Almost Perfect

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2007)

Wilder directs this classic comedy about musicians trying to escape from the mob with great verve and elicits memorable performances. It features the definitive dumb blonde performance by Monroe as Sugar Kane. Curtis does a good impression of Cary Grant, with whom he worked in "Operation Petticoat" the same year. Lemmon has one of his best roles as a woman in love. Brown is delightful as the man who lusts after Lemmon and gets to utter the film's famous closing line. The only quibbles are that the characters are cartoony and the violence is somewhat jarring for a comedy. As great as this is, Wilder would follow it up with another great comedy, "The Apartment."