Billy Wilder adapted the stage play of STALAG 17 and improved it every way he could. This is a copy of the original screenplay for the movie so all of the scenes are here, including a few snippets that were deleted in the final version of the film. The story is brilliantly put together and it only takes about an hour to ninety minutes to read the whole thing, including the informative introduction. This is a wonderful example to explore for anyone who wants to write or is writing screenplays and it is also great for any movie buff or fan of Wilder.

If you enjoyed just one episode of Hogans Heroes then you will love Stalag 17, which was the inspiration of that show. Although I must admit that I am not a big fan of the Animal character the script itself is darn close to perfection. Stalag 17 is one of the funniest films of all time. The plot is simple and is basically just several episodes in a german prisoner of war camp in world war II as the prisoners suspect that they have an informer in their midst. The scene where they find out who the informer actually is, is one the best scenes that you can watch or read. William Holden won the best actor oscar for his performance in this film and with material like this too work from it is not hard to understand why.

Wilder is one of the best screenwriter/directors that there has ever been. His partnership with Diamond reached its creschendo with this magnificent screenplay. Winner of the best screenplay in 1960 The Apartment is one of the funniest films that has ever been made. It is the best example of how to weave drama and comedy into a seamless whole. After this Billy Wilders career never reached the same heights. Which is unfortunate because while you are reading The Apartment you realise just how truly great he was. The film was named in the AFI 100, just read the screenplay and wish you could write anything half this good.

This book was written with love over 14 years of friendship. Fellini speaks all, and I mean everything about his life in the movies. Charlotte Chandler records and organizes interviews with the director so that the entire piece (except one little chapter at the end) is Fellini talking to a friend, and the reader becoming that friend. I believe this to be the most beautiful biography ever written about Fellini. A touching and profound book that any film lover, and for that matter, any artist wouldn't want to miss

Winner of the Oscar for best screenplay (also Wilders first oscar for best screenplay)Lost Weekend is one of the most powerful movies of all time. It has not dated at all and its importance has not faded. It is the ultimate example of how the hollywood system of the forties traded realism and then placed a hokum ending that just doesn't ring true, but even with this fault the screenplay is almost perfect, if only they wrote more films like this today, the emotional impact of leaving las vegas is nothing compared to the punch packed into this classic piece of moviemaking and screenwriting, read this and see Billy at his best.

I think the way Billie Wilder expresses the life of a washed up actress and the life of a starving screnwriter is a wonderful interpratations of life ever. i loved the musical although I found it far fetched from the book.

Nearly everyone who is likely to view this page knows and loves the movie, and would most likely prefer watching it to reading it. This leaves devoted fans of Wilder and Chandler to consider it, as well as perhaps students of the form.

The screenplay itself is an unquestioned masterpiece, and has not even the movie's very very few faults (poor acting by secondary characters, etc.). So I will limit my comments to my assertion that this edition GREATLY underestimates the contributions of Chandler, going so far as to paint him as a pasty fussbudget ignorant of the craft of writing. Not true, bud, not by a long shot.

Wilder and Chandler got along like cats and dogs. That's no secret. Yet while Chandler had his faults, Wilder seemed to live to antagonize him, and quite uncharitably described him in some comments reprinted here. Saying how the married Chandler envied Wilder for "having all the pretty girls at Paramount" is one example of how cheap and childish the director's opinion of his co-writer was, as stated in this edition, quoting Wilder's bio. Either Wilder or Meyers had some crude bias against Chandler, if the introduction of this tome is to be believed at all. Because it's not even an accurate presentation of what Wilder really felt, as quoted in Chandler's own hit-and-miss bio written by Tom Hiney.

Anyway, much of the *structure* of the screenplay- the flashbacks, the additional scenes, the ebb and flow- is Wilder's tremendous savvy. But the things film historians seem to treasure above all else in this movie are the rapid-fire, crudely poetic, vernacular dialogue, as well as the feeling of cynical decay wrapped around the doomed couple's whole misbegotten endeavor like a shroud. And for those, I propose, Chandler must be given the majority of the credit. His novels are too sad and complex and perfect, providing ample evidence that he could not have been the doofus this book portrays.

