Billy Wilder (born Samuel Wilder) on June the 22nd 1906 in
Sucha, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary.
(Sucha is located in what is now Poland, It is south of Krakow near the Slovakia border in the Carpathian Mountains)
He was a filmmaker and screenwriter. His Hollywood career spanned over five decades, and he is rightly regarded as one of the most brilliant filmmakers in the history of motion pictures.
During his career he won seven Academy Awards (nominated for 21), he won a BAFTA Award, the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or and two Golden Globe Awards.
More importantly, he created a filmography that boasts 27 directing and 63 writing credits to his name.
35% of his films he directed have been listed in The American Library of Congress National Film Registry for preservation for films of cultural significance.
Samuel Wilder (Shmuel Vilder) was born into a family of Polish Jews in Sucha, a small rural town, In later life he described Sucha as "Half an hour from Vienna. By telegraph."
Samuel was described as a "rambunctious kid" by his mother, inspired by Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows, she later nicknamed her son "Billie", which he then changed to "Billy" when he later moved to America.
His parents had a well-known and popular cake shop in Sucha's train station that was so successful it expanded into a chain of railroad cafes.
Thank goodness his parents failed to persuade their son to join the family business.
Billy’s family moved to Kraków so his father could manage a hotel before relocating again to Vienna. While living in Vienna the young Wilder decided against studying at the University of Vienna and became a journalist.
In 1926, jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman was on tour in Vienna when he met and was interviewed by Wilder, who was a big fan of Whiteman's band. Young Wilder made a good enough impression on Whiteman that he took him with the band to Berlin, where Wilder was able to make more connections in the entertainment field.
When Wilder first arrived in Berlin he earned a living as a “Taxi Dancer” in Berlin.
A “Taxi Dancer” is a person who hangs out in a Ballrooms and is paid to dance with ballroom patrons.
Wilder did get work submitting articles as a freelance journalist for local Berlin newspapers and eventually landed a steady job at a Berlin based tabloid.
In 1928 Billy’s father Max Wilder passed away in Vienna aged 56 when Billy was 22 years old.
It was at this time he developed an interest in film and turned his hand to screenwriting.
Between 1929 to 1933 he was involved in writing 14 German films.
One of these films,
“People on Sunday” (1930) Wilder co-wrote with fellow film industry newcomers Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak.
This film is now considered a groundbreaking example of the “Neue Sachlichkeit” or
“New Objectivity” movement in German cinema which led to the genre of "Strassenfilm" (Street Film) which was a forerunner to and paved the way for the birth of the Italian neorealism and the
French New Wave movements.
all of these films were produced in the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam near Berlin.
In 1933 The Nazi Party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler began to seize power in Germany so the Jewish Billy Wilder fled to Paris.
While in Paris he made his directorial debut co-directing and co-wrote the film,
“Mauvaise Graine” aka “Bad Seed” (1934).
Directed by Billy Wilder, Alexander Esway,
Written by Billy Wilder, Jan Lustig, Max Colpet & Claude-André Puget, Produced by Edouard Corniglion-Molonier & Georges Bernier, Music by Franz Waxman & Allan Gray, Cinematography Paul Cotteret &
Maurice Delattre, Edited by Therese Sautereau, Starring Danielle Darrieux.
Playboy Henri's wealthy father supports him, but when he tires of Henri not finding work, he takes away the younger man's cash and new car, hoping to prompt his son to find a job. Henri quickly makes friends with a gang of car thieves, falling in love with one. After the gang is betrayed, Henri and his new girlfriend decide to move to Casablanca to start over.
Before that film was even released Billy had bought a ticket for an Atlantic crossing onboard the RMS Aquitania to the USA to work in Hollywood.
Wilder's mother, sister grandmother and stepfather were all victims of the Holocaust and were murdered in Nazi death camps.
When he stepped off the boat in New York Billy had very little knowledge of the English language.
Due to European fascism there was an influx of talented people relocating to America and creating a community of actors, writers and technicians who would have faced discrimination and persecution under fascist rule so came to ply their trade in Hollywood.
They were fleeing Europe due to persecution but they didn't know at the time they were actually fleeing extermination.
Wilder befriended the Actor Peter Lorre who was a native German speaker and was also finding his way in Hollywood.
Wilder said “I kind of starved for a little bit,”
“I shared a room with Peter Lorre, and we lived on a can of soup a day.”
Billy claimed he taught himself English by listening to baseball games on the radio and going to the movies, He forced himself to learn 20 new words a day. For decades, he instructed his collaborators to correct him immediately if he made any mistakes writing in english.
Billy started working as a screenwriter by writing scripts collaborating with bilingual writers who could translate his contributions for the films,
“Music in the Air” (1934)
“Lottery Lover” (1935)
“Under Pressure” (1935)
All three of these were made by Fox.
The next script “Champagne Waltz” (1937)
was bought by Paramount Pictures.
