Billy Wilder on Assignment: Dispatches from Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna

by Billy Wilder, Noah Isenberg (Editor), Shelley Frisch (Translator)

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, chosen by Tom Stoppard



A revelation.--Marc Weingarten, Washington Post

Acclaimed film director Billy Wilder's early writings--brilliantly translated into English for the first time

Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. Billy Wilder on Assignment brings together more than fifty articles, translated into English for the first time, that Wilder (then known as Billie) published in magazines and newspapers between September 1925 and November 1930. From a humorous account of Wilder's stint as a hired dancing companion in a posh Berlin hotel and his dispatches from the international film scene, to his astute profiles of writers, performers, and political figures, the collection offers fresh insights into the creative mind of one of Hollywood's most revered writer-directors.

Wilder's early writings--a heady mix of cultural essays, interviews, and reviews--contain the same sparkling wit and intelligence as his later Hollywood screenplays, while also casting light into the dark corners of Vienna and Berlin between the wars. Wilder covered everything: big-city sensations, jazz performances, film and theater openings, dance, photography, and all manner of mass entertainment. And he wrote about the most colorful figures of the day, including Charlie Chaplin, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Prince of Wales, actor Adolphe Menjou, director Erich von Stroheim, and the Tiller Girls dance troupe. Film historian Noah Isenberg's introduction and commentary place Wilder's pieces--brilliantly translated by Shelley Frisch--in historical and biographical context, and rare photos capture Wilder and his circle during these formative years.

Filled with rich reportage and personal musings, Billy Wilder on Assignment showcases the burgeoning voice of a young journalist who would go on to become a great auteur.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Biography, Journalism, History

224 pages, Hardcover

Published April 27, 2021

About the author

Billy Wilder (born Samuel Wilder) was a Polish-born, Jewish-American journalist, screenwriter, Academy Award-winning film director and producer, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Many of Wilder's films achieved both critical and public acclaim.

Reviews

[Paul Ataua · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have read the many books devoted to Billie Wilder, then you really must finish with this one. Billy Wilder on Assignment brings together more than fifty articles he wrote as a journalist before 1930. It will certainly complete your Billy Wilder study. If you haven’t read any of those books, then this publication is really of little value. Most of the articles are actually quite dull and give little insight into one of the most creative Hollywood writers and directors of all time . It must be some kind of recurring nightmare for the famous to think that someone somewhere is digging up everything you ever produced. Wilder aficionados will love it. I guess there is demand.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes in a quick snappy dance of easy words, sometimes in a gush of poetic eloquence; Billy Wilder shares his memories as a dancer, his observations as a reporter, and his editorials of the performances he saw back in Weimar Berlin and Vienna, long before he became a Hollywood name. This was back when he was Billie Wilder, offering a snapshot view of a time and place along with the various characters whom inhabited it from his perspective. Reading this gives readers a taste of who’s who, who was doing what, and what was current from this jaundiced, yet sympathetic point of view. Sometimes Billie made me smile, sometimes he made me roll my eyes, but he always engaged my attention.

[Katherine Lavelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a translation of Billy Wilder's dispatches from the 1920s. If you like Billy Wilder films - you will love this book. He was just as delightful and insightful at 20 as he was in his 90s!

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as interesting as I thought it would be.

[Nina Di Salvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at Clevo books in Cleveland, OH, which is an independently owned bookstore solely focused on international books translated into English, and I was delighted to find this book in their beautifully curated film section. At the time, I was attending a 1930’s focused film history course and this book provided excellent supplementation, as it gave me some historical context and background for 1920’s Europe, which had a strong focus on 1930’s cinema (as many of the top studio executives and creators were themselves European immigrants who lived in Europe during this time of Wilders writings).

It was great to learn more about Billy Wilders while reading his writing, whether it was his personal history before Hollywood, comedic take on current events, cultural activities, portraits of people, etc. and distinctive journalistic and essay writing style. He is very much a characature and his writing held such personality even when it was focused on the most mundane of subjects. This book was beautifully strung together and I enjoyed how they structured the book, the selection of brief but transportive passages, the size and quality of the paper, etc. it was a great reading experience and one that you can casually read while sipping your morning coffee, whether going in and out of the passages as the days go by or enjoying it over one warm or chilly weekend. Would recommend for the fellow cinephiles and film historians!

[Scott Satterwhite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was delightful and gave me some insight into Berlin during the interwar years. If I was a huge fan of famed screenwriter, I would've taken more from this. I loved "Sunset Boulevard" and "Some Like it Hot," but this was neither. It's not sold as such either. I enjoyed the writing, and gained some insight into Wilder, but I purchased this hoping for more of a prescient glimpse into what would come in a few years after Wilder left Germany and Vienna, maybe like Christopher Isherwood's work, but maybe the insight comes in how few could have seen what was coming. Wilder is forgiven for not being the prophet I hoped he'd be, and should be applauded for his writing and short vignettes that record Berlin and Vienna in an important moment. It's on me that I was hoping this book would offer some insight into my biggest question, which he never promised to answer. With that said, apparently, I am a reader who is simply reading his dispatches, butnwith a knowledge of whatbis to come in Germany and Austria. Maybe not the target audience, though.