The Wilder Monroe

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2008)

Not all of Wilder's projects are as well designed as this. But among the best designed of films before 1960 are his.
This is classic because its about sex as so, so many movies are. But it uses Monroe in ways that greatly exceed her ability to use herself. I believe that the Monroe legend is because of Wilder's placing of her in a context that amplified her appeal.
Wilder had worked with her before. He selected and co-wrote the screenplay around her, adapting as he went.
The situation is set up to provide a context of shifting sexual identity so that she can anchor the thing with us concluding that yes, this is sex. This is what it means to be a desirable woman.
And its not just the obvious things, the drag identities. Its in the girl jazz band. The machine gunner jumping out of a cake instead of a stripper, the business of a funeral really being a party, the henpecked manager: pronounced "beanstalk." Even in boozing out of a hot water bottle.
Its so deft in structure, so accommodating to her strengths and weaknesses, that it makes me cry, knowing that Wilder only was tuned properly for two films. And this one was essentially a waste, except for getting her past the tipping point of being a legend, a presidential plaything and Warhol icon.
The problem of this movie is that after its all engineered and polished, after all the targeting and focus, it just isn't that funny. What was funny sixty years ago  men in drag is screwball situations  just doesn't catch today. You have to do a context reset and you might like who you pretend to be.
Its a great structure, a masterpiece of understanding and designing cinema for a specific purpose. And a sad waste.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.