Some Like It Hot
An out and out American great.
Getting to see Some Like It Hot on the big screen was perfect. The atmosphere in the screening truly added to the feeling of how loved and humorous this movie was and still is.
In 1929 two musicians playing for cheques end up witnessing a shooting and run for their lives. To both hide from the gangsters and try to gain more money they join a female band in Florida. Joe/Josephine (Tony Curtis) becomes drawn to ukulele player Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) and poses as a millionaire, whilst Jerry/Daphne ends up further from Sugar yet closer to his own wealthy partner.
Usually the idea of camp drag acts stirs poor comedy or tacky Little Britain sketches but here the whole notion never feels cheap. There’s a fun cleverness to the two men fleeing Chicago and donning dresses, from the way they admire the work women go through to Daphne him/herself getting used to the possibility of being a girl.
Billy Wilder directs this motion picture fantastically, the way everything is set up is clear, the plot progresses at a great pace and little touches from Spats to the dialogue Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond write are smart and laugh out loud funny. Of course there’s a lot of comedy revolving around the objectification of women as the two male runaways gawp at their new female friends but as they’re stuck without progressing on their lustful feelings it becomes a joke at their own expense.
A yacht seduction is a neat scene of twisting the gender stereotype, and what makes this sequence even better is the cutting away to a long tango session between Daphne and rich man Osgood. The film develops and so does Jerry’s obsession with the ideal of being with this elderly gentleman.
Sugar Kane may have been used, and so their whole romance feels a little wrong, her awareness of how unintelligent she is doesn’t come across like much of a valid excuse for them pairing her up with a man who manipulated her into feeling things for him. This is the only element of the movie that didn’t work for me.
Marilyn Monroe delivers a healthy amount of laughs as she dumbly parades her beauty about, though it’s still clear she’s there as both a big sex symbol and songstress. Tony Curtis has an amazing pout as Josephine, his voice change as Junior is so bad it’s great and he works well with partner in crime Jack Lemmon. Lemmon himself is wonderful, stealing the show as he shrieks, cackles and gurns throughout.
The comedy is broad for all to enjoy but is refined with intelligence too. One of the finer funny films for sure and an out and out American great that will always be a classic.
8.5/10
