Some Like it Hot (1959)

"Maybe those Dames aint Dames!!"

In 1959 Billy Wilder created a wildly hilarious comedy about two men on the run after witnessing the notorious Valentines Day Massacre. These two men, played flawlessly by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis disguised themselves as women and stowed away on a train full of female musicians. Upon joining the group as Cellist Daphne and Saxophonist Josephine, they meet Sugar, a softly spoken and elegant ukulele player, in the form of Marilyn Monroe.  The two men instantly fall about themselves and become besotted with her. They go to Florida and cavort in the sun, romp in the sand and play jazz music to rich people, all goes well until Daphne is targeted by serial womanizer Osgood Fielding III who attempts to woo ‘her’, meanwhile, Josephine returns to his original manly form and pretends to be a rich yachtsman in a bid to woo the ditsy Sugar. Soon enough though the past catches up on them and they become face to face with the men they had originally fled from. A hilarious and ridiculous tale of deceit, cross dressing, inappropriate bum pinching and a whole lotta laughs.

What was most amusing was that Daphne and Josephine were quite obviously two men dressed as women, and they miraculously managed to fool everyone they met.  Their voices sounded silly, their outfits were silly, but most of all their attempt to walk in heels was silliest of all. By avoiding slapstick comedy, Some Like It Hot got its laughs from witty writing and men dressed as women. Lemmon and Curtis were the biggest stars of the film, despite Monroe’s name being up in lights as the selling point for the movie (a decision, I’m sure, that was not made by Wilder). They bounce off each other in a way that makes their friendship completely believable in a totally unrealistic story world. Who can forget the infamous scene when Joe (Curtis) dons his disguise as a millionaire yachtsman and seduces Sugar on the yacht of actual millionaire Osgood who is simultaneously dating the supposedly seasick Daphne (Lemmon). The winning moment for me to this ridiculous situation is when Daphne returns to the hotel room engaged to Osgood, completely smitten and loved up with a diamond bracelet on his wrist. Its only when he repeats the words ‘Im a man, I’m a man, I’m a man” does he realize his mistake.

The films finale, in true Hollywood style, ends in a chase. The mobsters they were originally running from end up coming to the hotel where they are staying. Not fooled by their womanly disguises, they chase them out of the hotel and onto a small speedboat, driven by Osgood. Monroe comes tottering down the jetty and jumps in the boat after them, after discovering Josephine is the ‘millionaire yachtsman’ the two sink down and canoodle in the back of the boat. This leaves Osgood and Daphne, who are still engaged. After several ridiculous made up excuses for why they can’t get married Daphne ends up pulling off her wig and revealing Jerry underneath, declaring “I’m a man!” Prompting the films final and most famous lines from Osgood, “Well, Nobody’s perfect!”.

Three years after Some Like it Hot was released, Marilyn Monroe died, and this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of her death. As someone who isn’t particularly well versed on Marilyn Monroe, I thought it a fitting opportunity to write about her and one of her most famous roles. It seems Miss Monroe was a bit of a nightmare on a film set, notorious for being late and not knowing her lines. In the scene where Sugar comes into Daphne and Josephine’s hotel room looking for a bottle of Bourbon, the line was “Where’s the Bourbon?’ which took so long for her to get right that Billy Wilder actually had to write the line inside the drawer she was looking in while searching for the Bourbon.  Wilder told in an interview of how she would sometimes not even come out of her dressing room, causing huge delays in filming.

Her behavior aside, Marilyn Monroe was an absolute joy to watch as Sugar, she was charming, witty and charismatic. The scene on the train when the girls decide to have a little party in Daphne’s bunk was pure entertainment, which she played a massive part in creating. 

All in all, Some Like it Hot deserves the praise it received and Monroe deserved her Golden Globe. It is a great film, magnificently acted and beautifully scripted.  A perfect Sunday afternoon black and white to curl up on the sofa with.

Last Lines:

Osgood Fielding III – ‘Well, nobody’s perfect!’