Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Irma la Douce Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 12, 2019

Billy Wilder's " Irma la Douce" (1963) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; audio commentary by film historian Joseph McBridel; and second audio commentary by critic Kat Ellinger. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

How do I look?

Andre Previn passed away last week at the age of 89. He left an astonishing legacy and one of the four Oscar Awards that he won was for his contribution to Billy Wilder’s Irma la Douce.

The film is based on the stage musical by Alexandre Breffort, but it is virtually impossible not to see as yet another original Wilder project. The reason for this is quite simple: its temperament and sense of humor frame the narrative in a very particular way that allow Wilder to be remarkably creative. It is why in the film the personalities of the main characters very quickly become a lot more attractive than the progression of their relationships.

In a popular district of the City of Lights, the clueless rookie cop Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon) accidentally discovers that the very busy Casanova Hotel is actually a brothel. Not realizing that the prostitutes, their pimps, and the cops have a business arrangement that makes everyone happy, Nestor promptly rounds up the girls and books them in the local police station. However, shortly after his superior (Herschel Bernardi), who regularly visits Casanova Hotel, throws him out. The stunned Nestor then ends up in the popular Café Moustache where the pimps gather and the crooked cops collect their dues, and while pondering his future befriends the owner (Lou Jacobi) and the bubbly ‘working girl’ Irma la Douce (Shirley MacLaine). When Irma’s abusive pimp (Bruce Yarnell) scolds her because she has not been bringing in the cash that he wants, the slightly inebriated Nestor defends her and then beats him up so bad that the rest of his colleagues instantly agree that he is the right person to lead them. Moments later, Irma officially becomes Nestor’s girl. But their business relationship quickly becomes very complicated because the former cop falls madly in love with Irma and then fails to convince her that she does not have to support him, which leaves him with no other option but to acquire the identity of the wealthy British nobleman Lord X who is willing to pay her big bucks to be his exclusive entertainer. But being Lord X immediately proves to be a very expensive act, which is why Nestor secretly begins working multiple jobs on the local market that quickly transform him into a vegetable. While the clueless Irma continues to meet with Lord X, Nestor’s relationship with her begins to crumble.

Irma la Douce isn’t universally liked and there are plenty of good reasons why. Here are a few that this writer believes are too obvious and impossible to ignore:

Wilder’s creative choices are so inconsistent that the end product very much looks like a compromise that merges the stylistic identities of a classic musical that was intended to be faithful to Breffort’s play and a straightforward period comedy. Furthermore, the longer the film goes, the clearer it becomes that the overlapping of the two is also done with a great deal of indecisiveness that produces a seemingly endless string of clichés. This indecisiveness also has a rather dramatic effect on the quality of the humor, a key element of the narrative, which is routinely of the banal type that usually sneaks in made-for-TV period soap operas. (Compare it to the sharp and witty humor that gives Some Like It Hot its identity and you will very quickly realize that Wilder routinely misses great opportunities to impress). The most unforgivable weakness of the film, however, is its insistence to have its characters and their predicaments appear legit. It simply can’t be done. The winning strategy should have been to point the film in the exact opposite direction and utilize its colorful exotic artificiality to do a great deal of satirizing. As it is the film essentially behaves as a commedia all’italiana, but expects to be appreciated as an authentic lavish romantic comedy.

There are select segments where Lemmon, MacLaine and even Jacobi shine bright and are a pleasure to behold, but the film is so long and has such massive stretches that are full of tired clichés that it really does become something of an endurance test.

*Lemmon’s foreign accent is extremely similar and at times even identical to the one that Terry-Thomas promoted in many classic British comedies.

Irma la Douce Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Billy Wilder's Irma la Douce arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Video.

The release is sourced from the 4K remaster that British label Eureka Entertainment also accessed for its upcoming release of Irma la Douce.

As mentioned previously, the remaster is quite good and the film looks very healthy. In certain areas there is room for meaningful improvements, particularly in terms of density and shadow delineation in darker footage, but there are plenty of strong organic qualities on display that are easy to appreciate. Also, I think that ideally color balance and saturation could be even better, and in certain areas nuances can be expanded as well. (In our review of the Region-B release I mentioned background color flutter, and the same effect is noticeable here as well). There are no traces of sharpening adjustments. Image stability is very good. There are no large cuts, debris, or stains, but I did spot a few tiny blemishes. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content)

Irma la Douce Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (Mono). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

There are no encoding issues to report. The audio is clean, stable, and nicely balanced. Obviously, the original soundtrack has native production limitations and as a result the dynamic intensity isn't of the type that modern big-budget production typically offer, so you have to approach the film with the right set of expectations.

Irma la Douce Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - in this audio commentary, film historian Joseph McBride explains how years ago the work of Billy Wilder apparently released him from his old-fashioned morality, and discusses the different phases of the director's career, the stylistic qualities of Irma la Douce (and specifically its emphasis on the 'gutter quality'), the evolving relationship between the two leads, the old-fashioned romantic qualities of the film and how they relate to the work of Ernst Lubitsch, Andre Previn's contribution, etc.

• Commentary Two - this audio commentary features critic Kat Ellinger who focuses primarily on the identities of the main characters and the progression of their relationship.

• Trailer Reel - a collection of trailers for the following Kino Lorber releases:
  
  1. Irma la Douce
  2. What a Way to Go!
  3. One, Two, Three
  4. Avanti!
  5. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
  6. Witness for the Prosecution
  

• Cover - reversible cover with vintage poster art.

Irma la Douce Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Billy Wilder once publicly conceded that Irma la Douce does not work because for a variety of reasons it did not turn out as intended, and this is pretty much my take on the film as well. I feel that it is something of a compromise that allows Wilder to be creative but the narrative hosts such an enormous amount of tired cliches that very little that happens in the film actually feels right. Of course there are a few bits here and there where Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine do some special things, but there is a sea of difference between this film and a masterpiece like Some Like It Hot. RECOMMENDED only to fans of the film. Folks that are unfamiliar with it should try to find a way to RENT it first.