We STILL Like It Hot
One of the most successful films of 1959, Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, is still one of the greatest comedy farces.
Set in gin-and jazz-soaked Chicago during the crime-rampant Prohibition era, when Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) witness a mob killing (the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, to be precise), the pair need to go on the run, and fast.
Scenes from Some Like It Hot
The two struggling musicians, having earlier been refused a gig because it was for an all-girl jazz band, soon decide to disguise themselves as Josephine (Joe) and Geraldine (Jerry). Waiting on the station platform, dresses and makeup on, they meet the band’s ukulele-playing singer, Sugar Cane Kowalczyk, played by Marilyn Monroe. (Incidentally, Monroe’s infamous wiggle across the platform was achieved thanks to half an inch being shaved off one of her heels.) The rest is pure comedy.
Despite being released at the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, when movie studios weren’t quite so scrupulous regarding censorship restrictions, the film still received some negative comments. It was director Billy Wilder’s intention to challenge the censorship system, fi lling his fi lm with spoofs of every sexual stereotype, from transvestism to homosexuality.
From left: Marilyn Monroe plays the ukulele in the all-girls band, joined by the boys in drag
Given Monroe’s racy costumes, the references to alcoholism and the many double entendres, it’s small wonder that the Catholic League of Decency took off ence, describing it as ‘seriously off ensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency’. Kansas went further, banning the film from being shown in the state – the cross-dressing was just ‘too disturbing for Kansans’.
Clockwise from top left: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon rise to the occasion by tossing their wigs to the wind. Curtis and Lemmon compete for Marilyn’s a ection
But the wider public didn’t agree – the film took $7.2m (a fortune at the time) in its first year of release. It went on to receive an Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Black and White Film). And it was nominated for other awards which, many argue, it would have won had it not been up against Ben-Hur, one of the biggest winners in awards history.
Either way, 55 years on, on its re-release one thing is clear: Some Like It Hot still has legs.
Some Like It Hot is in cinemas now, www.parkcircus.com
Set in gin-and jazz-soaked Chicago during the crime-rampant Prohibition era, when Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) witness a mob killing (the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, to be precise), the pair need to go on the run, and fast.
Scenes from Some Like It HotThe two struggling musicians, having earlier been refused a gig because it was for an all-girl jazz band, soon decide to disguise themselves as Josephine (Joe) and Geraldine (Jerry). Waiting on the station platform, dresses and makeup on, they meet the band’s ukulele-playing singer, Sugar Cane Kowalczyk, played by Marilyn Monroe. (Incidentally, Monroe’s infamous wiggle across the platform was achieved thanks to half an inch being shaved off one of her heels.) The rest is pure comedy.
Despite being released at the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, when movie studios weren’t quite so scrupulous regarding censorship restrictions, the film still received some negative comments. It was director Billy Wilder’s intention to challenge the censorship system, fi lling his fi lm with spoofs of every sexual stereotype, from transvestism to homosexuality.
From left: Marilyn Monroe plays the ukulele in the all-girls band, joined by the boys in dragGiven Monroe’s racy costumes, the references to alcoholism and the many double entendres, it’s small wonder that the Catholic League of Decency took off ence, describing it as ‘seriously off ensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency’. Kansas went further, banning the film from being shown in the state – the cross-dressing was just ‘too disturbing for Kansans’.
Clockwise from top left: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon rise to the occasion by tossing their wigs to the wind. Curtis and Lemmon compete for Marilyn’s a ection But the wider public didn’t agree – the film took $7.2m (a fortune at the time) in its first year of release. It went on to receive an Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Black and White Film). And it was nominated for other awards which, many argue, it would have won had it not been up against Ben-Hur, one of the biggest winners in awards history.
Either way, 55 years on, on its re-release one thing is clear: Some Like It Hot still has legs.
Some Like It Hot is in cinemas now, www.parkcircus.com
DID YOU KNOW?
- With Billy Wilder’s approval, Tony Curtis imitated Cary Grant for his part as the millionaire in the film. When Grant saw the parody, he commented, ‘I don’t talk like that.’
- In 2008 an old black dress found in a wardrobe by a man in California turned out to be one of Marilyn Monroe’s costumes. It was estimated to be worth $250,000.
- To check how good their make-up skills and costumes were, Curtis and Lemmon decided to go out and see if they could fool the public. When there were no complaints about them using the ladies’ room they knew they had achieved the perfect look. This scene was recreated in the film.
- It was initially supposed to be lmed in colour, but the make-up Curtis and Lemmon wore gave their faces a green tinge so black and white was chosen.