One two Three

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Movie
German title One two Three
Original title One, two, three
Country of production United States
original language English
German
Publishing year 1961
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Billy Wilder
script Billy Wilder
I.AL Diamond
production Billy Wilder / Mirisch Corporation / United Artists
music André Previn
camera Daniel L. Fapp
cut Daniel Mandell
occupation
synchronization

One, two, three is an American screwball comedy directed by Billy Wilder against the backdrop of the East-West conflict . Wilder wrote the script together with IAL Diamond , for which they adapted the stage play Eins, Zwei, Drei (original title: Egy, kettő, három) by Ferenc Molnár from 1929 and relocated the plot to the divided Berlin. The shooting took place from June to September 1961 in Berlin and Munich ; the team was surprised by the construction of the Berlin Wall .

action

CR MacNamara is the director of the Coca-Cola branch in West Berlin . He hopes to be promoted to head of European market in London . That is why he plans to sell the fizzy drink behind the iron curtain . Wendell P. Hazeltine, the chairman of the board in Atlanta , does not want to know anything about doing business with " communists ". Instead, he asks MacNamara to look after his daughter Scarlett during her visit to Berlin and to take her in. MacNamara reluctantly agrees. Actually, his wife wanted to travel with the children, and then he would have had the opportunity to spend more time with his pretty secretary Ingeborg.

Scarlett Hazeltine already turns the head of the flight crew on the flight to Berlin and immediately announces that she wants to have a lot of fun during their stay. It is only after a few weeks that it becomes apparent that she spends her nights outside the MacNamara's home. Now, of all times, her unsuspecting parents are announcing their visit to West Berlin for the next day. When Scarlett reappears, it turns out that she has meanwhile married, namely the loyal young communist Otto Ludwig Piffl from East Berlin . MacNamara sees his career dreams threatened and therefore, with the help of his submissive assistant Schlemmer, starts an intrigue to get rid of Piffl. Based on balloons made in East Berlin with the inscription “Ami go home!”, Which are then supposed to fly from east to west, MacNamara has this inscription changed to “Russki go home!” And von Schlemmer has a balloon on the exhaust pipe of Piffl's motorcycle attach. The communist Piffl is then suspected of being a western spy and arrested by the East German border guards at the Brandenburg Gate and handed over to the People's Police . Piffl confesses to everything he has been accused of after being "tortured" by officers by listening to the Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini from the West.

In order to reverse the marriage, McNamara arranged the dissolution of the marriage in the East Berlin registry office. But the shot backfires: When Scarlett learns what happened to Otto, she collapses. To make matters worse, it turns out that she is pregnant by Piffl. An illegitimate grandchild would be even worse for the arch-conservative Mr. Hazeltine than a communist son-in-law and with it the end of MacNamara's career. Therefore the annulment of the marriage has to be reversed, Piffl has to be freed from the clutches of the People's Police and transformed into a son-in-law befitting his status within a few hours.

Mr. and Mrs. Hazeltine are scheduled to arrive at noon that day to pick up Scarlett. In the short time until then, MacNamara provided Otto Piffl with a comprehensive men's collection and had him adopted by the impoverished Count Droste-Schattenburg in order to give him an impressive name. But Piffl's iron convictions are not so easily shaken and he immediately decides to use the position he has just been given as manager of the cola factory to incite the workers to strike and ultimately to the communist uprising. But out of love for Scarlett, he gradually gives up his ideological dogmas and finally complies with MacNamara's plans.

In the end, Piffl's transformation is so perfect that Mr. Hazeltine appoints his new son-in-law as director of the European market. But MacNamara is also promoted and transferred to corporate headquarters in Atlanta. This also saved his marriage, because his wife had wanted to return to the USA with the children for a long time.

background

The location of the film is the divided city of Berlin in the year before the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, namely in the summer of 1960 (this is evident from the fact that the construction of the wall is shown at the very beginning and then McNamara's voice as the 'narrator' looking back led into the actual plot with the comment that “last summer” - that is, 1960 - almost seemed like “the good old days”). The sector border, which was still largely permeable at the time, was therefore of great importance as a place of action. However, the wall was built during filming, which lasted from June to September 1961. Therefore, it was no longer possible to shoot at the Brandenburg Gate , so that it had to be recreated at great expense as a backdrop on the Bavaria Film site in Geiselgasteig . As a result, the conditions shown in the film were suddenly out of date. In some scenes that take place in East Berlin, it can be seen that they were filmed in West Berlin (for obvious reasons): for example, when Piffl was arrested by the GDR People's Police, the Matthäuskirche in Berlin-Tiergarten can be seen in the background and during MacNamara’s night visit to East Berlin, the ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof in Kreuzberg . In this context, the film has also suffered a little anachronism : at the big 'showdown' at the end, McNamara, Otto, Fräulein Ingeborg and Schlemmer are on their adventurous tour to Tempelhof Airport (to pick up Scarlet's parents there) at the Augsburger Straße underground station drove past what, however, would have been impossible in an action planned in 1960 (see above), since the station only went into operation in May 1961.

