A sweet street soliciting girl of the Red Light District in Paris (the delightful Shirley MacLaine) meets a young and naive police officer (Jack Lemmon) who becomes her new pimp after a big turmoil in which he arrested all the "girls" thus spoiling the understanding in force between the police and the pimps union. Because of that he is expelled from the police on a false accusation of bribery, returns to the Red Light District, has a comic fight with Irma's current pimp, defeats him with much luck and replaces him. But since he has fallen in love with Irma he's not happy seeing her going with other men all the time while practicing her "profession". Therefore he concocts a plan with the help of a friendly bar owner (Lou Jacobi) to take her off the street and disguises himself as an English lord who as a "client" keeps Irma busy for hours playing cards with him under a generous payment with money he earns by hard work in a market at night while her is asleep to prevent her of becoming aware of the whole situation. But from then on the story gets complicated and unfolds itself in a series of funny episodes and varied gags to which we cannot demand logic or likelihood since we are in the presence of a comedy. The performance of both main protagonists is brilliant and the movie is quite enjoyable.
Review of Irma la Douce
