Billy Wilder directs Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Lou Jacobi in this farce where an honest Parisian beat cop gets fired, becomes a pimp and creates a fake client to keep his beloved from turning tricks.

A big production. One of those soundstage consuming behemoth artificial epics that Hollywood churned out in earnest in the Sixties. Hoping the sheer goddamn size of the thing would drag audiences into its gravitational pull. A family friendly sex comedy doesn’t need to be this ostentatious or long. But it is. And it’s nice to see Shirley and Jack together again even in an oversized gaudy display case. The look and feel of the whole thing just threatens to tip over into the whole cast singing Consider Yourself or Get Me To The Church On Time though.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Around The World In 80 Days (1956)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin