One, Two, Three [DVD]

An ambitious American Coca-Cola executive in Berlin is a promising plot line which James Cagney and an excellent cast turn into a great comedy film. There are numerous small points that please the eye and add to the enjoyment of the film. The office staff springing to attention each time "the boss" enters the room is great. The German office manager who reflexively clicks his heels each time Cagney addresses him - he barely resists the stiff armed salute, is another pleasing sequence and gives a glimpse of his former life before Coke. Cagney's passionate pursuit of his secretary is equally fun to watch - you realize that his wife will ultimately know, which adds to the fun and sense of inevitability. Tasked with keeping an eye on his boss's daughter, who is mostly occupied with chasing boys, becomes Cagney's all consuming passion and concern. His total inability to carry out this task is what makes this movie so amusing. He can control Coca-Cola operations in Europe, but not a teenaged girl. Cagney's East German/Soviet Bloc opponents seem like the "usual suspects" in send up movies, but they all work well in their quest for the secret formula that makes Coke so successful. Cagney's cataloging of their failed attempts is side-spliotting. The double talk and double dealing is non-stop and excellently done and just adds to the fun of the film. This is a film that is little known but it shouldn't be. Made at the end of Cagney's career, it highlights just how versatile he was as an actor and what a great comedic actor he was. Anyone with an interest in Cagney would enjoy this film and view it more than once. This is also a chance to see Berlin before it was altered and changed by the erection of the Berlin Wall which was went up not too long after this film was made. It is a Berlin under the four powers that few will understand now that the city and country have been reunified.

When you say Billy Wilder you automatically think, SUNSET BLVD, SOME LIKE IT HOT, and THE APARTMENT. Which is understandable because Wilder is a master storyteller and those are just some of the best movies ever made. I love them as well but if I had to pick a drama from Wilder that was my favorite it would be ACE IN THE HOLE starring Kirk Douglas in his best role ever. The comedy that I would pick though, and I love SOME LIKE IT HOT don't get me wrong, is ONE TWO THREE a Cold War comedy about Capitalism, Communism, sex, and Coca-Cola. If you loved Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE then you'll love this. James Cagney here is the operational manager of the Berlin office of Coca-Cola who is trying to broker a deal with East Berlin and the Communist satellites of the USSR. What goes down is just a quick pace comedy that just does not let up and James Cagney, in my personal view , in one of his best roles ever. Better then WHITE HEAT? OK let's not go crazy here. Cagnet in WHITE HEAT is just plain unbeatable. ONE TWO THREE is a great comedy if you get the comedy. It is bold, brash, unforgiving, and face paced for it's time which you do ask questions along the way of "How in the hell did Wilder get away with that?" So much fun. So much laughter. I just love this film. Oh check out ACE IN THE HOLE too.

Cagney is remembered by many for gangster films, but he is also great at comedy. Director Billy Wilder is one of the greats, and he doesn't disappoint here. This is a fast paced film, with snappy dialogue and lots of comic action. Cagney's character is a Coca Cola executive is West Berlin; I showed this to a friend who worked for a Coca Cola bottler and the sight gag at the end brought loud laughter. This Billy Wilder film isn't as well know as The Apartment, Some Like it Hot or Sunset Boulevard, but it should be.

This film snuck up on me while I was randomly tuned to Turner Classic Movies. Till then I had never heard of it; now it's a must for my collection! One, Two, Three has to be the funniest madcap amalgam of Cold War farce ever produced short of Dr. Strangelove! James Cagney is hilarious and just barely in control as the head of Coca-Cola's bottling plant in early '60s West Berlin. His plan is to penetrate the market east of the Iron Curtain and eventually become head of European operations in London. An unusual deal is about to be struck with the Soviet and East German commissars, but things rapidly go awry with the arrival in Berlin of the free-spirited and very Scarlett O'Hara-like teenage daughter (Pamela Tiffen) of Coca-Cola's Atlanta chief executive. Her secret overnight excursions on the other side of the Brandenburg Gate are the jumpstart to a non-stop satirical laugh-fest that spares no nationality, social class, nor political persuasion. Horst Buchholz stars as the daughter's fervidly communist love interest who would just as soon kill himself as to kowtow to capitalist corruption. His incessant (and eventually somewhat tiring) string of mono-political rhetoric in the face of Cagney's schemes and those of the duplicitous communist commissars carries through to a zany conclusion that drips with none-too-subtle irony. Seen today, some of the jokes might seem dated. Also, some might find the ethnic humor and the depiction of abject subservience of women to be somewhat off-putting. One thinks, however, that the filmmakers were looking to make a comic testament to the absurdity of both the Cold War stand-off at that time as well as of extreme idealism on both ends of the political spectrum. It's a film that those who remember the era will find nostalgically humorous, and toward which today's younger viewers might be curious. I laughed my head off! If you're looking for quiet subtlety, look elsewhere. Cagney is on top of his game and pulls out all the stops along with writer-director Billy Wilder. Capitalists and communists alike will be splitting their sides. Sitzen machen!...and fasten your seatbelts for hilarity.

