Billy Wilder

by Bernard F. Dick

Billy Wilder is the writer/director of some of the greatest classics in Hollywood "Double Indemnity", "The Lost Weekend", "Sunset Boulevard", "Sabrina", "The Seven Year Itch", "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", and many others - 25 in all. His darkly comedic vision and tough-minded approach have proven inimitable. In "Billy Wilder", Bernard Dick discusses each of Wilder's American films, thus capturing almost everything possible to note about the work of a genuine Hollywood genius.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Bernard F. Dick is Professor of Communication and English and Co-Director of the School of Art and Media Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Teaneck, New Jersey, campus. He is the author of a number of books on film including The Star-Spangled Screen: The American World War II Film; Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood; Hal Wallis: Producer to the Stars; Forever Mame: Rosalind Russell; and She Walked in Beauty: Claudette Colbert. He has just completed a biography of Loretta Young, Hollywood Madonna.

Reviews

[Aaron Ambrose · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is this book? It's not a biography, or an analysis of Wilder's work, which is what I thought it would be, based on the blurbs and a quick flip through. Instead, it's more of a mash note from an okay writer to a great writer/director. Dick spends most of the book summarizing Wilder's films, with little added insight. It's not awful, but it strikes me as a waste of time. My recommendation: Just watch the damn movies.