ONE, TWO, THREE

TCM is airing one of my favorite movies of all-time on Sat. Sept. 1 at 4pm. It is Billy Wilder's frenetic comedy One, Two, Three (1961) starring James Cagney as Coca-Cola's harried man in Berlin hired to bring the popular soft drink to the Eastern Bloc. His wife (Arlene Francis) and family want to go back to the states; his mistress-secretary (Lilo Pulver) wants a raise; and his boss' ditzy headstrong teenage daughter (Pamela Tiffin) has descended on him for a holiday and secretly elopes with a Communist (Horst Buchholz). Her antics elicited from Cagney’s character, “I’d rather be in hell with my back broken.”

James Cagney is a marvel to watch as he barks orders to his frazzled staff in machine gun rapid delivery. Gorgeous Pamela Tiffin and strikingly handsome Horst Buchholz make a super hot couple and hold there own against the pro. Pamela in particular won excellent notices as the impetuous, scatterbrained Scarlett Hazeltine. She was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for “Best Supporting Actress” and “Most Promising Newcomer - Female.” But her biggest rave came from the esteemed Billy Wilder himself who commented to Esquire, “She’s another Audrey Hepburn … she comes off on the screen even better than she looks and in this case that’s saying a lot.”