There's my speech. Take it for what it's worth. The book is a good buy for serious students. But Chandler fans will be ticked off.

For those who already purchased the Library of America edition of "Raymond Chandler : Later Novels and Other Writings" (which contains the screenplay of "Double Indemnity"), here are two reasons why you should buy THIS edition of the "Double Indemnity" screenplay:

1. Unlike most other screenplays published in book form, this edition of "Double Indemnity" appears to be a facsimile of the original screenplay; It's not just a book, but a relic of classic film.

2. This edition also has the alternate/deleted "Gas Chamber" ending which the Library of America edition is lacking.

If it were not for the above two qualities, I would recommend any Chandler fan to purchase the Library of America edition of Chandler's work that contains the "Double Indemnity" screenplay instead of this one. Here's why:

In this edition, Chandler's name does NOT appear on the cover; only Bill Wilder is credited on the cover. However, Chandler's name DOES appear on the title page and first page of the screenplay (the Amazon scans of the book illustrate this curiosity). Why the exclusion of Chandler from the cover?!
Answer: This book was published while Billy Wilder was still alive and he was able to steal the limelight from Raymond Chandler one last time. Well done, Mr. Wilder.

As for the screenplay itself, I've read a lot of screenplays of movies that I have liked and "Double Indemnity" reads better than most. The voice-over dialogue for Neff (written by Chandler) is the best part of the screenplay and is worth having in print. Whether you're a fan of classic Film Noir or an aspiring screenwriter, this is a must-have for your bookshelf. As for Chandler fans, it's only a matter of which edition.

For more information on Raymond Chandler's involvement in "Double Indemnity", I recommend the book "Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir". After reading, you will see why I and other readers are so incensed by the exclusion of Chandler's credit from the cover.

Double Indemnity is one of Billy Wilders best films. The screenplay is taut and extremely well written. You cannot miss this opportunity to read the master at the top of his game. Among the many highlights is the supermarket scene between the two conspirators. An absolute must read

Young writer-director Cameron Crowe begged legendary writer-director Billy Wilder to do a cameo in his film "Jerry McGuire." Wilder refused the role, but agreed to a series of interviews. The result, "Conversations With Billy Wilder," is a lively account of Wilder's amazing life and influential career. It also stands as an insightful lesson on filmmaking and film history. Wilder made classic films, including "Some Like It Hot," "The Apartment," "Double Indemnity" and "Sunset Blvd." Now in his 90s, Wilder hasn't made a movie for years. But he's consistently cited as an influence by such modern filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Crowe. Wilder is not given to biography or bragging, but Crowe (a former rock journalist) gets the old man talking about his films, his stars (Marilyn Monroe drove him crazy), his opinion of today's films (loved "Gump," hated "Titanic") and his early days in Berlin and Vienna. Wilder's wit and memory are sharp, which makes listening to him via these interviews a total joy. "Conservations" makes it clear that Wilder views himself as a writer who also directs. Wilder's careful attention to character and plot development is the reason his films remain vital, and why so many modern filmmakers emulate him. The book contains several side treats. One is the chance to see the friendship between Wilder, the old master, and Crowe, the young talent, develop and deepen. To use a movie comparison, it's a little like Luke and Yoda. It will be interesting to see how the friendship impacts Crowe's next film. Another treat is seeing the elderly, somewhat frail Wilder take great pleasure in having lunch, sipping a martini or betting on football. The book also contains numerous photos from Wilder's life and brief descriptions of all of his movies. Particularly given his reluctance for self-promotion, "Conversations with Billy Wilder" is a gift for anyone who loves movies.

One of the things I always loved about Cameron Crowe as a rock journalist was his ability to get in with those bands who were notorious for being sort of hands off and difficult, some of whom would only grant interviews under the condition that they send "The Kid". Well, "The Kid" is all grown up now, and has found another calling, but he didn't forget how to get that great interview from an unwilling subject.

