Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
In Cold War-era West Berlin, American Coca-Cola executive C.R. 'Mac' MacNamara is tasked with playing babysitter to his boss' spoiled 17-year-old daughter Scarlett, who proves more difficult than anticipated when she reveals that she is pregnant by a Communist.
Billy Wilder's screwball Cold War satire is a masterclass in breakneck comic plotting — the escalating farce of transforming a Communist into a capitalist gentleman is brilliantly constructed and executed at a machine-gun pace. James Cagney's performance as MacNamara is one of cinema's great comic turns, all controlled frenzy and precise timing, with strong support throughout. Cinematography is competent and functional but unremarkable for the period — black-and-white West Berlin is captured efficiently rather than distinctively. Novelty is very high: the film is utterly singular in its speed, its savagery toward both sides of the Cold War, and Wilder's weapon-grade satirical voice applied to Coca-Cola imperialism vs. Soviet absurdity. The ending, while satisfying and funny, is a relatively conventional wrap-up that defuses rather than amplifies the anarchic energy built throughout — the weakest link in an otherwise exceptional film.