The former Coca-Cola branch at Hildburghauser Strasse 224 in Berlin-Lichterfelde , which has been abandoned in 1992, can still be visited; it served (also as Coca-Cola headquarters) in 2003 for the film Good Bye, Lenin as a backdrop.

Former Coca-Cola branch in Berlin-Lichterfelde, October 2013

Horst Buchholz and James Cagney got in each other's way several times during the filming, especially since Buchholz tried to be a "scene thief" with exaggerated acting, according to Cagney. In an interview, Cagney described the German as the only fellow actor he openly disliked in his long career. After that film, Cagney did not appear in front of the camera for twenty years; Only in old age did he make a comeback with the film Ragtime , which is why he at least once - perhaps jokingly - attributed his retreat into private life to the argument with Buchholz.

While filming, Wilder received an angry phone call from Joan Crawford , who had just been appointed to the Pepsi Board of Directors. She had taken over from her late husband Alfred Steele and was protesting the product placement for Coca-Cola. Wilder then placed some references to Pepsi in his film, for example in the final scene in which Cagney surprisingly pulls a Pepsi-Cola for his family from a Coca-Cola machine.

When Otto Ludwig Piffl was questioned by the People's Police, the officers spoke in the German dubbed version with the Saxon dialect . In the original US version they speak Standard German . The performer of the first interrogator is the actor Gerd Martienzen, known for his extensive dubbing work . His voice can be heard in the original US version, but not in the German dubbed version. The GDR policeman who controls the limousine with MacNamara, Fritz, Schlemmer and Fräulein Ingeborg at the Brandenburg Gate at the entrance and exit, was played by Lilo Pulver's husband Helmut Schmid , who died in 1992 . He can be bribed with a six pack of Coca-Cola and, as a decent German, returns the empties on the return trip .

Towards the end, Schlemmer recognizes his former superior, SS-Obersturmführer Untermeier, in a journalist ; In the original version, however, he has the ( Wehrmacht ) rank of first lieutenant, which is better known to US cinema-goers .

Film music

The score for the film is the saber dance from the ballet Gayaneh by Aram Khachaturian (1946). Piffl is forced to "confess" by the East German police by listening to the hit Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini non-stop that he is an American spy, while Friedrich Hollaender makes a guest appearance at the "Grand Hotel Potemkin " (allegedly in East Berlin, but in reality the façade of the former Hotel Esplanade, which only exists as a ruin, conducts the hit Bananas , of all things.

Henning Schlüter, who, as the MacNamaras' family doctor, ascertains the Hazeltine daughter's pregnancy, is torn from a performance of Richard Wagner's Walküre and continually strikes the melody of the Walkürenritts . In the English-language original, he memorises the translation "schwanger is pregnant", in German he sings "schwanger is splendid".

A cuckoo clock , which contains a Uncle Sam instead of a cuckoo , accompanies the events in the office with the melody of Yankee Doodle ; Without knowing it, Otto took it with him as a present to East Berlin. During an inspection she plays the melody and thus contributes to his arrest.

Quotes and allusions

One, two, three contains movie quotes and allusions to other movies and events:

  • The three Soviet inspectors, who were initially loyal to the line and who want to do business with Coca-Cola and eventually move to the West, are reminiscent of Ernst Lubitsch's film Ninotschka from 1939, in whose script Billy Wilder played a key role.
  • Otto's first appearance in the film as a militant communist in McNamara's office cites another Lubitsch film with Anger im Paradies (1932). In it, an angry young communist ( Leonid Kinskey ) storms into the house of a rich lady and complains that her stolen handbag costs so much.
  • The scene in which MacNamara threatens Otto with pressing half a grapefruit in his face is reminiscent of the famous scene in Cagey's 1931 film The Public Enemy . It was quoted in Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959).
  • In the film, Cagney says the phrase "Good night, Charlie!", Which also plays a special role in Some Like It Hot .
  • In a cameo as a US MP , Red Buttons is an imitation of Cagney in his countless gangster films.
  • Scarlett, the daughter of the Coca-Cola boss, is called as a reference to Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind . Both are in Atlanta ( Georgia native). When McNamara asks his wife where the missing Scarlett might be, she replies: “Gone with the wind?” (“Gone with the wind?”).
  • Dr. Bauer says goodbye to the MacNamaras: “I missed the first act of the Valkyrie.” He smashes the motif of the Valkyrie ride . In the film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse whistles and sings Detective Inspector Lohmann a musical motif: “You know that, Müller? This is from the Valkyrie. (...) Today it will be the first time that I get to the theater in time for the first act. ”(Which, however, does not happen).
  • Upon learning that Scarlett is pregnant, James Cagney groans, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of (little) Rico?" It is a famous quote from the death scene of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931).
  • The cuckoo clock plays the well-known Yankee Doodle all the time . In the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy , Cagney played the leading role in George M. Cohan , the composer of the musical of the same name. He later received an Oscar for his portrayal .
  • On the way to negotiations in East Berlin, McNamara asks his driver ( Karl Lieffen ): “Do you know the Grand Hotel Potemkin ?” And receives the answer: “Yes, it used to be the Grand Hotel Göring and before it was the Grand Hotel Bismarck . "
  • On his first visit to the Coca-Cola branch, Piffl refuses to take off his hat in front of MacNamara on the grounds that he would only do this “at Lenin's grave” or “if Van Cliburn plays Tchaikovsky ”. In fact, in 1958, the US pianist Van Cliburn won the first international Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow , which was also received as a worldwide sensation in view of the Cold War .