While I am not a huge Billy Wilder fan, and I bought the book because I am a Cameron Crowe fan, by the end, I have a new appreciation for Black and White movies (I am in my thirties...I don't DO black and white) and I have gotten a kind of fondness for Billy Wilder, who like it or not finally gave that interview no one has ever been able to get from him.

The great thing about this book, is that you are seeing one great writer-director trying to deconstruct another great writer-director...by digging and pushing gently for more information. Wilder shrugs it all off as if his role in the film industry is such a minor thing, and Crowe searches for the grand "Wideresque" reasons for it all.

The thread that holds the series of interviews together, is Crowe's commentary.

"'Do you have a good ending for this thing?' asks Billy Wilder, the greatest living writer-director.

It is the spring of 1998, and too much has been made of the rains of El Nino, so we will not mention the torrential downpour that has blanketed California on this strangely wet and strangely humid afternoon. We have just met outside his office tucked away on a Beverly Hills side street, and walked up the single flight of stairs to the room that serves as his quiet work space. He jingles the keys, finding the right one and looks down to see that the laces of his left shoe have come untied. Another step might well mean a fall, so he stays frozen in the hallway. He is ninety-one and bending down from a full stand has been a physical impossibility for a number of years. He does not look over to me, nor I to him. There is some embarrassment involved here for both of us, so I bend down and quickly tie his laces, and neither of us mentions it. We enter his office and sit down for the last of our conversations, a series of interviews that have stretched on for well over a year."

It makes for great reading. And if it could turn this gen-Xer into a fan of Billy Wilder, then someone who already loves the man and his work will have to buy this book.

Billy Wilder has given us some of the greatest films ever made, and there has been remarkably little attempt (or success) in achieving an insight into what drives him, how he works, what he loves and what he regrets. Give thanks, then, that Cameron Crowe has stood up for all us Wilder fans and given us this book which only a fan could write and which everyone can learn from.

To be clear, this book is not like the Hitchcock/Truffaut book of interviews it is oft compared to. In that book, Truffaut went through each and every film with Hitch. That book is as much about how the movies were made as about the man who made them. "Conversations With Wilder" is just that. It's transcribed interviews and conversations, where the topic can run from the last line of "The Apartment" to how Wilder escaped from Nazi-era Germany.

Fans of classic movies should not be without this book. Even if you've never seen a Wilder film in your life (and if you haven't, then you're missing out on the movies which shaped modern filmmaking), this book is filled with on-set pictures, stories about stars ranging the gamut from William Holden to Claudette Colbert, and, best of all, interplay between the old guard and the new guard. Crowe handles the conversations deftly, and keeps them from dropping down to the level of a sycophantic fan.

Simply, this is one of the best portraits of a director ever put to paper. And if you've never seen classics like 'The Apartment' or 'Some Like It Hot' or 'Ace in the Hole,' after reading this you won't be able to stop yourself from clearing the shelves of Billy Wilder films. Celebrate genius, buy this book.

This bio of Billy Wilder is a totally fascinating one, filled with both world and cinematic history. Billy Wilder, a Polish Jew, proves to be a man of unique intuition and fast thinking as he rises from the ranks of stringer journalist to screenwriter in pre-World War II Europe, escapes the Nazis, gets a U.S. resident visa and, without speaking English, is hired to write for the movies. The author beautifully captures the ambiance of pre-war Europe and a Hollywood filled with emigres. Ultimately, the book left me sad, as Wilder ages, his friends die one by one, and he is unable to keep up with the times in terms of the types of properties to which he's attracted, how Hollywood works, and what the public wants. However, there is no denying his fantastic track record, his six Oscars, and the amazing legacy of brilliance he left behind. The rollercoaster ride of Wilder's life is well chronicled in this very satisfying, thought-provoking book.

