Irma la Douce (1963)

‘Irma the Sweet’ is probably Billy Wilder’s sweetest film. The master of satire paints a beautiful love story against the backdrop of the sleazy red light area of Paris between a prostitute and a simple loving man. He wants to keep her off the street and she wants to stay on to earn enough for both of them. Therin lies the problem.

The story revolves around Irma, a successful prostitute who struggles to remember the faces of the many men that she beds. In trying to bust this prostitution ring, policeman Nestor Patou loses his job because his own Chief is a regular customer at the brothel. Penniless, but with a heart filled with kindness, Patou impresses Irma, so much so that she moves him into her apartment and promises to take care of him by working the streets harder.

Patou wishes to earn to keep Irma off the street, but she doesn’t let him. Along with a bartender across the street, he devises a plan where he disguises himself as Lord X, a wealthy English gentleman who becomes Irma’s regular customer and pays her 500 Francs per meeting, which occurs at a regular frequency. Patou’s challenge is that the 500 Francs comes to him/Lord X from the multifaceted bar tender called Moustache, goes to Irma and comes back to Patou which he gives back to Moustache. The ploy works for a while, until Irma decides to elope with Lord X!

Satire is a very difficult genre to master. At its best, it leaves the viewer somewhere between being aware of the innate sadness in the situation and being happy with the comedy that is built around it. Wilder’s genius comes out in this film as he manages to sidetrack the inherent sadness of Irma having to sell her body for money and Patou’s inability to get her to stop, with some brilliant situational comedy with witty dialogue and quirky characters. Based on Alexandre Breffort’s French play, the story keeps you entertained right through with the delicious exchanges between Patou, Irma and Moustache. The only let down was the climax which seemed watered down, after such a good build up.

Jack Lemmon as Patou/Lord X excels in a fabulous role. He is an expert at portraying suffering characters with an innate goodness in them. As Patou he is his archetypical self, but it is as Lord X that he delivers a master class in using costume and accent to convincingly become a foreign character. Shirley McLaine as Irma is wonderful as the nonchalant mercenary of a prostitute who likes to wear green stockings. Never considered a beauty, she wins you over with a clever mix of charm and wit. The show stealer is Moustache, played by Lou Jacobi as he gloats about his prowess in everything from being a soldier in Dunkirk to a lawyer and a Professor of Economics.

Irma la Douce is a wonderful film that shows us the sweetness of simple emotions that often go missing in a cynical world.