Fairy-tale-style comedy which begins with a bang, and ends with a superbly-handled wedding scene, with the bride about to have a baby at any minute.

Director Billy Wilder has taken the hit stage musical about a gendarme who falls for a prostitute, stripped it of its fine songs, and turned it into a pleasant, likeable comedy, with performances from Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine (so memorable together in The Apartment) that are every bit as good as one might expect.

Okay, then, but why not make the musical, in which the multi-talented MacLaine would surely have been even better?