This is a very good biography of Billy Wilder. It revealed a lot about him and his career I didn't know. I disagreed with Sikov on his evaluations of a few films (I like "Love in the Afternoon" much better than he, but Sikov really seems to hate Gary Cooper) but we agreed on a lot. (Heck, we even liked the same scenes in "Fedora.")

I gave the book five stars, but I have a few reservations. My problems came when Sikov went beyond Wilder's career -- or didn't. His descriptions of politics in Interwar Europe struck me as okay, but superficial. Okay, this book will be nobody's first choice to learn about such matters, but a little more polish here would have helped. Then, toward the end of the book, Sikov keeps mentioning that Wilder was out of step with Hollywood. However, there is really nothing about what the rest of Hollywood was doing, namely how Wilder stacked up against Mel Brooks or Woody Allen in this era. I would have liked to have seen that issue addressed.

However, as a "life" of Wilder and not a study of his "times", this is a great book. Fans of Wilder's films will greatly enjoy it.

Last week marked the passing of a true Hollywood heavyweight, a man who excelled as a writer, director, and producer, who left his mark in just about every film genre, except the Western - the one and only Billy Wilder.

Wilder's death at the age of 95 will no doubt bring renewed interest in his long and varied career. It is an irony that would have brought a wry smile to Wilder, and undoubtedly one of his biting remarks. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a comprehensive study of the life and art of Billy Wilder, you should look no further than Ed Sikov's brilliant "On Sunset Boulevard."

Sure, if you're looking for an extended interview with Billy Wilder himself, there's that other book ... but like the more famous, or rather infamous Hitchcock/Truffaut sessions that inspired it ... it can only be one sided.

Ed Sikov doesn't merely tell you to take Billy Wilder at his word. He conducted original interviews with scores of Wilder's colleagues and friends, dug through production archives, scripts, notes, and film footage to assemble not only a fascinating study of a filmmaking genius, but the conclusive portrait of the man behind that genius.

Sikov's analyses of Wilder's films are fresh and exciting, and his prose leaps off the page. You know instantly that Sikov knows his stuff, and that it's a subject close to his heart.

My love of films came to fruition during a brief period when the "auteur theory" held sway in the 1960s and 1970s. Auteurist critic Andrew Sarris classified Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye Category," primarily because he was "too cynical for the more serious demands of middle-class tragedy (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and social allegory (ACE IN THE HOLE). A director who can crack jokes about suicide attempts ... and thoughtlessly brutalize charming actresses like Jean Arthur (FOREIGN AFFAIR) and Audrey Hepburn (SABRINA) is hardly likely to make a coherent film on the human condition."

It was only as a result of seeing Wilder's films that I discovered what Sarris was really saying was that the director was both too versatile and too successful -- and it didn't help that his approach to directing films was as a writer rather than as a visual artist.

Reading Charlotte Chandler's oral history of Wilder's career, I was impressed with Billy Wilder's ability to be able to create iconic native masterpieces of film noir (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and Hollywood Gothic (SUNSET BOULEVARD) without the benefit of growing up in the United States. While his later comedies (such as SOME LIKE IT HOT) owe much to his collaboration with Lubitsch, Hawks, and Mitchell Leisen, Wilder developed his own style of comedy and retained his ability to make good films well into his eighties.

In the chapter on SUNSET BOULEVARD, actress Nancy Olson makes an astute comment: "Billy said, 'Every character in SUNSET BOULEVARD is an opportunist.' It seemed to me that what he is saying is that this picture is not only about opportunism, but about ... the consequences of it."

A little light bulb went on in my mind. Wilder's films are all, in their own way, about opportunism. Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson take advantage of each other for their own nefarious ends in DOUBLE INDEMNITY. In picture after picture, I see a pattern of characters using one another with interesting results, with the ultimate example being Kirk Douglas in ACE IN THE HOLE.

Chandler's interviews are mostly interesting, though the intrusion of plot summaries in the middle of each chapter is intrusive: These should have been relegated to the Filmography in the back of the book. I was disturbed that Chandler did not see fit to add any of her own observations about Wilder except insofar as to provide a segue for the many quotes. Still, it is both a useful and entertaining book and a valuable addition to the literature about this fascinating filmmaker.

