When there are retrospectives of the works of both Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon, there’s always discussion of their collaborations on the classics Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, but not of this little gem from 1972. The film, based on the play by Samuel Taylor, is about a Baltimore businessman (Lemmon) who travels to Italy to retrieve the body of his deceased father, who has been killed in an automobile accident. Lemmon is in for a surprise when he learns that his married father carried on a 10 year relationship at The Hotel Excelsior with the mother of a young British woman (Juliet Mills), killed in the automobile accident along with Lemmon’s father. Desperate to avoid scandal, the straight laced Lemmon fights through red tape to get his father’s body back to Baltimore for a funeral with dignitaries, foreign and domestic, expected to be in attendance.

As charming as I find the film, there is one criticism that I share with Diamond on this film and that is the nudity. Both Mills and Lemmon (a rarity for the Two-time Oscar winner) share a nude scene late in the film that was unnecessary, more of "Hey, Jack Lemmon's naked," kind a moment. To quote Diamond, "I think nudity hurts laughs," he stated. "I mean if you're watching somebody's boobs, you're not listening to the dialogue". It didn’t ruin the film for me, I just thought it was odd and unnecessary. Wilder stated in interviews that he was unhappy with the finished film, stating that he may have gone overboard with the comic relief, that the film overall was bland and overlong. From my perspective, I would say that the film is a bit long. How many romantic comedies do you know that clock in at 144 minutes? If Wilder trimmed about 30-35 minutes off, I guarantee that the film would be included in those retrospectives with Some Like It Hot and The Apartment.

Lemmon and Mills sparkle in the stunning Italian locales, but it is New Zealand character actor Clive Revill who walks away with the picture as crafty hotel manager Carlo Carlucci who helps Lemmon with the body retrieval. While Revill did earn a Golden Globe nomination for his performance (Mills was also nominated and Lemmon won) the Academy, as it often does, snubbed a great performer of a richly deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination. Sadly, Revill, while a very distinguished performer, has never had a movie role as good as this one.