One Two Three

James Cagney “gives one of the richest, funniest, most breathlessly paced performances of his career” (The New York Times) in this Billy Wilder comedy that defrosts the Cold War with gales of laughter! C. R. MacNamara (Cagney), a top-ranking executive stationed in West Berlin, is charged with the care of his boss’ visiting daughter. But when he learns that she’s gone and married a fierce young communist – and that his boss will be arriving in town in 24 hours – Mac must transform the unwilling beatnik into a suitable son-in-law or risk losing his chance for advancement! Before you can say “one, two, three,” his plans have spun out of control and into an international incident that could infuriate the Russians, the Germans and, worst of all, his own suspicious wife (Arlene Francis)!

Synopsis

Billy Wilder's Cold War satire, derived from an energetic Molnar comedy the director had seen in 1929, probably owes as much to NINOTCHKA, perhaps the best known film of his idol Ernst Lubitsch. It stars James Cagney as C.J. MacNamara, a Coca-Cola executive who comes to West Berlin to promote the sugary brew on the other side of the Iron Curtain, hoping, in the process, to be promoted to the post of director of West European operations. He soon learns that his real job is babysitting his boss's 17-year-old daughter Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin), who has secretly married volatile Communist Otto Piffl (Horst Bucholz) during her soujourn. By the time McNamara learns this small detail, his boss (Howard St. John) is about to arrive in Berlin. After he gets Piffl arrested by the East German police, who torture him by forcing him to listen to "Itsy-Bitsy-Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini" repeatedly, C.J. finds out that Scarlett is pregnant, and realizes he has only twelve hours to get Piffl released and turn him into an acceptable son-in-law for his boss. Wilder's anarchic satire targets Communism, Coca-Cola, rock n' roll, bureaucratic inefficiency, teenage lust, middle-aged lust, and everything else which wanders into range in this briskly paced farce, which features a vigorous James Cagney in his last leading screen role.