think of as a Lemmon character type (nice but quick to react and overblow things and give just the right expression), and the other "Lord X", which is basically the Monopoly guy with a heavy-duty accent (which I guess he pulls off well, but...) I don't even know if this IS Wilder being cynical about society after a while - there's certainly a message in here about what love and being protective of a person does to someone, as Nestor is set up as being such a nice guy it's to a fault, and with such a spunky woman as Irma who... one would think is smarter than the plot that comes upon her (and I suspend disbelief a lot, I have to, but there's one point even I think to myself 'Uh... wouldn't she be able to tell by a certain *organ* in the process of... oh, nevermind).It speaks to how good Lemmon and MacLaine are in the roles, as is the guy playing the bartender that this is still a watchable movie and sometimes they bring out humor by their reactions and excellent timing (the pimp who first has Irma and gets into that barfight and then becomes a fink is not so good an actor, but I can let it slide after a while). And yet this is a 'like' and recommendation that is sort of tepid or tamped down; it may be expectations of Wilder during this period.There's so much promise here, and maybe some of my disappointment comes back to the source material - and while Wilder has a lot of great sets and locations in Paris to use (the most effective to me are the actual slaughterhouses and markets and places Nestor works at at night as part of his behind-Irma's-back scheme), it feels stagey - so it may all just be part of expectations being so high. But something feels... off here, that there's a tonal thing where there's a sense of reality to how MacLaine plays it and then how everyone else (including Lemmon) is treating it as farce. Or, simply, when it comes to this sort of farce, especially where it leads to, I don't buy it, no matter how sharply directed or the comic timing works (and there's always good set pieces here, even late in the movie where the cops are searching an apartment and a character finds a way to "hide" in plain sight). Or, further, I've seen too many kinds of plots like this in a romantic comedy where a character could end so much of the nonsense by having an actual damn conversation. Though this may be part of Wilder's point, I don't know if it's effective, at least on a first viewing.So call this a 'good' watch, but too long and too stuffed with 'idiot plot moves' to call it totally successful.

Wilder reunites Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, perhaps an attempt to bring back the magic of THE APARTMENT. A failed attempt. The film is an unfunny, tedious drag. Most of Wilder's comedies run relatively long, but it's a lot more painful when the gags don't hit their mark. Compare this to SOME LIKE IT HOT: both center around an elaborate and rather unbelievable deception, but SLIH works because it's actually funny. Here, the lame slapstick and repetition of the same dumb jokes (if you didn't know the movie was going to end with "but that's another story" then you weren't paying attention the first dozen times it was said) wears thin and gives the viewer time to think about how flimsy the whole setup is. Lemmon's character is a clueless knucklehead, and MacLaine (although adorable as always) just looks bored. Interestingly, the film is adapted from a stage musical, but Wilder chose to cut all the songs. Perhaps they might have lent the project some much-needed charm, or perhaps they would have just made it feel even longer. And perhaps I'm taking it too seriously, but the quaint portrayal of prostitution is a bit objectionable (and besides, MacLaine would do the "hooker with a heart of gold" thing a lot better in SWEET CHARITY). Now don't get me wrong: there are some good moments. I'm already struggling to remember them, but there were definitely a few things that brought a smile to my face (some of the references are pretty clever). The overall experience, however, is a slog -- the worst I've seen from Wilder so far.

"Irma la Douce" is a charming "comedy" that has few laughs, but a lot of charisma going for it. There aren't any real knee slappers in this thing, no pre-teen 21st century body function jokes, no super brilliant every-lines-a-quip modern era monologues and banter, nor does it even harken back to Howard Hawkes' era where dialogue was given machine gun deliver. So, what does this film have? Jack Lemon and Shirely McClaine, and a well rounded supporting troupe of highly talented thespians. The film is more about having a fun attitude than actually delivering any jokes (of which there are few to none). The film doesn't have any of the traditional "this is funny" cues for the audience. It's all about creating a fun world in which a romantic fantasy can be created.The straight laced policeman whose beat is usually playgrounds and pedestrian routes with domestic foibles. Enter the girl with loose morals who trades in on her body for social and financial security. Their worlds are diametrically opposed. They meet. Clash. And fall in love. Or, rather, the male finds the untamed female too desirable to let her go. So her pursues her. How does it end? You need to see the film to find out.It's a story about romance, jealousy, unpredictable circumstances, and, a little sex. Read that last phrase as VERY LITTLE, thank goodness. We're talking late 50s / early 60s, when sex was just making a comeback into the fringes of mainstream society. It was still taboo, but, if it was flavored right, then people who had their interest perked, could feel better or alright about accepting a g-rated sex-comedy because they wouldn't be embarrassed because everyone else was doing it, and no one else was being embarrassed by it either.So it is with "Irma La Douce". All the sex is implied. A welcome relief from today's very sex-charged media circus that dominates net and airwaves. Even though Imra and her peers are women of negotiable virtue, they have hearts, and are willing to give them to the man who meets their standards. Again, to find out what they are, you have to see the film.I used to see the thing on weekend afternoons, or occasionally on some local indy station's 8 O'Clock evening movie (remember those?), and have fond memories of a film that has no real social thorns in spite of the fact that it exhibits (or discusses in an off beat way) the Parisian sex industry, corruption of Le Gendarme (French cops), and what overcomes all social ills if the two hearts in question are willing enough.That's kind of what "Irma la Douce" is all about. Give it a try.It's a bit of a slow film with no real laughs, but it should raise a smile here and there.