A lens to view our changes in gender identity

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2015)

Humor, beyond the pure pleasure of laughter, can provide insights into the rules, norms and taboos of the times that by showing the distortion that provides release. At the time this was made, it was focused on a bygone era of murderous mobsters and their living sex toys.
Not only were gender roles defined, there were to the degree that the issue hadn't even been raised, neither in the time of depiction 1929 or three decades later when the film was made. The fun was that all it took for men to gambol with the chicks was their putting on dresses and wigs, and raising their voice an octave.
The DVD shows the complete film with commentary by the son of billy Wilder's co-writer, Babaloo Mandell along with Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis, describing more than the technical aspects Most touching were how Marilyn Monroe resonated to the fictional character. Curtis, without any bravado, told of how his on stage scene when he convinced her that he was impotent, and with tenderness and passion she "cured" him, echoed their actual love affair previously.
We also see the genius of writer director Billy Wilder at work in a way that can't be described outside of such a film as this where his interpersonal and literary talents were at play. While this is appropriately in the genre of comedy, it is really so much more. It is a love story, and a tale of the tragedy of the real Norma Jeane that was never far away from the actress. Sure, at times the pain of her early life (see Wikipedia) broke through to the detriment of efficiency of the filming. But so what? The film on one level provided laughter, but on another insight into the human condition.
It is also a benchmark of sexual stereotypes where the setup for that final memorial line, the universal absurdity of the disclosure that the object of sexual desire would not make a suitable wife because, "I'm a guy." This was a world where women could roll in bed together without any thought of sexuality between them, and the joke was there were two who were pretending, only playing a role, performing a part.
How far the world has come, a truth that must be acknowledged whether pleased or disturbed by the revolution. And the coda, "Nobody's Perfect" takes on a more profound irony behind the laughter.