Classic Wilder Directed Cold War Comedy that brings new meaning to Coca Cola Colonialism. Funny story, as enjoyable as Some Like it Hot.

Filmed in Berlin; production was actually interrupted and relocated because of the Wall's construction during principal filming. They filmed the movie about current(ish) events even as actual current events convinced people that a nuclear World War 3 was about to break out any day. Fantastic movie. Especially if you're a history buff or an old history buff like me. You have to feel sorry for the young and dumb who will miss the constant layers jokes so obvious to the audiences of the time.

A frantic paced comedy. Cold war humor is somewhat dated, but Cagney's performance is wonderful.

Set your time machine for 1961 and go back to the days of Khrushchev, Huntley-Brinkley, and the height of the Cold War. Billy Wilder's screwball farce is set in West Berlin, where Macnamara (James Cagney), the head of the local Coca Cola office, wants " the pause that refreshes" to be the first American product sold behind the Iron Curtain. He also has to baby-sit his boss's wild teenage daughter (played by Pamela Tiffin), who quickly marries a raging communist from East Berlin and finds herself in the family way. And now her father is coming over to see how well Macnamara is taking care of his little girl. This frenetic comedy is not for everyone, but if you can remember pill box hats and Berlin before the Wall, you will probably love it. The one-liners come fast and furious as all the actors shout their lines, and the "Sabre Dance" is the background music for the non-stop physical humor. Cagney hams it up as the harried Coca Cola boss who barks orders to his ex-nazi assistant and keeps wife Arlene Francis from leaving him. Tiffin, a teen icon at the time, floats through the movie in a Southern-belle haze, mostly ogling handsome Horst Buchholz, who plays her commie beatnik husband, Otto ("He doesn't even wear socks!"). The supporting cast is full of German and Russian stereotypes of the period who race around at breakneck speed trying to make Otto into a respectable husband. If you liked the wacky political humor that was popular at the time, you'll enjoy this very funny comedy, filmed in glorious black and white. Kona

Die hervorragende Besetzung - bis in die Nebenrollen - ist gewissermaßen das Fundament dieses absoluten Meisterwerkes. Aber es ist auch einzigartig, wie Billy Wilder "typisch amerikanische" und "typisch deutsche" Eigenschaften, seien sie real oder nur als Klischee vorhanden, überspitzt und liebevoll aufs Korn nimmt - immer darauf bedacht, daß ihre Träger liebenswert bleiben. Und so gibt es keine "Bösen" (nicht einmal die Kommunisten) und am Ende auch keine Verlierer: Die naiv-liebestolle Tochter des Coca-Cola-Bosses bekommt ihren - durch Adoption geadelten - Kommunisten, McNamara, der Leiter der Berliner Niederlassung (die Rolle scheint James Cagney direkt auf den Leib geschrieben zu sein), wird in die Zentrale nach Atlanta befördert, und drei sowjetische Agenten, die zwischenzeitlich die Handlungsfäden ordentlich durcheinandergebracht hatten, bringen ihre Schäfchen ins Trockene (sprich: in den Westen). Happy End nach erbarmungsloser Zwerchfelldauerattacke. Nebenbei ist der Film ein beeindruckendes Zeitdokument. Es zeigt das noch sehr vom Krieg gezeichnete Berlin (insbesondere, was den Ostteil anbelangt), in einer Zeit (1961), in der man in Westdeutschland nur noch vereinzelt Trümmer aus dem 2. Weltkrieg antraf.

Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three" was at the time of release in 1961 not extremely sucessful. The cold war was in full swing. Taking ot the micky of Americans, Russians and Germans in the post-war-period was properly too close to reality and too difficult to stomach for the general public. This is understandable as one should not forget that the Berlin Wall, the barrier surrounding West Berlin and symbol of the Cold War, was built on August 13, 1961, the very year of the release of this movie. Having been raised in West-Berlin and having lived most of my life with the Berlin Wall I am especially sensitive to this. The movie shows a divided Berlin but without a wall - now we are in a united Berlin!! Otherwise the movie is hilariously funny and I enjoyed every minute of it. I love the parody of the Russians, Germans and Americans. Should we laugh a bit more about us and take things less serious.... 5 stars are well deserved!!

This movie is hilarious. Lots of laughs. In perfect viewing conditions

Love this film when I was younger so bought it when I saw it become available. It is dated, but the clever writing and iconic characters make it an enjoyable movie.

Another Billy Wilder gem in which he illustrates quite nicely all that is wrong with his success and the nation that provided him protection. Not nice, but entetaining.