German-Hollywood Connection > BILLY WILDER > BILLY WILDER 2 > FILMS
An Austrian Legend
“People copy, people steal. Most of the pictures they make nowadays are loaded down with special effects. I couldn’t do that. I quit smoking because I couldn’t reload my Zippo.”
– Billy Wilder, quoted in The New York Times
He was born Samuel Wilder on June 22, 1906 in a remote corner of a remote province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Poland).
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Billy Wilder the scriptwriter. Photo courtesy the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |
Wilder’s mother nicknamed her young son “Billie” because she had seen the Buffalo Bill Wild West show as a teenager. By the time Billie was four years old (the “Billy” spelling came after Wilder was in the US), the family had a fine home in Vienna’s toney First District, living both there and in Kraców until the First World War tore the old Empire apart and created hard times for the Wilders and all Austrians.
The Broadway and London musical productions of Sunset Boulevard, based on Billy Wilder’s 1950 movie of the same name, and the 1995 remake of Sabrina, Wilder’s 1954 romantic tale featuring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden, are good illustrations of how director Billy Wilder’s films tend to endure, much like the man himself. Wilder was still active in his nineties, even if he was no longer directing award-winning movies. With wife Audrey, he enjoyed an active retirement not far from Hollywood, a place and an industry that will forever reflect the talents of this Austrian emigré. (People often mistakenly refer to the director as “German,” although he only spent about six years of his long life working in Berlin.)
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In 1993, Billy Wilder (right) revisited the Berlin site of his 1961 film, One, Two, Three. Here he is seen standing with Horst Buchholz, one of the film’s stars, on the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate, something they were not allowed to do during the filming because the East German authorities would not allow Wilder to film in their territory. PHOTO: DIE WELT |
The Wilder saga is a true rags-to-riches tale. As a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany (via France), he arrived in Hollywood in 1934 with eleven dollars in his pocket. About half a century later his private art collection went for $32.6 million at a Christie’s auction in 1989. More importantly, his rich contribution to American cinema reflects the personality of a man who always seems to have a wonderful sense of humor, even in his darkest hours, of which he has had more than his share. The anti-heroes of his films are flawed but nevertheless possess a certain strength of character – similar to the Austrian-American gnome (Kobold in German) who created them. Just who was this cinematic icon?
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This is one of the best books about the director. - Buy it |
Ironically, Wilder himself had an early career as a newspaper reporter, first in Vienna and later in Berlin. Wilder left Vienna for Berlin in 1927 at the age of 21. His experience as a reporter and script ghostwriter in the wild and libertine Berlin of the 1920s may help explain his later Hollywood scriptwriting talents. He thus managed to use his writing skills, honed as a reporter, to get his foot in the door of Berlin’s growing film community.
In 1929 Wilder worked on two films, one of which would become a cinematic landmark. Wilder became part of the mostly amateur team (all later went on to become important in Hollywood) that produced Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday), including Eugen Schüfftan, the cameraman and the only real pro on the team. One of the last silent movies produced in Germany, the film was a cinema verité, on-location production showing the life of ordinary working-class Berliners on a Sunday. More of a critical than a commercial success, Menschen am Sonntag was an “art film” at a time when UFA and the other German studios were starting to focus more on entertainment blockbuster talkies like The Blue Angel (with a young new star named Marlene Dietrich).
By 1933 Wilder and German filmgoers had seen his name as scriptwriter in the credits of 13 films, one the best being Emil und die Detektive (remade less successfully by Disney in 1964). But Wilder’s time in Germany was running out. At first, according to Wilder, no one in his circle was really that aware of Hitler and the rising Nazi tide. But soon the signs were unmistakable. A Jew had no future in the Third Reich. At the premiere of Wilder’s 14th and last German film, Was Frauen träumen (What Women Dream), on Hitler’s birthday, April 20, 1933, as the credits rolled by, the names of the two scriptwriters, Franz Schulz and Billie Wilder, were missing. Their names had also been expunged from the printed program. But by then Wilder was already in Paris.
His wise escape from Germany was made a little easier by the fact that Wilder possessed an Austrian rather than a German passport. Unlike many other Austrian Jews, Wilder realized that his homeland would offer no genuine safety in the long run. So it would be France until he could get to his desired final destination, the United States. Billy – who knew some French – soon found work writing scripts. He even helped direct Mauvaise Graine (Bad Seed), a French film about a band of young car thieves, featuring a live-action car chase scene and a musical score by Franz Wachsmann (later the award-winning Waxmann). The film also reflected two of Wilder’s passions: fast women and fast cars. But despite his success there, Paris was just a way station.
More about Wilder and his films on the next page.
NEXT > Billy Wilder - Part 2
FILMS > Billy Wilder Filmography
MORE > German-Hollywood Connections
Related Pages
- Billy Wilder Filmography
- Marlene Dietrich was one of Billy Wilder’s best friends in Hollywood.
- Austria - Country Information - Learn more about Wilder’s homeland.
- Famous German Movies - Films from Germany have made their mark on world cinema—and influenced Hollywood
- Germans (and Others) in Hollywood - About the three main waves of Germanic immigration to Hollywood
- Berlin City Guide - Sights, history
- German Cinema - From the German Way book
- Famous Germans, Austrians and Swiss
- Famous Graves - The graves and cemeteries of the famous
Billy Wilder in Print and on the Web
- See the recommended books and links in Part 2.
MORE > German-Hollywood Connections
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