The director and cowriter of some of the world's most iconic films—including Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment—Billy Wilder earned acclaim as American cinema's greatest social satirist. Though an influential fixture in Hollywood, Wilder always saw himself as an outsider. His worldview was shaped by his background in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and work as a journalist in Berlin during Hitler's rise to power, and his perspective as a Jewish refugee from Nazism lent his films a sense of the peril that could engulf any society.

In this critical study, Joseph McBride offers new ways to understand Wilder's work, stretching from his days as a reporter and screenwriter in Europe to his distinguished as well as forgotten films as a Hollywood writer and his celebrated work as a writer-director. In contrast to the widespread view of Wilder as a hardened cynic, McBride reveals him to be a disappointed romantic. Wilder's experiences as an exile led him to mask his sensitivity beneath a veneer of wisecracking that made him a celebrated caustic wit. Amid the satirical barbs and exposure of social hypocrisies, Wilder’s films are marked by intense compassion and a profound understanding of the human condition.

Mixing biographical insight with in-depth analysis of films from throughout Wilder's career as a screenwriter and director of comedy and drama, and drawing on McBride's interviews with the director and his collaborators, this book casts new light on the full range of Wilder's rich, complex, and distinctive vision.

"A searching new study by the film historian Joseph McBride." - The New York Review of Books

"A remarkable biographical and critical treatment." - San Francisco Chronicle

"A trenchant reappraisal of Wilder’s half-century-long career." - The Nation

"[A] brilliant exegesis of Wilder’s life and work . . . [McBride's] approach works well, illuminating Wilder’s themes and obsessions across the entire span of a lifetime, and therefore across almost the entire twentieth century." - Bookforum

"Easily the most insightful, lively, and thought-provoking book on film I’ve come across this year; no one is better than McBride when it comes to exploring and clarifying the complex intersection between cultural, historical, and psychological forces that yields an artist’s work, and his volume on Wilder is as good as anything he’s ever written – which means it’s as good as anything any film critic has ever written." - Filmmaker Magazine

"Urgent and essential." - Cineaste

"Joseph McBride-penned biography on the legendary Billy Wilder. Need any more words be said?" - CriterionCast

"What we really appreciate is the organized approach and his entertaining prose, not a given in serious film studies. Billy Wilder comes alive as a remarkable man… Of all of Joseph McBride’s film books, I think this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most . . . it’s a serious contender for film book of 2021." - CineSavant

"A comprehensive, invaluable critical study of one of the most admired and enduring filmmaker-satirists of the post-World War II era . . . Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge shares the complexity and humanity of its subject and his films. It is highly recommended." - World Socialist Web Site

"This book, like Wilder’s films, excised Wilder’s phantoms of the past and informed us of the versatility of his International filmography." - RealWeegieMidget Reviews

"Unquestionably the book of the year." - Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader YouTube channel

"Engaging . . . McBride makes a convincing case that for all his wisecracks and moxie, Wilder was ultimately laughing to keep from crying." - American Purpose

"Joseph McBride has delivered the ultimate critical evaluation of Billy Wilder’s career as a journalist, screenwriter and film director." - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television