Billy Wilder is one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. His films display a versatility and wit that few other screenwriters or directors can match and he consistently pushed the boundaries of acceptable subject material during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Wilder’s endlessly quotable screenplays contain some of the best characters and scenes in film history.
They were also the basis for career-best performances from actors such as Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Swanson, and William Holden. Wilder’s influence is undeniable and many of his films still hold up against modern comedies and dramas.
Here are Wilder’s 10 finest efforts, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Double Indemnity - 97%
This 1944 film noir stars Fred MacMurray as an insurance salesman who conspires with Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband to collect an insurance payout. Wilder wrote the script with novelist Raymond Chandler.
The pair based the film off the James M. Cain novel of the same name. The film codified much of the visual language that would define the noir genre. It also openly flaunted the Hays Code with a plot filled with adultery and murder and has been praised for its depiction of 1940s Los Angeles.
Sunset Boulevard - 98%
Double Indemnity wasn’t Wilder’s only great depiction of the City of Angels. Sunset Boulevard is perhaps Wilder’s most famous film. Its representation of the seedy side of Hollywood and fame is thrilling, funny and terrifying all at once.
Gloria Swanson’s wildly over-the-top performance as faded silent film star Norma Desmond gives the film a terrifying and sympathetic villain that sets the tone for the rest of the film. She gives one of the all-time great performances by a lead actress, which is bolstered by fantastic performances from fellow stars William Holden and Nancy Olson.
Hold Back the Dawn - 100%
Hold Back the Dawn was the first of two Wilder films released in 1941. Wilder wrote this adaptation of the Ketti Frings novel with Charles Brackett, Manuel Reachi, and Richard Maibaum. It focuses on a Romanian gigolo in a Mexican border town who marries an American, a schoolteacher played by Olivia de Havilland, to obtain U.S. citizenship.
They end up falling in love all the while avoiding an immigration inspector specializing in con artists. The gigolo risks everything to be with de Havilland’s character when she is injured in a car accident.
A Foreign Affair - 100%
This romantic comedy set in post-World War II Berlin focuses on an American army officer, his cabaret singer lover, and the Iowa congresswoman sent to investigate her. Wilder directed the film and wrote the script with Charles Brackett and Richard L. Breen.
The officer quickly woos the congresswoman but is ordered to continue the relationship with the singer. The government hopes to catch a Gestapo agent the singer used to be involved with whom they believe is hiding in the American-occupied sector of the city.
Five Graves to Cairo - 100%
Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 war film based on the play Hotel Imperial by Hungarian playwright Lajos Bíró. Wilder directed the film and wrote the script with Charles Brackett. The film follows a British tank corporal who stumbles his way into posing as a German spy after a chance meeting with Erwin Rommel. Cairo was the first time Wilder worked with Erich von Stroheim, who would later play Max in Sunset Boulevard.
The film inspired Operation Copperhead, a real counter-intelligence operation during the leadup to the D-Day invasion.
The Major and the Minor - 100%
The Major and the Minor was Wilder’s first English-language directorial effort. The film stars Ginger Rogers as Susan, a woman who leaves a job in New York City to return to her small hometown in Iowa.
Susan’s plans change after she realizes she only has enough money for half a fare. She decides to disguise herself as a 12-year-old but hides in the compartment of a major when she’s caught.
Night Will Fall - 100%
Wilder briefly appears in this documentary about the creation of the German Concentration Camps Factual Survey. Night Will Fall uses footage from that film (which was only completed in 2017) along with interviews and narration to explore the potential of film as a documentary tool. Survey was assembled in part by Alfred Hitchcock and used footage shot by the various Allied governments.
Wilder used footage shot by the U.S. government to create Death Mills, a 22-minute short film released in 1945.
Ball of Fire - 100%
Ball of Fire was the second Wilder film released in 1941, along with Hold Back the Dawn. Wilder wrote this screwball comedy with frequent collaborator Charles Brackett. The film stars Gary Cooper as a professor researching America slang and Barbara Stanwyck as a nightclub performer he falls in love with through the “research.”
Cooper’s character and his fellow professors decide to help Stanwyck’s character hide from her mob boss boyfriend. Her boyfriend is forcing her to marry him to prevent her from testifying in a court case.
Witness for the Prosecution - 100%
Wilder directed the first feature adaptation of the 1925 Agatha Christie short story and wrote the script with Larry Marcus and Harry Kurnitz. It was the final film completed by star Tyrone Power.
Power plays Leonard Vole, a man accused of murdering a rich widow after she makes him the sole beneficiary of her will. The film also stars Marlene Dietrich as Power’s wife. It was her second appearance in a Wilder film after starring as cabaret singer Erika in A Foreign Affair and one of her final feature films roles.
The Lost Weekend - 100%
Wilder directed this adaptation of Charles R. Jackson’s 1944 novel and wrote the script with Charles Brackett. The film stars Ray Milland as alcoholic writer Don Birnam, who spends a weekend with his girlfriend and his brother. The weekend falls apart as Don spirals deeper and deeper into depression and the bottle, eventually selling his typewriter.
Wilder was inspired to write the film after working with Raymond Chandler on Double Indemnity. Chandler was a recovering alcoholic and working with Wilder drove him to resume drinking. The Lost Weekend won both Grand Prix at the 1945 Cannes Film Festival and Best Picture at the 1946 Academy Awards, making it the first film to do so.
