"Fedora" is the penultimate film that Billy Wilder directed (his final being "Buddy Buddy" with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon) and I cannot recall another one of his films that is this unusual. The structure of the plot is very odd as well as the story...but if you are patient, it's well worth seeing.

The story is mostly set in Italy. An American film producer (William Holden) has come there to try to convince a timeless actress, Fedora, to come out of retirement and star in his new film. Unfortunately, his task turns out to be a lot more difficult than he anticipated and it turns into a strange mystery. When he finally is able to get around Fedora's handlers, she tells him she's being held prisoner by them and she desperately wants to escape. There is MUCH more to the story than you'd think at this point...and the plot goes in some very unexpected directions. There is much more I could say about the plot, but won't as it might give away some of these plot twists.

The acting is generally good, though I wasn't as impressed by Fedora nor the Contessa's acting. The story, while very oddly constructed, was interesting and I think that the film's lousy performance in theaters was very unfortunate, as it really is a creative and interesting story. Well worth seeing.

William Holden made his fourth and final film for Billy Wilder who he always considered his lucky director. With such films as Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, and Sabrina to their credit who wouldn't consider that lucky? Fedora doesn't quite belong in the same category as those others from the golden years of Wilder and Holden. Still it's an interesting film to watch and you can never make a visually bad film in the Grecian Isles.

Holden plays Barry Detweiler an interesting older variation on Joe Gillis from Sunset Boulevard. Imagine if Gillis had avoided Norma Desmond's bullets and had gone on to a great film career and you have Barry Detweiler.

But the digs that Norma Desmond had in Sunset Boulevard compare badly to the splendor of the regal exile that movie legend Fedora has on the Grecian isle of Korfu. It's been a mystery how Fedora has managed to appear eternally young.

Back in the day Holden had a fling with Fedora and he's played here as a young man by Stephen Collins. Hoping to cash in on a quick roll on the beach from the Fifties, Holden has a script for a new version of Anna Karenina. After much scheming he does get into see Fedora, played by young Marte Keller.

Unfortunately some intriguing things keep bringing Holden back and in the end he does uncover the secret of Fedora's eternal youth. Let's say it was something not available to Norma Desmond.

Best performance in the film for me is Jose Ferrer, a quack plastic surgeon who has attached himself to Fedora as part of her entourage. Ferrer steals every scene he's in, that man was never bad in anything he did.

Maybe Fedora would have been a classic if Marlene Dietrich had come back to play the part of the old countess that Hildegard Knef did and Faye Dunaway had played Fedora. Personally I think the part of the countess was too close to home for Dietrich, but Wilder definitely wanted her.

What a film that would have been.

It's quite appropriate that Hildegard Neff is cast as the recluse countess here, having played the Garbo role in "Silk Stockings", the musical version of "Ninotchka". There's not just Garbo here, but Dietrich and Hepburn and obscure leading ladies like Elisabeth Bergner and Anna Sten, and for director Billy Wilder, a return to what he had been acclaimed for with "Sunset Blvd." But this is even darker, and like certain studio heads in 1950, Hollywood bigwigs in the late 70's also took some offence.

The great star Fedora is dead, either an accident or suicide, and the world is in mourning like they were for Valentino, Monroe and Garland. Independent producer William Holden, who once had a fling with her, is among the mourners in France, and through a wild order of flashbacks, the audience learns the shocking truth. Marthe Keller is Fedora, a troubled aging star who has had more comebacks than any star, and it's obvious that she's very emotionally troubled. As the guest of countess Neff, she's under constant watch with Neff's secretary Frances Sternhagen and doctor Jose Ferrer always an eye distance away.

Slow but passionate, this is the only filmed segment of a three part novel and quite fascinating. There are cameos by Henry Fonda as himself (Academy president) and Michael York also as himself, Keller's costar whom she becomes obsessed with. While some audiences might find how this is structured a bit tedious, it works if the viewer becomes engrossed. The truth about Fedora isn't really all that shocking, but the way it is revealed is brilliant. One of the sleeper gems of the 70's that can be truly classified as a beautiful work of art.