Some Like It Hot

Even in today’s modern and more accepting society, a movie where the actors dress as their opposite gender still gets a lot of attention. Back in 1959 America was a culturally conservative nation and when trailers for Some Like It Hot were shown at theaters, switchboards around the country lit up with mostly negative reaction to the film. The story of two musicians who witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and have to dress as women and join an all girl band to disguise themselves and escape the mob with their lives, was just a little too much for some movie goers. But it was the visionary writing and directing of Billy Wilder and the trio of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe that made this “disgrace” in filmmaking into one of the most celebrated comedies ever made.

Jack Lemmon plays Jerry and Tony Curtis plays Joe, the two musicians on the run for their lives. The two find themselves dressed as women, Daphne and Josephine, and on a train far away from trouble. It is then they meet Sugar, a young ukulele player and singer in the all girl jazz band. Marilyn Monroe plays Sugar and melts in your mouth as the voluptuous siren, who wants nothing more than to stop getting the “fuzzy end of the lollipop” and falling in love with deadbeat men who treat her badly. She wants desperately to meet a millionaire with eyes only for her. Monroe is able to portray the sexy heart breaker, but still have the vulnerability of the young girl who left home looking for a better life. Both Joe and Jerry find Sugar attractive, but it is the Joe (Curtis) who has decided to do anything to win Sugar’s heart. Curtis is brilliant playing the saxophone player who decides to pretend he is a millionaire, with an ingenious accent that is very reminiscent of Cary Grant, to woo Sugar. Joe is only able to do this because of his partner in crime Jerry/Daphne. Within moments of arriving at their destination, Daphne inadvertently catches the eye of a real millionaire who is very smitten with her. While the millionaire is wooing Daphne on land, Joe is able to convince Sugar he is the heir to the Shell Oil Fortune by using Daphne’s admirer’s vacant yacht. Lemmon is ideal as the bass playing Jerry/Daphne who finds himself in a most hilarious and confusing situation of holding onto his manhood while using his feminine prowess to entertain his rich suitor. Lemmon utilizes a mixture of physical and spoken comedy to keep his audiences in stitches. His facial expressions are worth a thousand words and give a glimpse into that mind full of mischief and laughter.

Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay and directed this comedy that was voted by the American Film Institute as the number one comedy of all time. His dialogue is smart and inventive with a timing all of its own. Wilder boldly marches into that grey area of inappropriateness mixed with the sweetness of human emotions. Although he did not plan for the movie to be released in black and white (Monroe’s contract specified only color pictures), the heavy make-up Lemmon and Curtis had to wear added an unsightly green tinge; but the lack of color adds an extra crispness and sharpness that reflects the dialogue and the performances by the actors. Wilder has made a career of presenting work that goes outside of the box and it is this daring approach to movie making that makes Some Like It Hot into another one of those successes. This movie is definitely not the ‘fuzzy end of the lollipop” but a comedic flavor all of its own.