Irma la Douce
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Irma la Douce (1963) is American film directed by Billy Wilder from a screenplay he co-wrote with I. A. L. Diamond, based on the 1956 French stage musical of the same name by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort. The film stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.
Plot
Nestor Patou, an honest policeman, has been transferred from the Bois de Boulogne to Les Halles, a more urban neighborhood in Paris. He finds a street full of prostitutes working at the Hotel Casanova and raids the place. The inspector fires Nestor, who is mistakenly framed for bribery.
Kicked off the force and humiliated, Nestor finds himself drawn to the very neighborhood that ended his career with the Paris police—returning to Chez Moustache, a popular tavern for prostitutes and pimps. Down on his luck, Nestor befriends Irma la Douce, a popular prostitute. He reluctantly accepts, as a confidante, the proprietor of Chez Moustache, a man known only as Moustache. In a running joke, Moustache tells of a storied prior life, claiming to have been, among other things, an attorney, a colonel in the Foreign Legion, and a doctor who worked with Albert Schweitzer in Africa, ending with the repeated line, "but that's another story". After saving Irma from her abusive pimp, Hippolyte, Nestor moves in with her, and unwittingly becomes a new one.
Nestor becomes infatuated and devises a plan to derail Irma's life as a prostitute. With the help of Moustache, Nestor disguises himself as Lord X, a wealthy English lord, who becomes Irma's sole client. Lord X has supposedly been rendered impotent by his service in World War II but is eager to support her in exchange for two visits each week. To pay for Lord X's exclusive access, Nestor works in the marketplace. With Lord X away every night and too tired to make love, Irma thinks he is having an affair.
Irma seduces Lord X and persuades him to take her to England. At that point, Nestor decides to end the charade and kill off his alter ego. Unaware he is being tailed by Hippolyte, he tosses his disguise into the Seine. Seeing Lord X's clothes floating in the water, Hippolyte concludes Nestor killed him.
Arrested and sent to prison, Nestor escapes when he discovers that Irma is pregnant. He narrowly avoids being recaptured when the police search for him at the apartment; donning his old uniform, Nestor blends in with the other police and eludes capture.
With the help of Hippolyte, Nestor arranges for the police to search for him along the Seine from which, dressed as Lord X, he emerges. Vindicated of the murder, Nestor and Irma agree to get married. At the church, Irma goes into labor and has their baby. Moustache identifies the real Lord X as a guest. As Lord X leaves, a clearly baffled Moustache looks at the audience.
Cast
- Jack Lemmon as Nestor Patou/Lord X
- Shirley MacLaine as Irma la Douce
- Lou Jacobi as Moustache
- Bruce Yarnell as Hippolyte
- Herschel Bernardi as Inspector Lefevre
- Hope Holiday as Lolita
- Joan Shawlee as Amazon Annie
- Grace Lee Whitney as Kiki the Cossack
- Paul Dubov as André
- Howard McNear as concierge
- Cliff Osmond as police sergeant
- Ruth Earl and Jane Earl as the Zebra twins
- Tura Satana as Suzette Wong
- James Brown as customer from Texas
- Bill Bixby as the tattooed sailor
- John Alvin as customer #2
- Harriette Young as Mimi the MauMau
- Sheryl Deauville as Carmen
- Billy Beck as Officer Dupont
- Edgar Barrier as General Lafayette (uncredited)
- James Caan as the U.S. soldier with radio (uncredited)
- Louis Jourdan as narrator (uncredited)
- Paul Frees as trailer narrator (uncredited)
