Irma la Douce
Short description
Nestor Patou is a Paris policeman whose career ends abruptly after a raid on a hotel used as a brothel embarrasses his superiors. Drinking away his troubles at a bar in the Les Halles market district, he meets Irma La Douce, a prostitute known throughout the neighborhood, and falls for her. Unwilling to share her with paying customers, he arranges to become her only client by posing as a wealthy English gentleman, while also taking over the role of her protector from the pimp Hippolyte. Paying for his invented alter ego's visits forces Nestor into exhausting night work at the market, and the arrangement grows more complicated as Irma becomes attached to the gentleman she believes is real.
Billy Wilder directed and co-wrote the film with I. A. L. Diamond, the sixteenth of the twenty-two features Wilder directed, following One, Two, Three and preceding The Fortune Cookie. Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon star, with Lou Jacobi, Bruce Yarnell, Herschel Bernardi and Hope Holiday among the credited cast of twenty-six. Made for about five million dollars, it returned roughly five times that amount worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3 from over twenty thousand votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.4 from fewer than five hundred. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10, drawn from twenty-one reviews, sits close to the audience scores, indicating a broadly similar reception.
What's left behind the scenes
- Billy Wilder was twice unlucky with the actors he wanted to cast in this film. First, Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, with whom he dreamed of working again after the comedy 'Some Like It Hot' (1959), and then Charles Lawton died, to whom Wilder planned to give the role of the diner owner nicknamed 'Whiskers'.
- James Caan's first appearance in a major film (an American soldier with a transistor radio in his hands).
- Filming period: October 1962 – February 1963.
- A special street of Casanova was built specifically for the film, with three bridges and 48 buildings. It took three months and $350,000 to create the sets.
- Elizabeth Taylor could have played the leading role, but as Wilder recounted, she was at that moment engrossed in her romance with Richard Burton, and he feared that this would seriously interfere with filming.
- Shirley MacLaine agreed to the role of Irma without reading the script. According to her, she fully believed in the duo of Wilder and Jack Lemmon.
- The stage version of 'Irma la Douce' was a typical Broadway musical. Wilder abandoned the musical part of Alexandre Breffort's play, as he felt uncomfortable as the director of a film with songs and dances.
- During filming, Jack Lemmon managed to get married in Paris to actress Felicia Farr. They lived happily together until Lemmon's death.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
