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Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography

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There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is.  And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man.  Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

My love of films came to fruition during a brief period when the "auteur theory" held sway in the 1960s and 1970s. Auteurist critic Andrew Sarris classified Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye Category," primarily because he was "too cynical for the more serious demands of middle-class tragedy (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and social allegory (ACE IN THE HOLE). A director who can crack jokes about suicide attempts ... and thoughtlessly brutalize charming actresses like Jean Arthur (FOREIGN AFFAIR) and Audrey Hepburn (SABRINA) is hardly likely to make a coherent film on the human condition."

It was only as a result of seeing Wilder's films that I discovered what Sarris was really saying was that the director was both too versatile and too successful -- and it didn't help that his approach to directing films was as a writer rather than as a visual artist.

Reading Charlotte Chandler's oral history of Wilder's career, I was impressed with Billy Wilder's ability to be able to create iconic native masterpieces of film noir (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and Hollywood Gothic (SUNSET BOULEVARD) without the benefit of growing up in the United States. While his later comedies (such as SOME LIKE IT HOT) owe much to his collaboration with Lubitsch, Hawks, and Mitchell Leisen, Wilder developed his own style of comedy and retained his ability to make good films well into his eighties.

In the chapter on SUNSET BOULEVARD, actress Nancy Olson makes an astute comment: "Billy said, 'Every character in SUNSET BOULEVARD is an opportunist.' It seemed to me that what he is saying is that this picture is not only about opportunism, but about ... the consequences of it."

A little light bulb went on in my mind. Wilder's films are all, in their own way, about opportunism. Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson take advantage of each other for their own nefarious ends in DOUBLE INDEMNITY. In picture after picture, I see a pattern of characters using one another with interesting results, with the ultimate example being Kirk Douglas in ACE IN THE HOLE.

Chandler's interviews are mostly interesting, though the intrusion of plot summaries in the middle of each chapter is intrusive: These should have been relegated to the Filmography in the back of the book. I was disturbed that Chandler did not see fit to add any of her own observations about Wilder except insofar as to provide a segue for the many quotes. Still, it is both a useful and entertaining book and a valuable addition to the literature about this fascinating filmmaker.

Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder by biographer Charlotte Chandler is the personal and engaging story of one of the great figures of 20th century movie-making -- the legendary Billy Wilder (1906-2002). The great director perhaps best known for classics such as "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Sunset Boulevard", and many more, Billy Wilder narrates much of "Nobody's Perfect" in his own words, rendering it as close to an autobiography as any story of his life can be. A filmography complements this witty, insightful, life story of a creative visionary.

Billy Wilder made some of the greatest American movies such as Some Like It Hot, Sabrina, and Sunset Boulevard. He was also in charge of filming the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in the 1940's. This interesting and informative book covers his life and career, and behind-the-scenes stories of each major movie he made are in here, too. Whoever said "they don't make movies like that any more" wasn't kidding! I highly recommend this book.

I read Cameron Crowe's book a couple years ago, and it is head-and-shoulders above this. What Charlotte essentially does in this "personal" biography is string together a long series of celebrity interviews into one barely coherent narrative.

One gets the distinct impression it was far more important for Charlotte to "get to know" these interview subjects than it was for her to write this book. What makes me think that? Perhaps it's the photos of Charlotte and several of her interviewees sprinkled throughout this book.

On the whole, "personal" seems to be shorthand for "lazy."

I can't remember the last time I felt annoyed when reading a book. Although I like how the book is structured (each chapter focuses on Billy Wilder's movies, starting from his earliest and on) I have to complain about the lack of details on each of his movies. The book reads more like a gossip column than a biography the book claims to be. For example, in the Seven Year Itch chapter, the author goes into more detail about Marilyn Monroe's relationship with Joe DeMaggio than with Marilyn Monroe's involvement in the movie. I wouldn't mind this too much, but each chapter runs about 3-5 pages.

Additionally, I spotted several grammar and spelling errors in Nobody's Perfect. For instance on page 182, five paragraphs down, "Her purpose was to study at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg in order to became (???) a "real" actress."' And not to be nit picky, there are times when the author refers to Billy Wilder as "Billie" Wilder.

The book is really easy to read and it will find a great life on any bathroom shelf.

The author of this biography, Charlotte Chandler, has written several similar personal biographies. One feature they have in common is that the dialog was constructed by piecing together segments from celebrity interviews, especially those with Billy Wilder. This appears to me to produce dialog that is mechanical and somewhat incoherent.

For each of the main films that Wilder directed, produced, or served as screen writer, a plot outline is given, and they appear in smaller print, indented,so that they can be easily located.

Chandler's book contains a filmography which lists all of Billy Wilder's movies.

Two important collaborators who worked closely with Wilder for a number of years were Charles Brackett, who was a Harvard Law School graduate, and I.A.L. Diamond, whose humorous pieces in the Screen Writer's Guild magazine attracted Billy Wilder.

Some persons Wilder worked with found him to be too much of a disciplinarian, but nevertheless respected his film making knowledge and his intelligence and versatility.

Billy Wilder worked with some of the most respected actors of his time, his favorite being Jack Lemmon.

Wilder was somewhat of a risk taker, dealing with topics that were at that time considered prohibitive, such as adultery, alcoholism. and prostitution.

The expression "Nobody's Perfect" in Chandler's title is the last line in the film Some Like It Hot, which was directed and produced by Wilder. Other well known of his films are Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, The Seven Year Itch, Witness for the Prosecution, and The Apartment.

Double Indemnity was nominated for seven Oscars, including best director (Billy Wilder) and best screenplay (Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler). When this film appeared, Alfred Hitchcock said,
"The two most important words in movies are Billy Wilder."

Charlotte Chandler's manner of grinding out personal biographies does not impress me. As a biography of Billy Wilder, I would instead recommend Cameron Crowe's "Conversations with Wilder."

Unfortunately there are not much words to loose. Poor writing together with the fact that practically all facts were lifted from Cameron's 'Conversation with Wilder' which is highly recommended btw, make this book forgettable. Why going through the whole exercise of publishing it is quite a mystery.