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One, Two, Three

Screening on Film
Directed by Billy Wilder.
With James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin.
US, 1961, 35mm, black & white, 108 min.

In one of his final screen performances, James Cagney stars as C.R. MacNamara, a manic Coca-Cola executive based in West Berlin trying to win favor in the company by brokering a deal to sell soft drinks to the Soviets. Meanwhile his boss’s daughter, who has been left in MacNamara’s care, has fallen for and married an unabashed Communist from East Berlin (Buchholz). In the farcical style that only Billy Wilder could deploy, MacNamara schemes to convert the young Red to the ways of all good Americans. Although the targets are broad and at times painfully obvious, One, Two, Three succeeds thanks to both Wilder’s and Cagney’s impeccable comic timing.

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