šĀ šĀ š rabbit rabbit rabbit for the first of May, and hordes of aroused bunnies are streaming in the streets, aggressively singing “L’Internationale”
Meanwhile, I had a wonderful dream last night, starring — a dream first — my grand-child Opal Armstrong Zwicky, who in real life is just about to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh. In the dream, Ā Opal and another young woman wrote a zany hit musical show in both English and Spanish. During the flurry of production, I met the grandfather of Opal’s collaborator, a charming man with whom I developed a friendship. My clothing, in the dream as in real life, clearly conveys that I’m gay, so this man, not wanting to be leading me on, admitted, gently, “You know, I’m straight” — to which I replied, quoting one of the great films of all time, “Well, nobody’s perfect” — a line I use frequently in my postings, after I celebrate some good friend, woman or man, whose nature runs contrary to tight gender norms, explaining that they’re straight, but, well, nobody’s perfect.
The movie is Some Like It Hot, and it’s aĀ French farce given a distinctly American twist, with mobsters and eccentric millionaires. I am astonished to see that I haven’t ever written it up on this blog. But now its day has come. It seems to afford no place for the Industrial Workers of the World, but, well, you can’t have everything.
From Wikipedia, basic facts:
Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American crime comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder. It stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, with George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff in supporting roles. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan from the 1935 French film Fanfare of Love [Fanfare d’amour]. The film is about two musicians (Curtis and Lemmon) during the Prohibition era who disguise themselves as women to escape Chicago mobsters they witnessed commit murder.
The actors in the central roles, who eventually assort themselves into two couples:
Tony Curtis as Joe / Josephine, a saxophone player / Shell Oil Junior, an oil heir (a role in which he can court Sugar)
Marilyn Monroe as Sugar “Kane” Kowalczyk, a ukulele player and singer
Jack Lemmon as Jerry / Daphne, a bassist
Joe E. Brown as millionaire Osgood Fielding III (who courts Daphne)
The two musicians (in drag), flanking the singer:
(#1) Joe (as Josephine) and Jerry (as Daphne), flanking Sugar; Wilder shot the film in b&w, because Josephine and Daphne’s dresses and makeup seemed too garish in color
Most of the cast were troupers good at taking on challenging roles (Tony Curtis had to play three very different roles), but Marilyn Monroe was stunningly difficult to work with; despite that, Wilder managed to coax a remarkable performance from her.
Osgood and Daphne:
(#2) Osgood studies Daphne
The final scene. As described in the Wikipedia article:
“Daphne” tries to get out of his engagement by listing reasons why “she” and Osgood cannot marry ā canāt wear Osgood’s motherās wedding gown because sheās ānot built the sameā, not a natural blonde, smokes, canāt have children, has been living with a saxophone player ā none of which dissuade Osgood. Exasperated, Jerry rips off his wig and says “I’m a man!” in his normal voice. Still smiling, Osgood replies “Well, nobody’s perfect!” confounding Jerry and leaving him speechless.
An astonishing finale to a gem of a movie — also providing one of the great movie quotations of all time.
May 1, 2025 at 4:36 pm |
Some Like It Hot is probably my favorite comedy movie of all time.
May 1, 2025 at 5:10 pm |
It’s intricately plotted, with regular surprises; it’s almost perfectly constructed; and everyone in the cast fully inhabits their character, exhibiting no awareness that they’re being funny for an audience (and *that* is very hard to pull off). There are other comedies I love — The In-Laws (our household movie for The Day The Dog Died) and A Fish Called Wanda (Jacques’s all-time favorite) — but most of them are noticeably self-aware, deliberately goofy (that’s a pleasure of its own, but it’s different from this total immersion).
And then it’s a pleasure for me to approve you as the commenter Lise. So much easier to deal with than your previous username.
May 2, 2025 at 6:24 am |
It seems to afford no place for the Industrial Workers of the World, but, well, *you canāt have everything*.
Missed opportunity there, surely.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Some Like It Hot in its entirety; I surely would have remembered that closing line. As things stand, my favorite comedic closing line is from the “Anniversary” episode of Fawlty Towers, where Basil, about to have to explain to his wife why he has locked her in a kitchen cabinet, goes off saying “Now for the tricky bit”. (W. C. Fields’ and Mae West’s exchange of each other’s taglines at the end of My Little Chickadee runs it a close second.)