I Watch Films: Some Like It Hot

 

Some Like It Hot

Joe (Tony Curtis) is a gambler and ladies man and also a saxophonist; Jerry (Jack Lemmon) is his friend, a double bass player in prohibition-era Chicago. The speakeasy they’re playing in, owned by vicious gangster Spats Columbo, is raided; they try to get another gig. Nellie, the agent’s secretary, an on-again-off-again girlfriend of Joe, suggests a band going down to Florida, but she’s having a joke; this is all-girl band Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopaters. They do get a dance for the night and go to borrow Nellie’s car. Unfortunately the garage is a front for the gangster who tipped off the police and Spats and his gang turn up to massacre them. Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women (Josephine and Daphne) and get on the train with the band.

Sweet Sue tries to maintain discipline, almost immediately fails. Having befriended Sugar “Kane” Kowalski (Marilyn Monroe) the attempt by Daphne to have a quiet drink with her in the bunk turns into a party. Both Joe and Jerry become obsessed with Sugar; when they arrive in Miami Joe disguises himself yet again as “Shell Oil Junior” a rich heir, and tries to seduce her by feigning disinterest in women. Daphne meanwhile is pursued by Osgood Fielding III an actual millionaire (also by the hotel bellboy).

All this moves along in classic farcical manner, occasionally dipping into satire about gender roles. Unfortunately for Joe and Jerry the hotel is hosting the Friends Of Italian Opera conference, cover for a mafia meeting. Trying to avoid being spotted Joe and Jerry are in the room when Little Bonaparte, the leader, has Spats and his gang killed (by a gunman popping out of a cake), leading to a madcap chase and the resolution of the two romance plots.

For a film that relies for a lot of it’s humour on two men in drag being inherently funny, it’s pretty good. The audacity and ridiculousness of almost every character carries it through, while Joe and Jerry bickering manages to not get tired, as each tries and fails to get the other to stop coming up with outrageous plans.

Watch This: Classic comedy with much to say about gender roles relevant even today
Don’t Watch This: Men dressed as women or men pretending to be rich do not amuse