To paraphrase Alfred Hitchcock, you can't keep people in suspense for too long, you need a touch of comedy to break the tension.
The acting in TLW was superb to be sure, but such a dark subject would have benefited from a bit of comic relief, some dark/black comedy would have worked well.
I can see what you mean. Billy Wilder sure knew how to throw in some comedy, later in his career. Maybe he leaned a lesson from this. It's more like a documentary, in a way, rather than a piece of entertainment. But still it's powerful and engaging.
Did you make coffee...? Make it!--Cheyenne.
I think the little slight comedy we see is when he is pontificating to Nat in the bar. And some of the Gloria scenes.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley
There's lots of little drops humor here and there. The best is the piano player in the bar launching into "Somebody stole a purse..." Otherwise, there's a lot of good colorful Wilder dialog throughout.
sharetpupkin is right. There's comedy relief all through the movie. In addition to his examples, I also like the "singing overcoats" during the La Traviata scene. And if you want dark humor, just listen to Bim's dialogue during the sanitarium sequence.
shareBim. Bim. Bim. What we gonna do about Bim? - Rupert Holmes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlmmVEmw9pA
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley
Snelling, your youtube link is unfortunately shut down now. I can't believe I had to google the Rupert Holmes quote before I understood that it was a pun. Back in the day, my local radio stations seemingly played that song nonstop!
shareBut some parts were really hilarious. Like that time he hid a bottle so well even he couldn't find it!
shareI was surprised Billy Wilder played it straight.
share