Lightweight bio of the legendary writer/director, one of my heroes of the cinema. I don't know who Charlotte Chandler is, but she must be pretty cool because she knew Wilder, Fellini, & Groucho Marx and interviewed them all at length for her books. Nothing too analytical here, just a straight chronology of his life & work composed of recent reminiscences by Wilder & others who worked in & on his films. This makes for some very different emphasis from film to film based on whom Chandler got in touch with. At times a bit jarring to hear the uninhibited (& at times conflicting) memories of screen legends in their dotage. Naturally we get Tony Curtis going on about Marilyn Monroe, but also some lesser known interesting insights here & there, like Wilder's relationships with his collaborators Charles Brackett & I.A.L. Diamond, his great affection & respect for Audrey Hepburn, his constant desire to have Cary Grant in one of his movies (if only!!) & the enormous contributions of some behind-the-scenes people, perhaps most notably the production designer/art director Alexander Trauner whose work on The Apartment & Irma La Douce was truly spectacular. Also fascinating is how quickly Wilder grasped the situation in Europe in the 1930s; tho Berlin was a paradise for him, the day Hitler was elected he cleared out, having no illusions. The specter of how his entire world changed so completely & irrevocably (& the fact that much of his family was killed) adds much to his story, tho he hardly addresses it, and the community of ex-patriot Europeans who found a home in Hollywood and who pop up in these pages occasionally form an odd reminder of the great darkness that nearly engulfed us all, and which is such an essential part of Billy Wilder's genius.