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

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

Sunset Boulevard

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

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

The Apartment

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

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

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

The Lost Weekend

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

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.