8/9/2006

Some Like It Hot
By Tom Range, Sr.

In 2000, the American Film Institute (AFI) issued a listing of what 1,500 leaders of the film industry considered the top 100 of America's Funniest Movies.  Number One was the 1959 movie "Some Like It Hot."

The story is about two jazz musicians, Joe (played by Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), who accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 Chicago.  Fearing that they will be "rubbed out" as potential squealers to the gangland killing, Joe, a saxophone player and the bass player Jerry, devise a plan for disguising their identities and eluding the mobsters.  Soon they are all dolled up and performing as Josephine and Daphne in Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopaters, an all girl jazz band.  En route to Florida by train, the boys (now in drag as girls) make the acquaintance of Sue's lead singer Sugar Kane, (Marilyn Monroe).  Joe and Jerry immediately fall in love with Sugar, though of course their new feminine identities prevent them from acting on their desires.  Still, they are determined to woo her, and after arriving in Florida they enact an elaborate series of gender-bending ruses complicated by a flirtatious Florida millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown) who has fallen in love with "Daphne."  The plot gets even thicker when gangster Spats Colombo (George Raft) and his boys, the perpetrators of the massacre, also arrive.

Not only does the pair now have to maintain their female identities to distract Spats's mob, but they have to discourage Osgood from pursuing Daphne and encourage Sugar to fall for Josephine.  In following up with Sugar, Joe assumes the disguise of a rich playboy.  Sugar, not recognizing Joe/Josephine in this disguise, takes the bait and they flee the band and the gangsters in Osgood's boat.  Daphne in turn has little success in dissuading Osgood's advances and his offer of marriage.

The closing dialog of this delicious romp into cross-dressing is typical of the farcical quality of the film.  It takes place in Osgood's motorboat with the millionaire at the wheel, Daphne beside him in the front seat and Josephine, now as Joe, next to Sugar in the back seat.
Osgood: I called Mama.  She was so happy she cried.  She wants you to have her wedding gown.  It's white lace.

Daphne:  Yeah, Osgood.  I can't get married in your mother's dress. Ha ha. That, uh - she and I, we are not built the same way.
Osgood:  We can have it altered.
Daphne:  Aw, no you don't!  Osgood, I'm going to level with you.  We can't get married at all.
Osgood:  Why not?
Daphne:  Well, in the first place, I'm not a natural blond.
Osgood:  Doesn't matter.
Daphne: I smoke.  I smoke all the time.
Osgood:  I don't care.
Daphne:  Well I have a terrible past.  For three years now, I've been living with a saxophone player.
Osgood:  I forgive you.
Daphne:  I can never have children.
Osgood:  We can adopt some.

Jerry/Daphne:  But you don't understand, Osgood.  (He whips off his wig, exasperated, and changes to a manly voice.)  Uh, I'm a man.

Osgood (unruffled, undaunted, and still in love):  Well, nobody's perfect.

This last line of dialogue was thought up by co-screenwriter I. A. L. Diamond the night before the scene was shot.  It is considered the greatest fade-out line in film history.  While the presence of Curtis, Lemmon and Joe E. Brown, professionals all, guaranteed the movie's success, director Billy Wilder proved a genius in drawing out the comedic talents of Marilyn Monroe.  Behind the scenes, she exhibited the unprofessional traits that plagued her and her associates throughout her career in the form of perpetual tardiness, muffed lines necessitating numerous takes, and the like.  Ms. Monroe had demanded that the film be shot in color, but backed off when the makeup transforming Joe/Jerry to Josephine/Daphne showed up green in early color footage.

The original title of this gender-bending farce was "Not Tonight, Josephine'" adapted, it is said, from a remark made by Napoleon to his wife.  The title as finalized is taken from a line in the nursery rhyme "Pease Porridge Hot."

For all its comedic escapades and excellent performances, "Some Like It Hot" garnered only one Academy Award, for costume design.  Nominee for Best Director, Billy Wilder, lost to William Wyler in 1959, Jack Lemmon lost to Charleton Heston as Best Actor and Best Picture award went to "Ben Hur."

"Some Like It Hot," for all its cross-dressing and Monroe's ample charms, is remarkably innocent.  Its staying power is evident by its being ranked number one in the AFI survey, taken over 40 years after its release, and its still overshadows the vulgarity of modern comedies.

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