Billy Wilder
by Chihir0 | created - 08 Dec 2014 | updated - 27 Feb 2015 | PublicBorn in Austria-Hungary, Billy Wilder's films won six Academy Awards and were nominated a total of 71 times. Which is most memorable film that he directed? Discuss the list
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1. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,185
2. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester
Votes: 137,664 | Gross: $8.18M
3. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,290 | Gross: $5.72M
4. The Apartment (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Votes: 196,521 | Gross: $18.60M
5. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,250 | Gross: $25.00M
6. Stalag 17 (1953)
Not Rated | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, War
After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss
Votes: 58,760
7. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Film-Noir
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 40,157 | Gross: $9.46M
8. Ace in the Hole (1951)
Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
Votes: 39,075 | Gross: $3.97M
9. Sabrina (1954)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A playboy becomes interested in the daughter of his family's chauffeur, but it's his more serious brother who would be the better man for her.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Walter Hampden
Votes: 70,263
10. One, Two, Three (1961)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy
In West Berlin during the Cold War, a Coca-Cola executive is given the task of taking care of his boss' socialite daughter.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis
Votes: 22,943
11. Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Not Rated | 130 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A middle-aged playboy becomes fascinated by the daughter of a private detective who has been hired to entrap him with the wife of a client.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, John McGiver
Votes: 17,040
12. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
When his family goes away for the summer, a hitherto faithful husband with an overactive imagination is tempted by a beautiful neighbor.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts
Votes: 42,411 | Gross: $12.00M
13. Irma la Douce (1963)
Approved | 147 min | Comedy, Romance
When a policeman falls in love with a prostitute, he doesn't want her to see other men, so he creates an alter-ego who will be her only customer.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Bruce Yarnell
Votes: 21,317 | Gross: $25.25M
14. The Fortune Cookie (1966)
Passed | 125 min | Comedy, Romance
A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West
Votes: 15,557
15. The Major and the Minor (1942)
Passed | 100 min | Comedy, Romance
A frustrated city girl disguises herself as a youngster in order to get a cheaper train ticket home. But little "Sue Sue" finds herself in a whole heap of grown-up trouble when she hides out in a compartment with a handsome Major.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley
Votes: 7,629 | Gross: $6.38M
16. Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
Passed | 96 min | Thriller, War
In the North African campaign a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Fortunio Bonanova
Votes: 6,815
17. A Foreign Affair (1948)
Approved | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In occupied Berlin, an army captain is torn between an ex-Nazi café singer and the U.S. congresswoman investigating her.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 8,547
18. The Front Page (1974)
PG | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A ruthless editor tries to get his top reporter to cover one more crime story before retirement.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Susan Sarandon, Vincent Gardenia
Votes: 15,276 | Gross: $17.30M
19. Avanti! (1972)
R | 144 min | Comedy, Romance
A successful businessman goes to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon father's body--and discovers that Dad died with his long-time mistress.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive Revill, Edward Andrews
Votes: 11,651 | Gross: $3.30M
20. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
When a bored Holmes eagerly takes the case of Gabrielle Valladon after an attempt on her life, the search for her missing husband leads to Loch Ness and the legendary monster.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Robert Stephens, Christopher Lee, Colin Blakely, Geneviève Page
Votes: 13,291 | Gross: $3.30M
21. The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Approved | 135 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith, Bartlett Robinson
Votes: 8,600
22. Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Romance
Jealous piano teacher Orville Spooner sends his beautiful wife, Zelda, away for the night while he tries to sell a song to famous nightclub singer Dino, who is stranded in town.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston, Felicia Farr
Votes: 8,605 | Gross: $5.00M
23. Fedora (1978)
PG | 114 min | Drama, Romance
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement only to discover the horrible truth behind her success.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Marthe Keller, Hildegard Knef, José Ferrer
Votes: 5,176 | Gross: $2.20M
24. Buddy Buddy (1981)
R | 96 min | Comedy
During a high-profile Mafia testimony case in California's Riverside County, a hired killer checks into a hotel room near the courthouse, while his depressed next-door neighbor wants to commit suicide over marital problems.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Paula Prentiss, Klaus Kinski
Votes: 5,175 | Gross: $7.26M
25. Bad Seed (1934)
77 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After his father sells his car, Henri "borrows" a stranger's car in order to make a date with a young woman. This act sees him fall foul of a gang of car thieves but after some discussion he joins their gang.
Directors: Alexander Esway, Billy Wilder | Stars: Danielle Darrieux, Pierre Mingand, Raymond Galle, Paul Escoffier
Votes: 970
26. The Emperor Waltz (1948)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A brash American gramophone salesman tries to get Emperor Franz Joseph's endorsement in turn-of-the-century Austria.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Bing Crosby, Joan Fontaine, Roland Culver, Lucile Watson
Votes: 1,913
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