Still fresh after almost sixty years

Rating: 10/10 (29 November 2018)

Opening in 1929 in Chicago musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob assassination, committed by Spats Colombo, so have to go on the run. There are jobs with a band that is heading to Miami... there is just one catch; they are all girls. By the time the train is ready to head south Joe and Jerry have become Josephine and Daphne. On the journey they get to know the other girls and as Joe talks to singer Sugar and learns how she hopes to meet a bespectacled millionaire with a yacht rather than the usual succession on no-good saxophone players (Joe plays the Sax). Once in Miami sets about becoming just that man while a real millionaire, Osgood Fielding III, is attracted to Jerry's 'Daphne'! If that weren't enough Spats is in in town for a mob conference.
This film may be in black and white and almost sixty years old but don't let that put you off; it is still fresh and very funny. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are great as 'Josephine' and 'Daphne'; they may not be the most beautiful of women but they do at least look feminine enough that one can believe they would be mistaken for women. Marilyn Monroe is on top form as Sugar; particularly in the scenes were she is wooed by Joe's 'Shell Oil Jnr' persona. The laughs come thick and fast combining elements of farce and slapstick. One might worry that 'fifties morality' would be a problem but the attitudes are far more modern than one might expect. Overall I'd definitely say this film is a must see.