Some Like It Hot on Reel 13

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2009)

It's interesting to me that, for a movie that is essentially silly and contrived at heart, SOME LIKE IT HOT works so well and holds up even today. I mean, as I'm sure you've heard if you've watched Thirteen at all this week, AFI recently named SOME LIKE IT HOT as the greatest American comedy of all-time. If the same movie were made today, I'm not sure it would fly. In today's more liberated society, men dressing up as women isn't that much of a novelty and it is my opinion that modern audiences would reject the coincidences that the plot hinges on (Lemmon and Curtis actually witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre AND the mob chasing them just happens to show up at the same hotel in Florida!). However, because it is from the fifties and in black and white, today's audiences tend to be a little more accepting, as if to assume that's they way things were done back then.
While I don't agree that plot contrivance was a staple of 1950's cinema (though it is pre- eminent in a lot of Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond screenplays), I do agree that SOME LIKE IT HOT is a fabulous comedy. The key question is what makes it overcome those more absurd moments. It's not the performances. In spite of her iconic stature, Marilyn Monroe was never a very good actor and that remains true here. Tony Curtis is better imitating Cary Grant than he is at playing the Joe/Josephine character. Jack Lemmon doesn't disappoint and has many strong moments, even though when he is his Daphne make-up, his uncanny resemblance to The Joker from the BATMAN movies is very disconcerting.
No, I think what makes SOME LIKE IT HOT work is outstanding, precise direction. Billy Wilder writes some great dialogue, but I think his most underrated contribution to cinema comedy is his sense of pace and comic timing. The way some of his stronger films move and seem to breathe give them an energy that keeps the audience involved in the story, but also, to some degree, hides the less plausible elements of the plot. Even some of his lesser work like ONE, TWO, THREE (the Reel 13 Classic from March 29th) relies heavily on alternating between freneticism and stoicism and knowing just when to employ each (Soderbergh calls it "rhythm and release"). The staging of scenes borrow equally from Ernst Lubitsch (dialogue-driven) and Mack Sennett (physical comedy) to create this hybrid style that became all Wilder – a sort of modern farce that, in the case of SOME LIKE IT HOT, had particular resonance because of how it innocuously played with sexual conventions at a time when attitudes toward sex and sexuality were starting to shift.
Most importantly, however, is that SOME LIKE IT HOT is just great fun. Smart dialogue, sharp direction, disguises, mistaken identity – the works, all executed with great deftness and care. While I disagree that SOME LIKE IT HOT is the greatest comedy of all time (haven't they seen AIRPLANE?) or that it is Billy Wilder's best film (see last week's blog for THE APARTMENT), it's still a fabulous, memorable movie that in spite of its penchant for silliness, will probably live forever.
(For more information on this or any other Reel 13 film, check out their website at www.reel13.org)