Billy Wilder only worked for three years.
Billy Wilder . Wilder became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin . He moved to Hollywood in 1933 , and in 1939 he had a hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy Ninotchka , starring Greta Garbo . Wilder established his directorial reputation with an adaption of James M. Cain 's Double Indemnity ( 1944 ) , a film noir . Wilder earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story The Lost Weekend ( 1945 ) , about alcoholism . In 1950 , Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard , as well as Stalag 17 in 1953 . From the mid-1950s on , Wilder made mostly comedies . Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch ( 1955 ) and Some Like It Hot ( 1959 ) , and satires such as The Apartment ( 1960 ) .