What is the best Billy Wilder movie of all time?

Wilder could nail comedy, noir, and drama with equal mastery — a streak of classics that no other director has matched for consistency. From screwball laughter to pitch-black cynicism, which one tops them all?

1. 1
   Some Like It Hot

   Two musicians witness a mob murder and go on the run disguised as women in a jazz band, leading to farcical romantic chaos.
2. 2
   Sunset Boulevard

   A struggling screenwriter becomes entangled with a delusional, forgotten silent-film star living in faded Hollywood grandeur.
3. 3
   Double Indemnity

   An insurance salesman and a femme fatale conspire to murder her husband and collect the payout in this definitive film noir.
4. 4
   The Apartment

   A hapless office worker lends his apartment to his married bosses for affairs, until he falls for one of their mistresses.
5. 5
   Witness for the Prosecution

   A veteran barrister takes on a seemingly unwinnable murder case in this razor-sharp courtroom thriller based on Agatha Christie.
6. 6
   Stalag 17

   POWs in a German camp suspect a spy in their midst while plotting an ambitious escape in this darkly comic WWII film.
7. 7
   The Lost Weekend

   A harrowing portrait of a talented writer's battle with alcoholism over one catastrophic lost weekend in New York City.
8. 8
   Ace in the Hole

   A cynical, washed-up reporter exploits a trapped mine victim to resurrect his career in a savage indictment of media sensationalism.