What qualities make a powerful movie comedy?

Humor in Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three

A good film comedy needs more than just funny lines and humorous situations to work well from beginning to end. Although comedy is relative to each and every person, there are some sure-fire techniques to guarantee the most possible laughs from an audience. In his 1961 film One, Two, Three, director Billy Wilder ambitiously uses four techniques to heighten the level of comedy.

The one aspect to the film that not only leaves the viewer breathless from laughing by the end but also makes its unique blend of comedy really stand out is the fast-paced dialogue. It is rare for one to have to watch a comedy a second time because there may have been funny lines of dialogue he or she missed the first time around, but in the case of One, Two, Three, second viewing is practically a requirement due to the wealth of information given in dialogue.

Wilder has all of the actors — James Cagney to the greatest extent — say their lines as if they are in a rush to finish each conversation so that they can move on to the next problematic situation. It feels in the beginning that Wilder is trying to cram a 180-page screenplay into a two-hour movie. However, the intensity and speed of the dialogue eventually becomes the charm of the film. Uproarious lines of dialogue are hurled at the audience so fast that they barely have time to latch onto the next funny line.

Some directors might start to alleviate the pace of the dialogue by the third act to let the audience breathe a little, but Wilder takes the opposite approach. As the situation intensifies, and the group of misfits struggle to get Otto (Horst Buchholz) ready for the meeting with the parents of Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin), the rapid-fire pace of dialogue actually increases. Mr. MacNamera (Cagney) scurries from room to room, talking on the phone with his wife and Scarlett’s father, and shouting in his office at his Coca-Cola employees, and all the while he never takes a moment to catch his breath.

Cagney is given the difficult task of maintaining that abnormally quick pace of saying his lines, but even more astounding is his focus. One never feels as if Cagney is forcing himself to say the lines any faster and louder than this character would, as the…

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