C.R. MacNamara (James Cagney) will do anything to get a promotion within the Coca-Cola company, including looking after boss W.P. Hazeltine’s (Howard St. John) rebellious teenage daughter, Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin). When Scarlett visits Berlin, where C.R. is stationed, she reveals that she is married to a communist named Otto Piffl (Horst Buchholz) — and C.R. recognizes that Otto’s anti-establishment stance will clash with his boss’s own political views, possibly jeopardizing his promotion.

Like many of Wilder’s comedy films, “One Two Three” (1961, 104 min) occasionally shows sardonic sides behind its broad comic moments. While generating some edgy laughs from the postwar Germany society still recovering from its dark, shameful past, it certainly makes fun of the ridiculous aspects of the Cold War, and there is even one particular moment foreshadowing that perilous international crisis which happened not long after the movie was released in 1961 (“We have trade agreement with Cuba: they send us cigars, we send them rockets.”). As a matter of fact, Wilder had to halt the shooting of the film in Berlin when the Berlin Wall went up on August 13th, 1961, and he and his crew had no choice but to move to Munich to complete the movie.

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From April to June, Meta screens the best films set in Germany’s capital, from the 1920s up until today. Sunday’s Berlin Film Series at Meta House is presented by “Berlin Bar” @ Meta House. All films are screened in English language versions and / or with English subtitles.