Trouble with Marilyn

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2007)

'It's the biggest slapstick comedy ever created,' Billy Wilder used to warn the reporters.
Gangsters from the era of prohibition and ladies from a female orchestra. Milioneers and the unemployed of the Great Crisis. Escapes and chases. Love. Sex and dressing-ups. All this spins in a craftly-planned order.
In the year 1984 an English magazine 'Time Out' judged 'Some Like It Hot' very harshly. 'Stereotypical sexism, hopelessly stupid jokes, lots of bad taste.' Five years later, the same magazine asked 60 film critics and directors to join a survey for 100 greatest film in the history of cinema and Wilder's movie ended up on the 4th place. As the greatest comedy of all times. In movie guidelines edited by that newspaper, the quoted opinion has never been repeated.
The idea was given to the writers by a German film 'Fanfares of Love' with a female orchestra 'The Cyclamens' and dressing-ups. They however changed everything here. The plot begins in the year 1929 in Chicago. Joe and Jerry. Two unemployed musicians. They unwillingly become witnesses of the infamous St. Valentine's Day massacre and the begin running away in female costumes. They join a female orchestra which is on its way to Florida. Joe. Dressed as Josephine. He falls in love in a singer called Sugar. And Jenny as Daphne becomes an object of energetic courtship of an old millionaire.
A parody of gangster movies from the 20's. It fluently bind with humor and burlesque of the crazy comedies from the 30's. The dressing-ups give occasions of playing uncountable spicy jokes. And they co-create the atmosphere of the film which is filled with eroticism. But Wilder succeeds in keeping balance.
The film was such a big success thanks to marvelous acting of the the three main performers. Tony Curtis as Joe makes a parody of Cary Grant. Jack Lemmon with the role of Jerry/Daphne begun a wonderful co-operation with Wilder (7 movies, including 'The Apartment'). And Marilyn Monroe. Sensual. Full of charm. Always troubled with something. She made a discrete parody of a naive-blond-type. And she filled the gaps of her role with some songs.
There was however a mass of trouble with her. Monroe was usually late or she didn't appear on the stage. She didn't remember her dialogs. She sometimes got the grip after more than 20 cuts. There is a scene. She goes into Joey's room in it. And she asks, 'Where is the bourbon?'. That scene was repeated 47 times. Nothing helped. Even cards with text that were put in the drawers she was opening. Noot even big signs behind the camera. Her partner, Tony Curtis, was significantly frustrated. He was tired of repeating because his freshness of play was gone. After the scene with the kiss, Curtis said, "Kissing Monroe is like kissing Hitler". The behavior of the actress was later explained by her shyness. Her problems. Suspecting her own disbelief in her talent. And psychological depression caused by the fact that she was pregnant at that time.
The movie won Golden Globe Awards for the best comedy and the performances by Marylin Monroe and Jack Lemmon. However the Oscar went only to the costume designer - Orry-Kelly.