Some Like It Hot

PLOT:

Two struggling musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), witness what looks like the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929. When the Chicago gangsters, led by ‘Spats’ Columbo (George Raft) spot them, the duo flee for their lives. They escape and decide to leave town, only to find the sole out-of-town jobs available are in an all-girl band headed to Florida. The two disguise themselves as women, calling themselves Josephine and Geraldine (later Jerry changes his pseudonym to Daphne), join the band and board a train. Joe and Jerry both fall for “Sugar Kane” (Marilyn Monroe), the band’s sexy vocalist and ukulele player, and fight for her affection while maintaining their disguises.

In Florida, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as a millionaire named “Junior”, the heir to Shell Oil, while mimicking Cary Grant’s voice. An actual millionaire, Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), falls for Jerry in his Daphne guise. One night Osgood asks Daphne out to his yacht. Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood ashore while he goes on the yacht with Sugar. That night Osgood proposes to Daphne who, in a state of excitement, accepts, believing he can finagle a large settlement from Osgood immediately following their wedding ceremony.

When the mobsters arrive at the same hotel for a conference honoring “Friends of Italian Opera”, Spats and his gang spot Joe and Jerry. After several humorous chases (and witnessing yet another mob murder), Jerry, Joe, Sugar, and Osgood escape to the millionaire’s yacht. Enroute, Sugar tells Joe that she’s in love with him and not with “Junior”. Jerry, for his part, tries to explain to Osgood that he cannot marry him, but Osgood is oblivious to all of Jerry’s objections and remains determined—to the very end—to go through with the marriage; finally, Jerry removes the wig and yells, “I’m a man!”, prompting Osgood to utter the film’s memorable last line “Well, nobody’s perfect.”

REVIEW:

I got chewed a new one for having not seen this before, so I took the time to watch it this morning and was pleasantly entertained.

In the ’50s, men in drag was still pretty much a taboo thing, so the fact that this film has its stars, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag for the majority of the film is astounding. Also, don’t quote me on this, I believe this is one of the first films to actually show people getting killed on camera.

Let’s be honest, though, the main reason many people have interest in this film is Marilyn Monroe. As with many of her other films, she plays the blonde (ditsy) bombshell. As much as I hate to say this, but, if you’ve seem one of her films, you’ve pretty much seen what she can do. The only difference here is she sings a couple of songs and shows a bit more emotion. Having said that, she still does a pretty good job.

Tony Curtis is the real star of the picture. He does triple duty…sort of. Although his British accent is pretty bad, its still funny to see him try to pull it off.

Jack Lemmon seems to take a backseat to Curtis and Marilyn, but he does have a few good scenes here and there.

The thing that bothers me about this film is that the guys, when they are in drag, look a bit like Herman Munster. Alot of people have been saying how beautiful they are, but I just don’t see it.

All in all this one of those classic films that you need to see. There music, laughter, gunplay, and smidgen of romance. Definitely worth a couple of hours.

4 out of 5 stars