What 1948 Billy Wilder film is set in post-World War II Berlin?

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What 1948 Billy Wilder film is set in post-World War II Berlin? A Foreign Affair is the film set in post-World War II Berlin.

Released in 1948, A Foreign Affair follows an American Army captain in Allied-occupied Berlin during the early Cold War. The story centers on the tension between military regulations, black-market survival, political suspicion, and romantic attraction in a city still badly damaged by the war.

Jean Arthur plays Congresswoman Phoebe Frost, who travels to Berlin to investigate the conduct of American troops. John Lund plays Captain John Pringle, while Marlene Dietrich plays Erika von Schlütow, a former Nazi café singer whose past becomes central to the plot.

The setting drew on Wilder’s own wartime experience. While serving with the U.S. Army in Germany, he studied the conditions of occupied Berlin and interviewed military personnel and residents. The film is often confused with Berlin Express, another postwar film, but A Foreign Affair is Wilder’s blend of romantic comedy, political satire, and occupation-era drama.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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