Comedy in any medium depends a great deal upon the mixing up of mes­sages, the deliberate switching of a communication context, and the swapping of labels on statements. Billy Wilder’s comedies generally avoid slapstick switches …

Originally branded “a dirty fairy tale,” Billy Wilder’s The Apartment com­bines irony, burlesque, soap opera, and truth into a morality play whose message is “be a mensch,” a Yiddish term for a human being. Filmed …

Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot is an outrageous, satirical spoof of the 1920′s in which Wilder deftly spends two hours milking one joke, that of two musicians on the run from Chicago mobsters, who …

In Sunset Boulevard, writer-director Billy Wilder provides us with a “behind the scenes” investigation into Hollywood. While Wilder’s caustic wit is apparent throughout, the investigation is a serious one. As such, Sunset Boulevard can be …