One, Two, Three (1961) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 16

  Action! - Three Auteurs: The Witty and Eclectic Mr. Wilder

  Billy Wilder unleashes his inner Lubitsch (no, literally, the film "borrows" from Ninotchka) in this wild and frenetic comedy about a group of Coca Cola executives who must rescue and solve a problem involving the company's heiress when she falls in love with a fervent communist in the divided Germany.

  It's easy to see why people reacted negatively at the time; the film represents a radical shift for Wilder and Diamond, especially following the success of The Apartment. However, for those who enjoy over-the-top humour, such as a stunning blonde on a chair pulling some sick dance moves on a table while a group of lusty Russian officials stare at…

• Review by Rick Burin ★★★★★ 3

  Wilder's second-to-last masterpiece - and Jimmy Cagney's penultimate picture - is a rapid-fire Cold War comedy that ranks as one of the funniest films ever made.

  Caggers is a veteran Coca Cola executive, marooned in West Berlin, who's forced to call on every ounce of his resources - and every trick in the book - after he lets the boss's daughter (Pamela Tiffin) marry a card-carrying communist (Horst Buchholz).

  After a slow but steady 15-minute set-up, a little light on laughs, it's just non-stop entertainment: clever jokes, silly jokes, Nazi jokes, Stalin sight gags, cross-dressing, satire, in-jokes and innuendo, with Cagney a whirlwind of chicanery, juggling crooked commissars, suspicious journos and a bum-wiggling secretary with an "ümlaut".

  Back in his…

• Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★½ 1

  87/100

  First: I've seen this film at least twice previously, though the last time was way back in 1997. Loved it then, love it now. Only Kiss Me, Stupid is more underrated in Wilder's oeuvre. (Some folks don't like it when he gets antic.)

  Next: People often joke that Cagney subsequently took a 20-year hiatus from acting due to sheer exhaustion, but in truth I can't think of any other performance in cinema history that demanded this degree of rote memorization plus rapid-fire delivery. It's genuinely awe-inspiring.

  Next: I've noted this before, but Wilder deserves more credit as a formalist than he generally gets. Lots of widescreen compositions here that use both width and depth to superb effect.

  Next: As…

• Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★★ 8

  Cinematic Time Capsule1961 Marathon - Film #82

  ”He bamboozled us again!”

  WARNING: This film contains graphic scenes of auditory torture by the means of an itsy-bitsy teeny-weenie yellow polka dot bikini.

  You should also be prepared for the fact that Wilder’s hyper-kinetic comedy careens along at a frantic 110 miles an hour--on the curves--140 miles an hour in the straightaways. It’s like an over-caffeinated missile of comedic chaos that could explode at any moment.

  And I’m not saying Kubrick was influenced by this movie… but I am definitely saying he saw it!

  ”You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.”

  Cinematic Time Capsule - 1961 Ranked

  Martin Scorsese’s Favorite Films

  The New York Times Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See

  The Films From: A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

• Review by shookone ★★★½

  Cagney going full co*ke style while the amount of gags coming out of a machine gun screenplay factory are ridiculous, in fact borderline surreal. the hilariousness is beyond language at times, though dialogues are the quintessential star of the movie. can't switch off the giggles every time a nazi joke comes on, and that's like once every minute.

  surely takes capitalism as a joke, but secretly still admires it a bit, while the communist counterparts are taken as a full-blown baboonish buffoonery. it's still an US product to the core after all. however in 15 years this is so off topic and we're probably talking censorship here, because Liselotte Pulvers sexy Fräuleiness is impertinently, undiscussably outraging. well, back in the 60s the discourses have been so easy. Wilders frantic faceplanter being one of the best examples.

• Review by Will Steele ★★★★½ 4

  “You guys may be the first to shoot a man to the moon, but if he wants a co*ke on the way, you'll have to come to us.”

  Film and politics are two of my fiercest passions in life. Naturally, I gravitate towards anything which combines the two. Now there are films about politics, political films, and political filmmakers. But then there is Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three: a film so steeped in political, historical and cultural significance that it occupies a league of its own.

  Within the initial scene alone Billy Wilder names and shames ‘Coca Cola capitalism,’ alludes to the Cuban missile crisis, and taps into the taboo and unspoken aftereffects of Hitler’s impact on German society. Through…

• Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 1

  “One, Two, Three” is Billy Wilder’s reverse “Ninotchka.”

  Instead of being guided by the grace of Greta Garbo, “One” marches to the ever-snapping fingers of James Cagney.

  Cagney is no less charming than Garbo, but I think even the legend himself would admit - it’s different type of charm. This variation on a theme grants “One” an unstoppable energy - like a passenger train that zooms past its own staton stops... or, like the ceaseless mechanics at a Coca Cola bottling plant.

  “One” follows Cagney’s co*ke company middle manager as he tries to turn the Soviet lover of his boss’s daughter into a good (or at least, a good fake) capitalist.

  Naturally, there are more of “Ninotchka’s” Soviet va Capitalist…

• Review by ben empey ★★★½

  I know we’re supposed to think the communist is laughable but he’s hot, well read, and hates America, so

• Review by Josh Gillam ★★½ 2

  After being assigned to look after his boss’ daughter, a hard-nosed Coca-Cola executive (James Cagney) working in West Berlin finds his chance of promotion at risk when the girl impulsively marries a staunch East German communist, and must scramble to set everything straight, in Billy Wilder’s political comedy with Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin and Arlene Francis.

  The film is a madcap satire on Cold War relations that, being made on location just before the Berlin Wall went up, has its finger firmly on the pulse in the the very timely issues it skewers. This highly topical approach did mean it was immediately dated even before it came out, but now stands as a fascinating snapshot of a Berlin literally just…

• Review by cassandra ★★★★½

  A communist on moving to Russia:"I just need to go home and pack my chessboard, my extra shirt, and two hundred books."

  Pure farce, utterly brilliant, and severely underwatched. If you love Billy Wilder, this is something you've gotta see.

• Review by Jonathan White ★★★½ 8

  Possibly inspired by Hawks’s His Girl Friday, Wilder packs more dialogue per second than one could think possible. The nods and winks quotient is also probably the highest I’ve ever seen. This was just with the ones I recognized. Mining IMDB ratchets that number up even further.

  What I thought was clever were all the backhanded swipes at Capitalism deftly disguised as overt swipes at Communism. Piffl’s future in Russia, a poor rocket scientist with his sights set on Venus, his fate in London, a rich propagandist for a fizzy drink. Twigged me as the antithesis of Steve Job’s remark to Robert Sculley "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want…

• Review by Slig001 ★★★★

  Billy Wilder's Cold War comedy explores the situation in sixties Berlin through a satirical lens - nicely poking fun at two forms of propaganda, while pushing rapid fire manic dialogue and farcial comedy that really hits breakneck speed the longer it goes on. James Cagney is the ambitious Coca Cola executive pulling out all the stops for a promotion, only to find his position under threat when tasked with looking after his boss' airhead daughter. It's a real sharp script; the outwardly overblown comedy hiding some more subtle commentary on the Berlin situation at the time. The two opposing ideologies are nicely lampooned, with communism getting the sharper end of the stick - best summed up in a hilarious car…