In post-war Berlin, a prim American congresswoman investigating troop morale clashes with a cynical army captain and his German cabaret singer mistress.
Rigidly proper Congresswoman Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur) arrives in the ruins of post-war Berlin on a mission to investigate the morality of the occupying American forces. Her official guide is Captain John Pringle (John Lund), a cynical officer who is secretly embroiled in the very black marketeering and fraternization she deplores. Phoebe’s investigation zeroes in on sultry nightclub singer Erika Von Schluetow (Marlene Dietrich), unaware that she is Pringle’s mistress. To keep Phoebe from discovering his relationship and illegal activities, Pringle feigns a romantic interest in the congresswoman, a deception that quickly becomes complicated for all three.
Billy Wilder’s Oscar-nominated satire uses a romantic triangle as the vehicle for a sharp critique of American idealism confronting the grim realities of post-war Europe. The film functions as a deft battle of wits, pitting Jean Arthur’s earnest morality against the weary survival instincts of Marlene Dietrich’s Erika. Caught between them, John Lund embodies the compromised pragmatism of the American presence in a defeated Germany. Wilder’s direction is typically incisive, finding cynical humor and genuine pathos in the rubble of Berlin and the morally ambiguous choices of its inhabitants.
Production Co: Paramount / 116 minutes / 1948
Director: Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Richard L. Breen
Main Cast: Jean Arthur (Congresswoman Phoebe Frost), Marlene Dietrich (Erika Von Schluetow), John Lund (Captain John Pringle), Millard Mitchell (Colonel Rufus Plummer)
