Film / Irma la Douce

"…but that's another story."

— Moustache, several times

Irma la Douce (French for "Irma the Sweet") is a 1963 American romantic comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. It is based on the 1956 French stage musical Irma la Douce by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort.

Nestor Patou (Lemmon), an honest cop, is transferred to an urban neighborhood in Paris, more specifically to a street full of prostitutes. After a raid on the hotel where they work, Nestor's superior fires him when he's mistakenly framed for bribery. Kicked off the force and humiliated, Nestor returns to the neighborhood and befriends Irma la Douce (MacLaine), a popular local prostitute. Nestor becomes infatuated with Irma and cooks up a plan to end Irma's life as a prostitute: Using a disguise, he invents an alter-ego, British nobleman Lord X, who becomes Irma's sole (and platonic) client. When Irma in turn becomes infatuated with Lord X, Nestor decides to end the charade and kill off his alter ego, but what he didn't account for is for his manner of doing so to be mistaken for him "killing" Lord X and be arrested for his "murder".

James Caan made his first film appearance as an uncredited extra (the U.S. soldier who spends his screentime with one ear glued to a small radio).

---

This film features examples of:

• Actor Allusion:
  • Lord X (Jack Lemmon) pays Irma (Shirley MacLaine), a prostitute, to be her sole client, but their relationship is entirely chase, with their meetings only involving playing cards. In The Apartment, which also starred Lemmon and MacLaine and was about Lemmon's character being conflicted about being in love with MacLaine's character but her being the mistress of his married boss, Lemmon and MacLaine's characters spent most of that film playing cards, with her famously shutting down his declaration of love at the end with a "Shut up and deal."
  • When Irma starts to suspect that Nestor is cheating on her after finding out that he goes away every night (when in reality he's working at the market overnight to pay for his alter ego Lord X being Irma's sole client), she suspects in particular that he's cheating on her with another of the prostitutes, Lolita. Lolita's actress, Hope Holiday, was also on The Apartment as Mrs. Margie MacDougall, a character Lemmon's character in that film commiserates with, and they become "partners in self-pity" with each other.
• Altar the Speed: Nestor and Irma's wedding has to be finished quickly, as Irma is in labor; she gives birth shortly after they kiss.
• Another Story for Another Time: "But that's another story" is Moustache's Catchphrase, said whenever he mentions one of his many professions during his mysterious past. He ends the movie with it, in regards to Lord X seemingly being Real After All.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Nestor tells Moustache that he was fired from the police force for insubordination, attempted bribery, and for losing a button from his uniform jacket.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Nestor outright states that the reason he likes Irma is because she was the one prostitute who didn't come onto him when he arrived at the neighborhood.
• Bedsheet Ladder: Nestor is put in jail for "murdering" his alter ego "Lord X" after being caught throwing his Lord X clothing into the Seine when he tired of the pretense. The local bartender Moustache brings him a bunch of Irma's trademark green silk stockings. When he asks why, Moustache says that if he doesn't want them then he should throw them out the window, but should probably tie them together first. He finally gets the hint and makes his escape using them later that day.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Nestor may be a meek little man, but he manages to beat Hyppolite senseless. They don't call him "Tiger" for nothing.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of the film, after discovering that Lord X somehow exists after all, and that he showed up at Nestor and Irma's wedding, Moustache looks directly at the camera and says, "...But that's another story!"
• By-the-Book Cop: Nestor Patou is an honest cop who follows the rules. This is best exemplified when the prostitutes he arrests (and whom he accompanies on the police van) rather unsubtly offer themselves at him and he ignores the fanservice; for comparison, during that same raid he finds several police inspectors (including, as revealed later, his own superior) as customers.
• Cat Fight: Between Irma and Lolita when the former accuses the latter of sleeping with Nestor. Most of the fight is offscreen, with only Nestor's reactions hinting at what's happening.
• Character Catchphrase: Moustache's "But that's another story.", used to abruptly end his stories about his many previous jobs. He uses it one last time at the very end of the film, when he discovers that Lord X inexplicably exists after all and attended Nestor and Irma's wedding.
• Chekhov's Gun: During Nestor and Irma's argument when she thinks Nestor is cheating on her, it's established that she kept Nestor's police uniform. Later in the film, when Nestor escapes from prison and goes to Irma's place, and the police follow him there, he dons the uniform again to blend in with the officers and evade capture.
• Chez Restaurant: Moustache's tavern is named Chez Moustache. Hilariously enough, Moustache claims that the tavern already had that name when he bought it, and he actually grew his moustache out so as to not have to change the billboard.
• Color Motif: Irma loves the color green, with her stockings, her blouse, her hair ribbon, and even her underwear (as confirmed when she takes her blouse off and she reveals to wear a green bra) being green.
• Gainax Ending: Lord X is revealed to inexplicably exist after all, showing up at Nestor and Irma's wedding, much to Moustache's astonishment.
  Moustache: [looking at the audience] ...But that's another story!
