VOICE ONE:
I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLEIN AMERICA. Today we tell about Billy Wilder. He was the director ofsome of the greatest American movies.
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VOICE ONE:
Many experts say that Billy Wilder changed the history ofAmerican movies. He is often called the best moviemaker Hollywoodhas ever had. He was known for making movies that offered sharpsocial comment and adult sexual situations. Wilder was one of thefirst directors to do this.
Between the middle nineteen-thirties and the nineteen-eighties,Billy Wilder made almost fifty movies. During that time he receivedmore than twenty nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Artsand Sciences. He won six of the Oscar awards. His movies have beenseen by people around the world. Wilder made famous movies like”Sunset Boulevard”, “Some Like It Hot”, and “Double Indemnity.” Healso directed “The Lost Weekend”, “The Apartment”, and the “TheSeven Year Itch.”
VOICE TWO:
Samuel Wilder was born innineteen-six in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birthplaceis now part of Poland. His mother had enjoyed spending several yearsin the United States when she was young. So she called him Billybecause she thought it sounded American.
Billy Wilder started law school in Vienna, Austria. Then hedecided not to become a lawyer. Instead, he began reporting for aVienna newspaper. By the nineteen-twenties, he was writing movies inGermany.
However, the Nazis had risen to power in the nation. Wilder wasJewish, and he recognized that he had no future in Nazi Germany. Innineteen-thirty-three, he went to Paris. There he directed a moviefor the first time. It was called “The Bad Seed.” Then he receivedword that producers in the United States had accepted one of hisscripts. Billy Wilder left Europe for America.
VOICE ONE:
Billy Wilder had only eleven dollars when he arrived to settle inthe United States in nineteen-thirty-four. He decided to live in thecenter of American movie making: Hollywood, California. At the time,many people who had left Germany were working there. They helpedWilder get jobs. After a while he formed a writing team with CharlesBrackett. The two writers created many films together.
Wilder and Brackett wrote several successful movies. One was thenineteen-thirty-nine movie, “Ninotchka”, starring Greta Garbo. ErnstLubitsch (LOO bich) directed the film. Wilder always praised thisman as a friend and teacher whose humor and expert direction greatlyinfluenced his work.
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VOICE TWO:
In his love stories, Billy Wilder did not follow the Hollywoodtradition of sweet boy-meets-girl situations. He had an unusual wayof showing relations between men and women. For example, one of hismost successful films was “Hold Back the Dawn.” The French actorCharles Boyer plays a refugee in this nineteen-forty-one film. Hemarries an American woman so he can enter the United States.
In nineteen-forty-four, Billy Wilder made a film called “DoubleIndemnity.” Some critics said this movie established him as one ofthe greatest Hollywood directors. It told a vicious story about amarried woman and her boyfriend. They plot the death of her husband.
Charles Brackett thought the story was not moral. So the famousAmerican mystery writer Raymond Chandler was asked to help write thescript.
VOICE ONE:
As a director, Billy Wilder often violated Hollywood customsabout social issues. For example, someone who drinks too muchalcohol had rarely been a movie subject. Then Wilder directed “TheLost Weekend” in nineteen-forty-five. Charles Brackett returned towork on the movie with him. They developed the script from a book byCharles Jackson.
Ray Milland plays the part of an alcoholic writer in the movie.It shows the alcohol rules his life yet he does not admit it. Hehides alcohol in his home and says he is not drinking.
VOICE TWO:
Reports at the time said manufacturers of alcoholic drinks triedto suppress the movie. They did not succeed. The public and criticspraised “The Lost Weekend” for its painful honesty. The Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Ray Milland the best-actoraward. Billy Wilder won two Academy Awards. One honored his part inwriting the script. The other honored his direction. “The LostWeekend” also won the first Grand Prix –first prize –of the CannesFilm Festival in Cannes, France.
World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Wilder had become anAmerican citizen in nineteen-thirty-nine. After the war, Wilder wasasked by the United States Army to go to Germany to help re-organizethe movie industry and radio media. The Nazi government had usedboth for its propaganda. While in Germany, Wilder learned that theNazis had murdered his sister, his mother and his mother’s husband.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-fifty, Wilder made “Sunset Boulevard.” This movietold of an aging actress in silent movies. She plans to return tomovies. Gloria Swanson played this star. More than fifty yearslater, movie-lovers can still repeat some of her lines.
In one of the famous lines in “Sunset Boulevard,” Miz Swansonremembers telling the famous director Cecil B. DeMille that she isprepared for him to start filming:
((CUT ONE: “I’m ready for my close-up, Mister DeMille.”))
VOICE TWO:
“Sunset Boulevard” won three Academy awards. One honored thewriting team of Wilder, Brackett and D. M. Marshman Junior. Themovie marked the last time Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrotetogether.
Wilder also was highly praised for “Stalag Seventeen”, which heboth produced and directed. The movie mixes humor and wartimerealism. William Holden plays a dishonest American war prisoner in aWorld War Two German camp for Allied servicemen. Holden won thenineteen-fifty-three Academy Award for his part. Wilder wasnominated for best director.
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-fifty-four, Billy Wilder became an independentproducer. He left Paramount Pictures, the motion-picture company hehad worked with for many years. He left after company officials cutmany anti-Nazi comments from a version of “Stalag Seventeen.” Thatversion was to be shown in Germany.
The next year, Wilder’s first movie as an independent filmmakerwas a huge success. It was “The Seven Year Itch.” He developed themovie from a play by George Axelrod. In this movie, a married manwants to cheat on his wife with a beautiful golden-haired youngwoman. Marilyn Monroe played the young woman. The part launched heras a major Hollywood success. Some critics said Marilyn Monroe gaveher best performances under Billy Wilder’s direction.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen-fifty-nine, Wilder made a funny movie that was verypopular. I. A. L. Diamond joined Wilder in writing “Some Like ItHot.” It tells about two jazz musicians being chased by criminals.Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play the musicians. They decide to wearwomen’s clothes and join a band in which all the musicians werewomen. Marilyn Monroe plays one of the band members. She wants tomake Lemmon and Curtis believe she is a musician.
MONROE: “I’m Sugar Kane.”
MAN: “Hi.”
WOMAN: “Sugar Kane?”
MONROE: “Yeah, I changed it. It used to be SugarKowalczyk.”
MAN: “Polish?”
MONROE: “Yes. I come from this musical family. My mother is apiano teacher. My father was a conductor.”
WOMAN: “Where did he conduct?”
MONROE: “On the Baltimore and Ohio [railroad].”
VOICE ONE:
Billy Wilder continued to make interesting movies through thenineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies. As usual, he filled hismovies with social comment and sexual situations. Over the years,however, other writers and directors also did this. By thenineteen-eighties Wilder no longer was considered the most unusualcreative moviemaker in Hollywood.
VOICE TWO:
In recent years, however, Billy Wilder received many more awardsand honors. Critics praised his gifts to movie making. Innineteen-eighty-seven, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts andSciences gave him the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. It is thehighest award a producer can receive.
Wilder died in March, two-thousand-two. He was ninety-five. Acurrent Hollywood producer said, “Billy Wilder made movies thatpeople will never forget.”
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VOICE ONE:
This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watsonand produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLEIN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.