How a Chance Meeting at Delmonico's Secured a Film Classic

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2014)

Of course, of course _ "Some Like it Hot" is arguably the greatest screwball comedy in the history of Hollywood. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. One of those details _ casting _ could have instantly derailed this classic. Who to dress up in drag with Tony Curtis, run from the mob led by George Raft and hook up with Marilyn Monroe at her most sensuous? Oh, and to field a marriage proposal from Joe E. Brown despite a, uh, gender issue? And by the way, what actor to play over the top without taking his own brilliance too seriously and ruining the whole shebang for everybody? On the 25th anniversary of the film, I acted as host-interviewer of "An Evening with Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond" and got a rare peek behind the scenes and an up-close look at both Wilder and Jack Lemmon, the actor who met the aforementioned requirements perfectly. I hope you find the following story amusing. Among other things, it illustrates that, no matter how high the budget and how big the stars, film is still an art form and chemistry matters, and that chemistry is very often predicated on serendipity and just plain luck.)
IN Hollywood, they say it's not what you know, but who you know. They might have added, it's also who you know if you run into each other at a serendipitous time.
I acted as host-interviewer for "An Evening with Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond" on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of "Some Like It Hot."
Great stories.
Wilder lived up to his reputation as one of Hollywood's great wits and raconteurs. A dervish behind thick Coke-bottle glasses chomping on an ever-present cigar stub, he was at once elegant and raw, a man who had fled the Nazis, pulled himself up by the bootstraps through talent and guile, and beaten Hollywood at its own game.
Jack Lemmon was just a nice guy. REALLY. The quintessential Hollywood Everyman, even nicer and more accommodating off-screen than on, which was saying a bunch.
He and Wilder would have one of the industry's great collaborative friendships. But not just yet. And this is how it started.
Lemmon told me he did not know Wilder well when, as luck would have it, he happened to be dining with his future wife, Felicia Farr, at Delmonico's restaurant one early Sunday evening at the same time as Wilder. The great director spied him and dropped by his table later on the way out.
Wilder, as was his way, came right to the point.
"Gunna do dis story where you'd dress up in drag and run avay vit a girls' band after seeing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre _ vonna do it?" he asked the startled actor (and who played startled better than Lemmon?).
Recalled Lemmon while sitting in his office (his Oscar for 1972's "Save the Tiger" gleaming on a shelf behind him): "In that one sentence, I had the whole story. For the first time, I took a role without having seen the script."
And we all know the result.
Oh well, nobody's perfect.