synchronization

While most German-speaking actors like Horst Buchholz, Liselotte Pulver and Ralf Wolter spoke themselves in the German dubbed version, the English-speaking actors had to be dubbed by other speakers. The dubbed version was created in 1961 under the direction of Conrad von Molo in the Aventin film studio in Munich. The linguistic contrast of the original version - mainly English, but also German is spoken again and again - was lost with the German synchronization.

Hubert von Meyerinck , who appears in a supporting role, speaks English in the film, but was dubbed by Sig Ruman for the original version because his English was too fragile. In the German version, he speaks to himself.

role actor Voice actor
CW McNamara James Cagney Werner Lieven
Scarlett Hazeltine Pamela Tiffin Ingeborg Wellmann
Phyllis McNamara Arlene Francis Mady Rahl
Wendell P. Hazeltine Howard St. John Erik Jelde
Commissioner Peripetchikoff Leon Askin Leonard Steckel
US Military Police corporal Red buttons Erich Ebert

reception

The film was in 1962 for an Oscar (best black and white camera), two Golden Globe Awards (Best Picture, Pamela Tiffin for Best Supporting Actress) and the Laurel Award as the top comedy ( Best Comedy nominated), but could not win any of these awards.

With audiences and parts of the criticism, the film was initially not successful in either the USA or Germany. For example, the BZ called it the “most hideous film about Berlin”. When the film was shown again in theaters in France and Germany in 1985 , it became a hit with the public, especially in West Berlin. Today it is largely viewed positively by the critics and is even considered by some to be one of the best films about the Cold War.

The aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes evaluated 21 reviews, of which it classified 20 as more positive (“fresh”) and one as more negative (“rotten”). This corresponds to a share of 95% for the positive reviews. The average rating was 7.8 out of 10 points. The evaluated reviews, however, all come from the 21st century, so reviews from the 20th century, especially the mostly negative reviews from the 1960s and the positive voices from the 1980s, were not taken into account.

Individual reviews

“Billy Wilder's 'Eins, Zwei, drei' is a fast-paced, shrill, biting and at the same time light-hearted farce, full of current gags and spiced with satirical overtones. She is so furiously quick-witted that part of her joke is superimposed on one another and is drowned out. "

- Variety, 1961

“Billy Wilder shot the comedy 'Eins, Zwei, drei' in Berlin in 1961, which is currently being released as a so-called rediscovery in off-cinemas. (...) The stupidity of the story also corresponds to the type of comedy: It speculates with the stupidity in the mind. (...) The so-called scene audience, which visits the off-cinemas, is blatantly enjoying exactly what they would do with new works in these old hams. (...) But let's leave it at quotes from the film; there are more pleasant emetics. This film with its reactionary comedy fits into the current intellectual climate in our republic. "

- Die Zeit , May 1985

“Above all, 'Eins, Zwei, drei' (1961), this mad joke from a comedy in which Liselotte Pulver dances the Cold War in a polka dot dress checkmate. To date, no other film has brought the East-West conflict to the point as a battle between managers and officials, Coca-Cola and Beluga caviar . "

- the daily newspaper , March 2000

“Even today you can have fun intelligently with 'Eins, Zwei, Drei' (1961) (…) No cultural cliché about Germans and Americans, communists and capitalists is left out, but just as ironically mirrored as only Wilder, the Berliner from Hollywood, could. Because of Lilo Pulver alone, it's worth watching this film over and over again 44 years later. Secretary and lover of McNamara, the powder, otherwise famous as a rubber duck, plays the part as sexy as it is self-deprecating - more subtle than Mae West , funnier than Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot . "

