"Wait for Sugar!"

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2008)

After ranting in my West Side Story write-up about how certain movies cry out to be experienced in an actual movie theatre (although I did conclude that West Story Story can be appreciated on a smaller screen), I decided to write about another classic movie that actually is enhanced by the smaller-screen experience: Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy gem, Some Like It Hot.
I did get to see this in a movie theatre in Hollywood a few years back (with excellent popcorn!), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a beautifully executed piece, in all ways: The plot moves along briskly, the situations are exploited for all they're worth without ever descending into heavy-handedness, and Monroe, Curtis and Lemmon show the world why they became Movie Stars of the highest calibre - their characterizations are flawless, their comedic timing impeccable, and Curtis looks gorgeous in drag, let's face it.
At home, on the smaller screen, this film plays amazingly well. The intimacy level is higher, of course, and you're easily drawn into the delightful story without feeling as if you're watching something horrifically dated, which I do feel with most films made before the '70s, say. The great Billy Wilder wrote and directed some fantastic movies in his career, and Some Like It Hot is right up there, at the pinnacle.