Bruce Yarnell

Irma la Douce -- Paris? the red-light district. A rookie police officer, Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon), falls for a beautiful prostitute, Irma la Douce (Shirley MacLaine). Before long, Nestor discovers that the only way to keep Irma is to become her new pimp, and the only way to accomplish that is to knock the block off the present pimp. As a result, Nestor becomes #1 pimp on the block. It is not long, though, before he becomes insanely jealous of Irma's customers. Despairing, Nestor devises a way to keep Irma all for himself, yet allow her to continue in her profession. And when the plan backfires, there is only one person who can help him... but will she believe him? Lemmon's comic performance, under the direction of Billy Wilder, has been compared to some of the great visual comedy of the silent comedians.

This romantic comedy opens with a resounding warning: its chief concerns are passion, bloodshed, desire, and death. "Everything," exclaims the narrator, "that makes life worth living." Irma La Douce (Shirley MacClaine) wise, endearing, and compulsively clad in green rules the rue Casanova as Paris' most prosperous prostitute. She exultantly works the most coveted corner as cops gladly look the other way and the naughty johns leave tips. Her street is a content community of live and let live and good-natured desire, an Augean stable of human understanding. However, to the area's new policeman, upright Nester Patou (Jack Lemmon), genial wrongdoing is still wrongdoing. Newly promoted from day patrol at a children's playground, the scrupulous Nestor arrests Irma and her colleagues in a bumbling, unauthorized raid. He takes pity on Irma, but harasses the guilty johns — including the police captain. Promptly unemployed, Nester returns to the scene of his crime, the rue, and to Irma. Nester unwittingly takes the position as her pimp after physically besting him. As the two fall madly in love, Nestor begins to grow jealous of Irma's patrons. Thus, he masquerades as a wealthy English aristocrat and becomes Irma's sole customer — only to eventually grow violently jealous of himself. Soon enough, this formally righteous cop is comically jailed for his own brutal murder! As the film's prologue promises, Irma La Douce is a celebration of life from beginning to end — unabashedly adoring lust, emotion, fervor and, above all, foolish love.

In Paris, an ex-cop falls in love with a prostitute, and tries to get her out of that life by paying for all of her time. Not so easy...

In Paris, an ex-cop falls in love with a prostitute, and tries to get her out of that life by paying for all of her time. Not so easy...