Review of Some Like It Hot (1939) by Robert L — 21 Dec 2010

What is it about people cross-dressing that Hollywood finds so appealing? We've been fascinated with doing just that so for so long that I truly can't think of a time where we didn't swap clothes. The "gender-swap" genre has greatly varied from the much-maligned and horrendously bad "Connie And Carla" (2004) to the much-loved and highly entertaining Tootsie (1982) to the cute/if somewhat creepy and disturbing Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) which I'm sure I've seen about a billion times. In fact I'm surprised that the VHS copy that I have of it still works, especially considering that it has collected as much dust as a mummy collects in a sarcophagus over time. While I do like (liberally used) that movie, it is directed by Chris Columbus who I can bluntly say makes a lot of crap. Either way, Billy Wilder's ingenious little film entitled "Some Like It Hot" stands above the pack. It rests as my favourite "cross-dressing comedy" and is easily number one out of all of those films previously mentioned. Though I wouldn't classify Connie and Carla as a "comedy", but more of "an exercise in the killing of brain cells and/or being lectured to for 98 minutes at a time by someone as egotistical and insufferable as say James Cameron".

What happens when two men are on the run from the mob after seeing them execute a hit? The late Tony Curtis (RIP, and still sad about that) and Jack Lemmon are Joe and Jerry, two musicians who play the saxophone and the bass respectively. Things are going well until they experience a mob-hit by tough-as-nails mob boss Spats Colombo. After viewing this awful murder they go on the run and the only way to survive is to pose as women in an all-girls musical band (a very good idea for multiple reasons...). Once they've safely boarded the train with the group down to Florida, cross-dressing hijinks ensue. Not only do they have to keep their cover from the mob but all of the girls in the band. If they're discovered they'll be tossed out in the cold as open targets for those that are after them. If not blowing their cover isn't difficult enough one of the girls in the band happens to be a very sublime-looking Marilyn Monroe. One of the first shots of her is her pulling out a flask of alcohol from the garter belt underneath her already sensual attire. Can the boys manage to keep it together and fight the temptation of falling in love with Marilyn and or will they ultimately blow their cover and be sent sleeping with the fishes?

The film stars the aforementioned Curtis and Lemmon and they simply could not be any more perfect for their roles. Not only do they fit seamlessly into the story as characters but the camaraderie that they share is what's best about the film. Curtis and Lemmon work so well together that you really couldn't find any better actors for their parts. With Lemmon in particular I couldn't stop laughing. The scene where he tries to sleep in his bed on the train but is impeded by Monroe's Sugar remains to this day one of the most hilarious scenes I've ever seen captured on film. She hops in bed beside him in a very confined space, of course all the while thinking he is a female. Except being of the male variety, Lemmon has to muster up as much man power as he possibly can to not, ahem, get "too excited" with her right there. She basically comes as close as possible to spooning him without actually "spooning him". How he managed to "keep it together" as a character in the film and as actor with her right there sharing body heat completely baffles me. Now that right there is some serious talent. What makes that scene work is not just the writing but mainly Lemmon. He has some of the best comedic timing that I've ever seen. He can take any scene or line of dialogue and make it his own. Another scene that comes to mind is where Curtis is off romancing Monroe on his fake yacht while Lemmon takes the fall. A man named Osgood Fielding III (played by a fantastic Joe E. Brown) takes a liking to the girl version of Lemmon. So while Curtis is using Brown's yacht to put the moves on Monroe, Lemmon is stuck in a tango. He doesn't say anything the entire time that he has to dance with Brown, but he doesn't have to. The look on his face is pure gold. And that facial expression is not only perfect for the scene but it's one of the best "bros before hoes" moments ever conceived. As well Monroe I think plays her part quite well and was extremely convincing. Though as rumour has it, she was just very stupid some times, and was entirely unable to remember the simplest of lines. I can't imagine how immensely irritating that must have been for Mr. Wilder.

The film is written by Billy Wilder (and co-written by I.A.L. Diamond, what a weird name...) and he sure knows his comedy. While I remain a non-fan of black and white films (other than It's A Wonderful Life, Psycho and Schindler's List) Some Like It Hot is one of the rare exceptions. Wilder's writing is very well done. He manages to perfectly balance comedy and drama. At one point both Curtis and Lemmon will be in drag doing something stupid and the next a man will pop out of a birthday cake while shooting a determined mob boss. I'm not really sure what it is about black and white films that I don't like, but this film is not at all a part of that displeasure. What I think it probably has to do with is that despite the time period it's still a very funny film. I've only ever seen the film twice, but I definitely liked it better the second time around. The first time I saw it I was twelve years old and did find it to be funny. Though I really didn't get half the jokes because I was so young at the given time. Though now five years later I understood all of the jokes and was left a little bit shocked. Considering the time period, it's a huge surprise that Wilder managed to get away with what he did, but more of that later. To put the film in perspective, I laughed watching this film the second time just as much as I would with watching something like The Office, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, The Hangover, 40 Year Old Virgin or any of the Jackass movies to name a few. I really enjoyed it that much that it ranks with all of the comedies just mentioned. That is simply a testament to Wilder's genius with how it stands the all-important test of time. The way that he can write witty and clever characters and being able to never lose focus of what's important is key as a writer. As the age-old adage goes : "A story is as only as good as its characters". Despite all of the crazy slapstick, silly shenanigans and goings on, the characters are what we really care about.

