The Daredevil Reporter (Der Teufelsreporter) (1929): Billy/Billie Wilder

Abstract

Before Wilder considered his own career as a filmmaker as having begun, and then reached movie fame on the other side of the Atlantic, he left behind a stumbling career as a reporter and a small action movie. Although The Daredevil Reporter (1929) possesses a few explosions that are purely Wilder’s, it is far removed from the style that brought him both commercial success and artistic acknowledgment during Hollywood’s Golden Age. But it continues to remind us that before “Billie” became Billy, Wilder was also a daredevil reporter.