A One Mann’s Movies review of “Some Like It Hot” (1959).
On my Flickering Dreams podcast, we recently talked about our favorite movies by director Billy Wilder. Emma Sewell chose “Some Like It Hot,” which she had watched in a movie theater. I mentioned that it would be wonderful to watch it on the big screen again. As if by magic, Everyman included it in their “Throwback” series this week, and they even offered a complimentary glass of wine and popcorn! I must say, watching it on the big screen was fantastic!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
After witnessing a hit by Chicago mobster ‘Spats’ Colombo (George Raft), struggling musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) disguise themselves as women (now Josephine and Daphne) and join ‘Sweet Sue’s’ orchestra on a train bound for Florida. But their female guises are severely tested when they meet the sexy ukelele and singer Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe).
Certification:
UK: 12; US: ‘Passed’. (From the BBFC web site (summarised): “Mild violence, mile comic sex references and innuendo”).
Talent:
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, George Raft, Joe E. Brown, Pat O’Brien.
Directed by: Billy Wilder.
Written by: Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond (Suggested by a story by Robert Thoeren & Michael Logan).
Twitter Handle: #SomeLikeItHot.
Is there another comedy film that dishes up an hilarious line as the very last line of the film? I honestly can’t think of one… please comment if you can! (Source: The Mirisch Corporation).
“Some Like It Hot” Review:
Positives:
- What a classic script! I’d forgotten all about the set-up of the film: the hearse/police car chase; the police raiding the speakeasy, owned by ‘Spats’, where Joe and Jerry are working; the vicious ‘snitches-get-stiches’ murder of ‘Toothpick’ Charlie (George E. Stone). It’s brilliantly done.
- There are some GREAT comic lines in the film. One of my favourites features Sugar and Joe, in disguise as the millionaire ‘Shell Jr’ and doing a wonderful Cary Grant impression:
Sugar: “Isn’t water polo terribly dangerous?”
Junior: “I’ll say. I had two ponies drowned under me.”
I also loved the joke at George Raft’s trademark silver-coin tossing trademark: “cheap trick” he quips to the coin-tossing hood.
- The male leads, Curtis and Lemmon, are perfectly cast. And it feels a brave step for Curtis to cross-dress and do comedy like this… his previous CV has him largely in ‘butch’ action roles like “Beachhead”, “The Square Jungle” and “The Vikings”. But he’s brilliant, as is Lemmon who had more of a comedy pedegree up to that point. But almost stealing the show in a supporting role is the wonderful Joe E. Brown as Osgood Fielding III – simply priceless old-school physical comedy, and the one to deliver one of the most famous closing lines in movie history!
- Marilyn, oh Marilyn…. sigh. She radiates such sex-appeal and charisma, with some great songs including the classic “I Want To Be Loved By You”. Her outfits are revealing in the extreme for the time. But the film at one point mirrors the personal struggles that history shows were going on with Marilyn in her life at tat time: where she was constantly “getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop”.
Sugar: “I don’t want you to think I’m a drinker. I can stop anytime I want to. Only, I don’t want to, especially when I’m blue”
It might be great acting, or me putting more into it than there is, but on the big screen the light seems to fade from her eyes as she says the line, which perhaps cut a little too near to the truth for her.
Negatives:
- The film is ancient history (two years before I was even born… it’s THAT old!), and then it was set in the roaring twenties so another 30+ years before that. As such, some of the attitudes of men towards women as sexual objects to be ogled and groped at will would not pass muster by today’s standards.
- Some of the jokes were clearly very funny at the time but went over my head like a “Barbie” joke over a 6-year old’s head!
Summary Thoughts on “Some Like It Hot”
It’s a classic film, and just SOOOOO good to see again on the big screen. The presentation was a wonderful 4K restoration copy, so as sharp as a pin. Putting the rampant mysogyny to one side, its a comic treat that still delights nearly 65 years late.
By the way, the Hotel masquerading as the Seminole Ritz is in fact the Coronado Hotel in Coronado, San Diego and is still there and looking as grand (on Streetview) as it does in the movie
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Trailer for “Some Like It Hot”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI_lUHOCcbc .
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