There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is.  And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man.  Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

Billy Wilder made some of the greatest American movies such as Some Like It Hot, Sabrina, and Sunset Boulevard. He was also in charge of filming the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in the 1940's. This interesting and informative book covers his life and career, and behind-the-scenes stories of each major movie he made are in here, too. Whoever said "they don't make movies like that any more" wasn't kidding! I highly recommend this book.

Sunset Boulevard is one of my favorite films, simply because it operates on so many different levels that you can more or less find something new in it every time you see it. Thus, when I came across this book I was looking forward to an in-depth, substantial recap and analysis of the making of the film and its after-effects outside of a general Billy Wilder biography. I got that, but I also got a lot of useless drivel that serves no purpose except to fill pages.

The first part which documents the process by which the film was written, cast, and produced is excellent. Even the segments that follow, displaying the level of lingering influence Sunset Boulevard and Norma Desmond in particular have had on popular culture were somewhat interesting. That's where it should have ended. Instead, Sam Staggs continues on with chapters and passages that are too much about him and not about the movie. Personally, particularly in the wake of Billy Wilder's death, I don't think it serves any great purpose but his own for Stagg, with a few exceptions, to more or less trash every Billy Wilder film that was made post-SB.

I also didn't really care for the long, drawn out chapters on the musical version and Andrew Lloyd Webber, although I guess that they are necessary in sticking with his overall theme. Staggs is really a victim of himself in that he makes some cogent points but then either beats them to death (as in the case of the Norma Desmond mystique/phenomenon/icon/whatever) or contradicts himself a few pages later.

I guess I would recommend it to fans but be prepared for the pitfalls.

Stagg is a very good writer with a very worthy subject. The research is meticulous and the information he presents on the film and the people who made it make this book a winner- just like his companion study of "All About Eve". Some of the complaints here, though, are the same as with that very worthy book. Stagg gives at least equal weight to the film's afterlife, particularly the lightly-regarded Broadway version, as to the mega-classic 1950 Wilder film. And once again, the tiresome emphasis on certain obsessions- camp, divas, catfights, and cross-dressing- not that there's anything wrong with that- do tend to distract from the work as straightforward film history, at least for those of us less titillated by those aspects of the film's following. And finally, Staggs attacks Billy Wilder- the greatest filmmaker of all, in my opinion- with a preposterous theory that Wilder's work after ending his collaboration with Charles Brackett (including "Stalag 17", "Sabrina", "Witness For the Prosecution", "Some Like It Hot", and "The Apartment") doesn't hold up!

What makes this book a must-own anyway is the great information about the film itself- the art-directors, musicians, actors and actresses, designers, and shooting locations, as well as the behind-the-scenes look at Paramount in its heyday. The interview with Nancy Olson is a particular highlight. And if you're into camp, divas, and catfights, change that rating to five stars.

I've always been a huge fan of SUNSET BOULEVARD. From that outstanding opening shot of William Holden floating face down in that "pool he always wanted" to Norma Desmond's descent down the stairs into triumphant insanity, this film will always be one of the all-time greats.

Sam Staggs has written an exhaustively-researched book about the whole SUNSET BOULEVARD experience. It goes into everyone and everything connected with the production, from biographical sketches of the guys playing the piano during a party scene to Jack Webb from "Dragent" (And does Mamie Van Doren have a memory of Sgt. Joe Friday that'll blow you away!).

I would've given the book five stars but I felt my interest waning after the book left the movie behind to discuss the Broadway shows (as well as every instance where someone quoted the movie over the years). I've never seen the Broadway shows but I'm sure those chapters would've been more interesting if I had (I have more respect for Glenn Close after reading about her).
Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of SUNSET BOULEVARD.
What blew me away the most?
That they weren't really sure what they were doing and where they going when they were shooting the movie. That it all fell together into one of the great Hollywood classics is a miracle.