Actor Peter Lorre in the Hitchcock Classic
"The Man who knew too much" (1934)
By 1937 Billy Wilder was confidently turning out English Language scripts, He landed a contract with Paramount Pictures as a staff writer and started to collaborate with American (Non German speaking) screenwriter Charles Brackett.
The pair enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration working together on sixteen screenplays between 1938 and 1950. Brackett said this about their partnership,
"The thing to do was suggest an idea, have it torn apart and despised.
In a few days it would be apt to turn up, slightly changed, as Wilder's idea.
Once I got adjusted to that way of working, our lives were much simpler."
They went on to write for Paramount,
“Bluebeard's Eighth Wife” (1938)
“Midnight” (1939)
“What a Life” (1939)
Wilder became a naturalized citizen
of the United States in 1939.
Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder
His first significant success in Hollywood was co-writing the movie,
“Ninotchka” (1939)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Screenplay by Melchior Lengyel, Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch & Billy Wilder, Story by Melchior Lengyel, Produced by Ernst Lubitsch & Sidney Franklin, Music by Werner R. Heymann, Cinematography William H. Daniels, Edited by Gene Ruggiero, Starring Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas & Ina Claire.
A no-nonsense diplomat of the Soviet Union, Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova arrives in Paris to ensure the sale of jewels that were seized during the Russian Revolution. Meanwhile, carefree bachelor Count Leon d'Algout attempts to intercept the valuables on behalf of their former owner, the Grand Duchess Swana. Despite their conflicting allegiances, the icy Ninotchka soon warms to Leon's charms, reluctantly going against her better judgment.
This film was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Lubitsch had been working in Hollywood since 1922. He had been an actor and a director in Germany but stopped acting when he moved to America.
Wilder adored Lubitsch's work and his style as a director, In later life Wilder had a sign made that he hung above his desk that read “How would Lubitsch do it?” to inspire him and remind him of the great friend and mentor.
Co-writing "Ninotchka" earned Wilder his first Oscar nomination and defiantly kicked his career up a gear. He went on to write a run of box office hits,
“Rhythm on the River” (1940)
“Arise, My Love” (1940)
“Hold Back the Dawn” (1941)
“Ball of Fire” (1941).
1941 was a pivotal year for Wilder in Hollywood,
It had been seven years since Billy had directed the film “Mauvaise Graine” in France and he was very keen to direct again. Producer Arthur Hornblower Jr. agreed to give him a chance.
Wilder was determined to make a mainstream film that would be a box-office success so he would not have to be sat at a typewriter for the rest of his career.
Paramount Pictures owed the rights to the play "Connie Goes Home".
Which Wilder thought would be the perfect vehicle not only for his American directorial debut but for actress Ginger Rogers.
Remember Wilder was focused on landing a sure fire hit and Rogers had recently won the Academy Award for Best Actress for "Kitty Foyle" (1940) and she now had the clout to pick her own director and Wilder had an Ace up his sleeve!
Billy's agent Leland Hayward was also the agent of Ginger Rogers.
Hayward suggested Rogers met with this hugely talented writer who wanted to direct a picture.
She agreed, and met with Wilder and his writing partner Charles Brackett for lunch at an Italian restaurant where the pair pitched the movie, Rogers later recalled
"Wilder was charming, a European gentleman ... I've always been a good judge of character. I decided then and there that we would get along and that he had the qualities to become a good director ... I felt he would be strong, and that he would listen. He certainly understood how to pay attention to a woman."
Wilder was driving home from the studio one evening and pulled up at a red light next to actor Ray Milland. Impulsively, he called out,
"I'm doing a picture. Would you like to be in it?," and the actor responded, "Sure."
Wilder sent him the script, which Milland liked. They went on to make,
The Major and the Minor (1942)
Directed by Billy Wilder, Written by Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett, Based on Connie Goes Home (1923 play) by Edward Childs Carpenter, Produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr,
Music by Robert Emmett Dolan, Cinematography Leo Tover, Edited by Doane Harrison, Starring Ginger Rogers & Ray Milland.
Susan Applegate decides to leave New York City and take a train back to Iowa, but she has only enough money for a child's ticket. She disguises herself as a young girl and, after being discovered by the train conductor, hides out in the car of Major Kirby. Kirby believes she is a child and looks after her. But as Kirby's fiancée and others grow suspicious of Susan's ruse and her cleverness is thoroughly tested.
The film was a financial and critical success. Variety called the film,
"sparkling and effervescing piece of farce-comedy" with a story that is "light, fluffy, and frolicsome ... Both script and direction swing the yarn along at a consistent pace, with the laughs developing naturally and without strain."
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said of the Wilder-Brackett script
"effervesces with neat situations and bright lines" and added, "The gentlemen have written – and Mr. Wilder has directed – a bountiful comedy-romance. And Miss Rogers and Mr. Milland have played it with spirit and taste."
Mission accomplished ! A box office success so Paramount instantly green lit his next movie.
(End of part 1)
