30s screwball comedy with a 60s sensibility. It doesn't always hit but it keeps on chugging along with a manic energy that breaks you down. Full of little references and wordplay it's pretty fun though a little tiring.

It was quite enjoyable and it is a decent film, but it's not outstanding in any way and overall it's plain medicore. There were a few funny parts i guess, I just totally forgot them.

991

Very funny, frenetic performance from Cagney. Excellent screenplay and direction.

Nein, not funny

It's not without its flaws (in particular a lot of the plot developments feel very contrived relying a lot on happenstance), but it's also very amusing and James Cagney is more or less on fire in the final act.

Wilder wanted to make the fastest comedy in history, and he made it. The pace was just too much to hold it together. Cagney was essential for this film - he might have saved it.

For some reason this didn't work as well as it should have for me. I recall that Cagney was just a tad too energetic for me.

The setup is contrived, stilted, and obnoxious. Cagney's talents are completely and utterly wasted here. And the jingoism is like fingernails on a chalkboard. This is so badly dated it's like watching a "duck and cover" film.

# 987

Hilarious many times. I love this movie.

It's an okay movie, but not up to Wilder's best. The jokes seem like they OUGHT to be funny. They're probably funnier on paper. But something just doesn't gel here: perhaps the timing is off, or the atmosphere is too zany (or even not zany enough). Maybe the characterization was too broad, or the gags are too clichéd. Whatever it was, it didn't work for me, except an occasional laugh. I didn't hate watching it, but I kept hoping it would somehow get taken to another level.

Even at this late date, Billy Wilder still had it. So did James Cagney. Fast-paced, very funny comedy with lots of good jabs at communism and a "love interest" who's more of a... well, just see the darned thing :-)

Cagney's incredible in this!

The one where Billy Wilder directs a masterpiece of subversive take down of both Communism and capitalism. The action is zany, the jokes zip out of gangster actor James Cagney's mouth like a round from one of his beloved tommy guns and it never lets up until the hilarious last joke. I can't believe I'm only one of two of my TCIs rating this a 100.

Not great. Commies are funny.

a failure in comedy and cagney pulls of one of the most annoying characters i've ever seen. perhaps it would have been funny if the cold war were still on, but i doubt it.

971