The film is also directed by Billy Wilder who's the acclaimed man that helmed Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and The Apartment (1960) to name a few. People will know that a director is good when he or she works with the same actors for multiple projects (some current examples being: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, Woody Allen and Scarlett Johansson all come to mind). Wilder worked with many actors but he did repeat offerings with some of the best. He worked with Jack Lemmon in both Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. He also worked with Marilyn Monroe in both Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch four years prior to that. Wilder is a director of actors. He knows exactly what he wants out of them and their performances (again though, it must have been very difficult with Monroe, but that's a movie star for you). Along with his writing, Wilder's directing is simply flawless. The film clocks in at 120 minutes and feels exactly like David Fincher's "The Social Network". Not only do those films both have the exact same running time but I thought the exact same thing at the end: "It's over already? Where did the time go? That went by so fast!" (Even though I already knew where Some Like It Hot was going to end due to having already seen it).

The music that's used in the film is particularly well done. Songs such as "I'm Through With Love", "I Wanna Be Loved By You" and the titular "Some Like It Hot" are all performed by Monroe. Not only can she sing, but she looks good doing it. When the audience listens to her, they can easily feel a sense of calm as her voice rushes over. It's both sweet and soothing all at the same time. Not only is her singing great but the rest of the musical score is as well. Adolph Deutsch takes on the duties of film composer and he does so ably. The score fits in every scene that it's used and not once feels out of place. I gladly give props to Mr. Deutsch for nicely complementing Ms. Monroe's honeydew-like vocal chords with his faultless film score.

Perhaps though what's most intriguing in regards to the film is how surprisingly dirty-minded it is. That's especially regarding the fact that it was released way back when in 1959. Back for the time films were far straighter laced as far as "inappropriate content" goes. People were much more conservative than they are now. Somehow this film managed to get past this all the while sticking its defiant head in the air in a giant "up yours" gesture. How the production codes left this film fly is still a mystery. The film shows some gritty mob executions (again "bad" for the time), consumption of alcohol, far more revealing clothing on women such as Marilyn Monroe (not that I mind...) because I swear she looked partially naked in one of the dresses that she wore at one point, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon ogling Monroe's shapely backside early on, of course the whole part where they're gussied up as amusingly muscular women (an icky "turn-off" of mine) and gay jokes. Lemmon and Brown become a couple under false pretences as the gay connotations fly left, right and centre. By the end of the film Lemmon reveals that really he's a man to which Brown's character of Osgood replies hilariously "Well, nobody's perfect." Simply genius writing there Wilder, my hat is off to you. Now if one were to look closer at that it's actually more than just funny in a way. People became so up in arms in 2005 over the late Heath Ledger (RIP) and Jake Gyllenhaal locking lips and other such things in a tent in the gay cowboy movie "Brokeback Mountain" (which is actually a very good film in my opinion).

There's also the more recent example of the debut trailer of the new Ron Howard comedy "The Dilemma" (Kevin James, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder and Channing Tatum) which comes out in 2011. In the trailer Vaughn and James start out at a work meeting. Vaughn is doing a sales pitch and he opens with the line "Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars...are gay. I mean not "homosexual gay". But you know "My parents are chaperoning the dance gay". Anderson Cooper recently went public and bashed the trailer for its use of the word "gay" as a negative connotation. He implied that the third use of the word "gay" as in "stupid" (the first two meaning "happy" and "homosexual" respectively) was derogatory and offensive. His and many others' public outcry at the use of the word in a defamatory way in the trailer alone called it offensive. It got to a point where that entire scene was litterally taken out of the trailer. Not too much later the trailer was reissued in an attempt to not incur the wrath of gay rights groups again the world over. And it's this one little word that truly amazes me.

It amazes me, because if people were so offended by it in today's generally lenient standards then how did everyone deal with all of the gay double entendres in Some Like It Hot? Some may see it as a blessing or a curse but the negative stigma that's been so attached to gays for so long is what makes the "Osgood I'm a man!", "Well, nobody is perfect!" interplay so fascinating. Not only is the line perfect and very funny but that darned last line in the film must have driven people up the wall.

Overall, Some Like It Hot still manages to hold up this well even fifty one years after its original release. The actors in it all fit very well together, the writing is fast-paced, funny and cleverly original, the direction is rather knowledgeable and the music fits in quite nicely. The film I'm sure was a bloody nightmare for the people who ran the production codes because this movie breaks all of the conventions of the time with the giddy, wide eyed, panache-filled, boyish exuberance that made it a classic.