#57: Some like it hot (1959)
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe
Plot: Two band players are witness to a gangster shootout and flee to Florida in a girls’ band disguised as women.
But is it any good?
The AFI (American Film Institute) considers it to be the funniest film EVER. That’s a lot of movies it’s supposed to be funnier than. I’m not convinced. Has the AFI not seen This is Spinal Tap? Even One Two Three, another Billy Wilder film made a few years after this one, had me laughing much harder. I don’t know, maybe I missed something. It was quite funny, but the funniest film ever?
Anyway, here’s the appeal: Some like it hot (which is actually the first Marilyn movie I’ve ever seen) is quick-paced comedy, despite being over two hours long. And you must put it in context: at the time, cross-dressing men were a novelty. Particularly cross-dressing men getting engaged to (male) millionaires. And a comedy that launches its storyline from a grisly real-life event, the St Valentines Day Massacre, is a rare thing indeed. So it was a little risque.
It’s not risque now, but it’s still a great comedy. Curtis and Lemmon tottering round on heels having to endure sexual harrassment is funny, Lemmon enjoying the courtship of a rich old man and joyously admiring his diamond gifts is also funny. Their mad costume changes as they’re chased around the hotel by the mob are funny and the film’s final scene with its classic line, “Nobody’s perfect”, is excellent.
Marilyn’s involvement as the sexy, vulnerable Sugar adds not only, well, sex, but a whole back story as well. Her ability to fluff lines and force multiple takes surely can’t be true - 47 tries to say “It’s me, Sugar” and 83 to fossick in a drawer asking “Where’s the bourbon?”? Surely not. Curtis also reportedly said kissing her was like kissing Hitler (how did he know?) and she was known for being generally late and slack. But she sure did command the screen and of course she was dead just a few years later. But that’s a whole other made-for-TV movie.
Snappy dialogue, slapstick humour, comedic tension and great acting and directing. But clearly the AFI and I don’t agree on everything.
IMDb’s rating: 8.4/10
My rating: 8/10
Next movie to be reviewed: LA Confidential
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Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 11:34 pm under
