Irma La Douce

1963

Irma La Douce

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

75%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 20

79%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 5,867

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Movie Info

This romantic comedy opens with a resounding warning: its chief concerns are passion, bloodshed, desire, and death. "Everything," exclaims the narrator, "that makes life worth living." Irma La Douce (Shirley MacClaine) is Paris' most prosperous prostitute. Wise, endearing, and compulsively clad in green, Irma rules the rue Casanova. She triumphantly works the most coveted corner on a street where the cops gladly look the other way and the naughty johns leave tips. Her street is a content community of live and let live and good-natured desire, an Augean stable of human understanding. However, to upright Nester Patou (Jack Lemmon), the area's new policeman, genial wrongdoing is still wrongdoing. Freshly promoted from day patrol at a children's playground, the scrupulous Nestor arrests Irma and her colleagues in a bumbling, unauthorized raid. He takes pity on Irma, but harasses the guilty johns -- including the police captain. Promptly unemployed, Nester returns to the scene of his crime, the rue, and to Irma. After physically besting her pimp, Nester unwittingly takes his position. The two fall madly in love, but Nestor quickly grows jealous of Irma's patrons. Thus, he masquerades as a wealthy English aristocrat and becomes Irma's sole customer -- only to eventually grow violently jealous of himself. Soon enough, this formally righteous cop is comically jailed for his own brutal murder! As the film's prologue promises, Irma La Douce is a celebration of life from beginning to end -- unabashedly adoring lust, emotion, fervor and, above all, foolish love. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi
  • Rating:
    NR
  • Genre:
    Classics, Comedy, Romance
  • Directed By:
    Billy Wilder
  • Written By:
    Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
  • In Theaters:
     wide
  • On Disc/Streaming:
  • Runtime:
  • Studio:
    United Artists

Cast

Shirley MacLaine
as Irma La Douce
Jack Lemmon
as Nestor Patou / Lord X
Lou Jacobi
as Moustache
Joan Shawlee
as Amazon Annie
Bruce Yarnell
as Hippolyte
Herschel Bernardi
as Insp. LeFevre
Hope Holiday
as Lolita
Grace Lee Whitney
as Kiki the Cossack
Tura Satana
as Suzette Wong
Harriette Young
as Mimi the MauMau
Paul Dubov
as Andre
Howard McNear
as Concierge
Cliff Osmond
as Police Sergeant
Diki Lerner
as Jojo
Herb Jones
as Casablanca Charlie
Jane Earl
as Zebra Twin
Ruth Rogers Earl
as Zebra Twin
James Brown (II)
as Texan Customer
Bill Bixby
as Tattooed Sailor
Harriet Young
as Mimi the Mau Mau
Sheryl Deauville
as Carmen
Lou Krugman
as Customer
John Alvin
as Customer
Susan Woods
as Poule With the Balcony
Jack Sahakian
as Jack
Don Diamond
as Man With Samples
Edgar Barrier
as Gen. Lafayette
Richard Peel
as Englishman
James Caan
Joe Palma
as Prison Guard
Louis Jourdan
as Narrator
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Critic Reviews for Irma La Douce

All Critics (20) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (5)

View All Critic Reviews (20)

Audience Reviews for Irma La Douce

  • Aug 20, 2018
    Wilder, Lemmon and MacLaine team up again after their collaboration in The Apartment to offer us a funny and audacious farce that works well enough despite being a bit overlong and clumsy in parts, especially as it becomes more and more contrived towards the end.
    Carlos M Super Reviewer
  • Feb 24, 2018
    "the apartment" with a bigger budget and less of a point, Wilder reteams lemmon and Maclaine in essentially the same roles, under different, lighter circumstances and a Parisian locale. it's not bad, per se, only light entertainment. Network television used to run the film every year.
    Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
  • Nov 04, 2013
    Thanks to Lemmon and MacLaine, we get some some great laughs about a man in love with a prostitute and the extreme lengths he takes to keeping her away from other men. Great goofiness as only Lemmon can pull off.
    John B Super Reviewer
  • Apr 05, 2012
    This is a fun film, but it doesn't near comparison to wilder's work with the two stars in 'the apartment." ...but no one said that it should.
    Stefanie C Super Reviewer
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