• Gilligan Cut: As Nestor is arrested for killing Lord X, Moustache assures him that, with him representing him in court, he'll be acquitted and the court will carry him away in their shoulders. Cut to Nestor doing drills on the prison yard.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: Irma, a prostitute, wants to make sure Nestor, her new mec,^note a French word which in this context roughly translates as "pimp", wears the nicest clothes to show how much she loves him.
• Invented Individual: Nestor creates a fake British nobleman persona to serve as a wealthy "client" for Irma so she won't have sex with anyone but him. When he grows tired of the deception he throws the costume into the Seine and is arrested for murder. And in the end it turns out that "Lord X" DID exist after all... though this is an played for laughs rather than a genuine reveal.
• The Loins Sleep Tonight:
  • Lord X claims that the reason his meetings with Irma are strictly platonic is because he has supposedly been rendered impotent by his service in World War II (including affecting his domestic life with his supposed wife "Lady X").
  • Nestor himself (of whom Lord X is an alter ego) is an example of this as, to pay for Lord X's exclusive access to Irma, he works in the marketplace every night. Away every night and too tired to make love in the morning, Irma thinks he is having an affair.
• Mistaken for Cheating: To pay for Lord X's exclusive access to Irma, Nestor works in the marketplace every night. After Irma discovers that he's away every night and too tired to make love, Irma thinks he is having an affair.
• Mistaken for Own Murderer: When Nestor decides to end the "Lord X" charade and kill off his alter ego, he tosses his disguise into the Seine. Unaware he is being tailed by Hippolyte, seeing Lord X's clothes floating in the water (and not helped at all by Nestor's angry "parting words" to Lord X), Hippolyte concludes Nestor murdered him, resulting in Nestor being arrested and sent to prison.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Along with the Running Gag of Moustache's colorful past, Irma also gives each client a different story about how she became a prostitute to get extra money for sympathy.
• No Honor Among Thieves: As Moustache lets it slip that Nestor is hiding out in the bar, he questions Hippolyte if he's going to call on him to the police. Hippolyte swears he would never snitch on a "fellow colleague", but almost immediately afterwards he calls the police station.
  Hippolyte: Hello, police? I want to report on a fellow colleague.
• Noodle Incident: Moustache has a Running Gag of stating that he previously having many different jobs (an attorney, a colonel in the Foreign Legion, a doctor who worked with Albert Schweitzer in Africa...), but rather than go into detail about them, he simply says "But that's another story."
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Although moral standards had loosed considerably by 1963, neither "prostitute" nor "pimp" are used in dialogue, even though the main characters are clearly prostitutes and pimps.
• Platonic Prostitution: Nestor creates an alter ego, a British nobleman named "Lord X", to become Irma's sole client so she can't have sex with anyone but him, and "Lord X" in turn does nothing but play cards with her.
• Running Gag:
  • Moustache telling his storied prior life, claiming to have been, among other things, an attorney, a colonel in the Foreign Legion, and a doctor who worked with Albert Schweitzer in Africa, ending with the repeated line, "but that's another story."
  • During his fight with Hippolyte, Nestor keeps being sprayed with seltzer by Moustache to wake him up. Later, during the Cat Fight between Irma and Lolita, Nestor himself mans the seltzer bottle.
• Shout-Out:
  • Lolita appears to be named like that due to wearing heart-shaped sunglasses similar to the ones famously worn by the title character in (the advertising of) the 1962 film adaptation of the novel of the same name.
  • When Nestor is impersonating "Lord X", he takes his backstory from the plots of several war movies starring British characters, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and Mutiny on the Bounty.
  • One of the prostitutes is an East Asian woman named Suzette Wong, seemingly in reference to The World of Suzie Wong, whose title character was also a prostitute.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Irma states that she sleeps while completely nude — except for a sleep mask. One of the scenes showing her and Nestor waking up does indeed show her wearing a sleep mask and otherwise using only a Modesty Bedsheet and showing a lot of Toplessness from the Back.
• Skip to the End: During the ending, Nestor and Irma's wedding needs to be sped up because Irma is heavily pregnant and going into labor. After Moustache asks him to do so, the priest even starts speed-reading the wedding rites. In Latin.
• Take That!: The pimps' union is called the "Mecs (Guys or Blokes) Paris Protective Association" (MPPA), which are also the initials of the Motion Picture Producers Association, an organization which had given director Billy Wilder more than one headache in the past.
• Toplessness from the Back:
  • Nestor is unfazed from the zany things that happen at the police van full of prostitutes, but seeing one of them nonchalantly putting on her bra from the back does startle him a bit.
  • One of the scenes showing Irma and Nestor waking up shows her wearing nothing but a sleep mask and a Modesty Bedsheet, giving the camera a handful of her bare back and also startling Nestor.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: Nestor, in order to keep Irma, a prostitute, from sleeping with other men, invents a "Lord X" to act as her sole patron. When he started feeling as if she cared more for the role he was playing than for himself, he threw the costume into the Seine and was arrested for murder.

---