Some Like It Hot Review
By: T.J. “I want another cup of coffee” Mulligan
There are quite a few staples of classic Hollywood comedy films, thematic elements that are sure to get a laugh at least simply from their use alone. People falling down or getting hit, characters of immense yet innocent ignorance, and cross dressing. While there are examples of films in which women dress as men, there just doesn’t seem to be the same effectiveness in the comedy as when men dress as women. While Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage are all classic comedies in which cross dressing is utilized, arguably the most well received of these films is Some Like It Hot. Widely considered by many to be the very best comedy film ever made, it further goes to show that there may be something to this cross dressing = comedy thing (though it probably didn’t know that it would lead to three different Big Momma’s House movies).
Some Like It Hot is about Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), two jazz musicians living and working in a prohibition-laden Chicago of the 1920s. When their steady job in a speakeasy is taken away they go to find legitimate work at an agency that tells them the only job available for people of their talents is in an all-female jazz group heading to Florida. Though Jerry seems to think they can pull it off, Joe is opposed to the idea, instead trying to find something else around town. As they head to a garage to borrow a friend’s car for a gig that’s out a ways, they are witness to a gangland shooting led by mobster “Spatz” Columbo (George Raft). They barely flee the scene with their lives at which point Joe to finally caves in, leading the two to don disguises as women, calling themselves Josephine and Daphne, and join the jazz ensemble. Once on board the train heading to Florida, the two have to learn quick how to assimilate to life as a woman to fit in with the other women in the group, including bombshell “Sugar” Kane Kowalczyk (Marylin Monroe). Hilarity ensues as Joe and Jerry try to balance their masculine urges with their newly-acquired feminine wiles, Joe begins falling for Sugar, and the mobsters visit the same Florida resort in which the jazz group is staying and playing.
As famous and well known as this movie is, I really didn’t know what I was in for when I started the DVD. I figured there would be slapstick humor, mainly regarding men trying to fit into women’s roles and not quite pulling it off, but what I got was much more. Within 2 minutes into the film there is a shootout between cops and bootleggers flying through the streets of Chicago. Bootlegging? Mobsters? I thought this was a funny little movie about dudes in dresses. Perhaps the most pleasantly surprising part of this film was how many times I laughed out loud. Here I am, a man in my mid twenties in the year 2011 watching a comedy made over 50 years ago, and I’m laughing hysterically at some of the parts in this film. I can see now why it has made and continues to make lists of top comedy films so many years onward: it just has a style and feel that, while dated, resounds even now.
The beauty of this film lies in the writing, with whip-fast jokes written in to rapid-fire dialogue, but it is nothing without it’s delivery. Curtis mainly plays it straight and Monroe delivers as the ditsy Sugar, but the champion of this film is Lemmon. He brings the screenplay to life with everything from his delivery of the lines to his facial expressions and body language while doing it. You can witness in him the level of discomfort Jerry has while dressed as Daphne slowly disappearing as the film goes on until, by the end, you start to believe that maybe the character is actually more comfortable portrayed as a woman. Perhaps it has more to do with the great direction provided by Billy Wilder, but Lemmon showcases in this film why he was able to retain such relevancy as a comedic actor throughout his years Hollywood. I’ll watch him over Martin Lawrence any day.
I give Some Like It Hot 4 Shell Oil logos out of 5.