- Die Zeit , August 2005

“Immediately exuberant and ironic, demanding and vulgar, marching to the sounds of the saber dance of Khachaturian with a barrage of gags, celebrates 'one, two, three' while caricaturing American cultural imperialism. James Cagney completes his career playing a comical twist on Ugly American. The big gangster of the early 30s is a megalomaniac boss of the Berlin Coca-Cola branch who dreams of opening up new markets behind the iron curtain. "

- Village Voice , January 2006

“... with a gorgeous east-west farce 'one, two, three' sustained at a breathtaking pace. The film (...) was a screwball comedy in the best 30s style: cheeky, confident in dialogue, a smug preparation of all imaginable prejudices and clichés. Capitalists and communists, Americans, Russians, Germans, men and women - every supposedly national, ideological or gender-specific peculiarity and behavior was caricatured and satirized. In addition, James Cagney, who was constantly on fire, was extremely impulsive, as Coca-Cola boss in Europe, at the (preliminary) conclusion of his career, giving the most mind-boggling comic performance of his entire career. Two decades later (at the beginning of the 80s) the small masterpiece (shot in black and white) became a surprise hit in German art house cinemas and was celebrated as a rediscovery. "

- Kay Less, 2011

literature

  • Ferenc Molnár : One, two, three. (Original title: Egy, kettö, három) . German by Vera Thies. In: Liliom. Three pieces. Reclam, Leipzig 1981, OCLC 313702458 .
  • Gene Phillips: Some Like It Wilder. The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder. University Press of Kentucky, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8131-2570-1 . (Chapter 14: Love on the Run - One, Two, Three and Irma la Douce ) ( Excerpt (Google) )
  • Jürgen Müller: Movies of the 60s . Taschen, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-2799-1 , pp. 20–24. ( Excerpt (Google) )
  • Brian Cogan, Tony Kelso: Encyclopedia Of Politics, The Media, And Popular Culture. Greenwood Press, Santa Barbara, CA 2009, ISBN 978-0-313-34379-7 , p. 296. ( Excerpt (Google) )
  • Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 540. ( Excerpt (Google) )
  • Josef Joffe: Which Adolf? In: Die Zeit , August 18, 2005.
  • Hartmut Schulze: Strange Cola. 24 years after its unsuccessful first performance, Billy Wilder's East-West outfit "One, Two, Three" became a cinema hit in the left-wing scene . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1985, pp. 142-143 ( Online - July 1, 1985 ).
  • Borislav Knezevic: American Capitalism Abroad. Culture and Cash in Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three" . In: Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia, Volume LIV (54), 2009, pp. 183-202. ( Full text online , PDF, free of charge, 371 pages, 3.6 MB)
  • Jörg Füllgrabe: Real rubble film or just furious and absurd propaganda comedy? Billy Wilders One, two, three and the fronts of the cold . Gfl-journal, No. 3/2014
  • Pauline Kael: Review: One, Two, Three by Billy Wilder . Film Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 3, Special Issue on Hollywood (Spring, 1962), pp. 62-65 ( JSTOR 1210631 )
  • David Bathrick: Billy Wilder's Cold War Berlin . New German Critique, No. 110, COLD WAR CULTURE (Summer 2010), pp. 31–47, especially pp. 41–47 ( JSTOR 40926581 )

Web links

Wikiquote: One, Two, Three  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for one, two, three . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2012 (PDF; test number: 26 792 V).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Gene Phillips: Some Like It Wilder. The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder. University Press of Kentucky, 2010, ISBN 9780813125701 . Chapter 14: "Love on the Run - One, Two, Three and Irma la Douce " ( excerpt (Google) )
  3. ^ Paul Tatara: One, Two, Three (1960). In: Turner Classic Movies.
  4. ↑ Bob Thomas: Joan Crawford, A Biography. Simon and Schuster, 1978, p. 212.
  5. ↑ imdb.com: Full Cast & Crew
  6. ^ IMDb References
  7. ↑ One, two, three. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on October 26, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b Martin Wolf: Cola against Communists on Spiegel Online , August 10, 2008.
  9. ↑ One, two, three at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed March 12, 2015.
  10. ↑ One, Two, Three . In Variety , 1961.
  11. ↑ Gerhard Staguhn : Left hit from the right. In: Die Zeit , May 31, 1985.
  12. ↑ Katja Nicodemus: Nobody is perfect. In: Die Tageszeitung , March 3, 2000.
  13. ↑ Josef Joffe: Which Adolf? In: Die Zeit , August 18, 2005.
  14. ^ Joe Hoberman: Coke Classic. Wilder at heart: Cola versus communism in Cagney's good-natured Cold War comedy. In: Village Voice , January 3, 2006.
  15. ↑ Kay Less: In life, more is taken from you than is given ... Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria 1933 to 1945. A general overview. ABACUS-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 9783862820498 , p. 540. ( Excerpt (Google) )