to people like lubitsch and later, billy wilder, preston sturges. they had a tremendous amount of control over their careers, relatively speaking. it built production units around, say, a von sternberg, who did a series of movies with marlene dietrich using the same creative people on film after film. (mace neufeld) the studio system could do that. when they found talented people who could work together, they put them together in a ut and said, "give us 2 mysteries year, give us 2 musicals a year, or give us 4 westerns a year." (dramatic music playing) and i think that a style then developed for producers and directors which is difficult to duplicate today. (sounds of train)

billy wilder was pushing the limits of the code.thy is really with the decadent characters. (tango music playing) ole! he got away with that because his movies were so much fun. (susan seidelman) they worked on two different levels: you could laugh at all the characters' misadventures, for ten years i've been living with a saxophone player! (susan seidelman) but when you really thought about what the ending said, it really was very bold. i can never have children! we can adopt some. you don't understand, osgood! i'm a man. well... nobody's perfect. "nobody's perfect" is the greatest gay joke in the american cinema. it's funny because it's true. what we see in this film is that nobody is purely male, nobody is purely female; these ideals don't work. nobody's perfect, nobody's like that. what is this strange animal thing you have? it bothers me. it's bothered me since the first time i saw you. and it'll bother me always. from here to eternity. you must fight it, elaine. you must be strong. you must remember i belong to another. richar

so that these germans, lubitsch a von sternberg and marlene dietrich and billy wilder, fritz lang.nd naturally i didn start out working with them. i just was a draftsman; was a great learng period. quite literally top executives particarly from paramount and universal would regularly go to europe for what to demille,ved overart is international.s. so tonight we find him looking at a european picture, starring a young hungarian, franciska gaal. stop the picture a minute. get me budapest. c.b., it's 5:30 in the morning in budapest. you cat get at girl t bed and why not? operator. get me budapest, miss franciska gaal, g-a-a-l. (thomas schatz) and of course we're not importing movies, we're importing the talent developing in othecountries. hello. franciska gaal? this is cecil b. demillein . who? cecil b. demille, paramount director, speaking from hollywood. cecil b. demille! oh, yes! we want you to come to america for a picture. i want a fine emotional actress for the part i have in mind. you'll have to leave in one week. one week. oh, you americans. styles and techniques are being imp

(narrator) truer to the critical tradition of romantic comedy were the films of billy wilder and frankt to reveal what doris and rock concealed. you didn't lose your job? ohhh, no, i didn't lose my job! i'll have that job the rest of my life. well, then, what are you worried about? 50's, everybody said, "you know what love is? love is getting married, having a nice family, sitting around at home and playing cards and eating and having a meal together, that's love." everybody said, "fine." (peter bogdonavich) you had in america in the 50's a pretty grotesque chasm between the sudden discovery of overt sexuality, together with the ingrained puritanism of the country. (music playing) ♪ she gotta lotta ♪ what they call ♪ "the most" ♪ can't help it ♪ girl can't help it ♪ she was born ♪ to please ♪ can't help it ♪ girl can't help it

(narrator) truer to the critical tradition of romantic comedy were the films of billy wilder and frankto reveal what doris and rock concealed. you didn't lose your job? ohhh, no, i didn't lose my job! i'll have that job the rest of my life. well, then, what are you worried about? 50's, everybody said, "you know what love is? love is getting married, having a nice family, sitting around at home and playing cards and eating and having a meal together, that's love." everybody said, "fine." (peter bogdonavich) you had in america in the 50's a pretty grotesque chasm between the sudden discovery of overt sexuality, together with the ingrained puritanism of the country. (music playing) ♪ she gotta lotta ♪ what they call ♪ "the most" ♪ can't help it ♪ girl can't help it ♪ she was born ♪ to please ♪ can't help it ♪ girl can't help it ♪ she's gotta bigger ♪ main to squeeze

. >> john: billy wilder said if you're going to tell people the truth, make it funny or they'll killou. >> that's good. >> john: by the end of the play, the only guy king lear trusts is the fool. don't you think that when the people trust their humor more -- their politics more if you can make them laugh because there has to be an element of truth in something for it to be funny. >> i think so. i didn't know you were going to bring in king lear on me. >> john: i like to keep it light. >> a family show. >> let's not fail to give credit to that faultless delivery man david letterman. i think any subject can be a subject for humor. i was once told by an editor of -- i almost said the major newspaper but you know where i work -- of a column of some sort or letter saying that my summation could not be used because there are subjects who can't joke about it. i didn't write back but i wish i had. that will come as news to mark twain and jonathan swift and our friends, we've already mentioned and charlie chaplain and a few others. there's nothing about any subject that can't be humor. it cou