Some Like It Lukewarm

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2001)

An amusing, well-packaged comedy, but with the humour too broad and self-conscious to ever be the classic it's chalked up to be.
There seems to be some debate over which of the two male leads is funniest. Clearly it's Tony Curtis (Who has recently denied he ever said his infamous "kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler" quote - Lemmon insists he did), who gets a dual role, not just as a female impersonator but as a Cary Grant send-up. After this superb take-off you can never watch a Grant film in quite the same way again. Curtis is better looking, cooler and much subtler in the role than Lemmon. To this regard, Jack irksomely overplays his part, his mannerisms and body language constantly over the top. There are some great lines ("I'll make it up to you" "You're making it up pretty good so far"; He's got an empty stomach and it's gone to his head") and, apart from dubious soft focus for Marilyn's close-ups, the direction is excellent for a screwball comedy. The decision to film in black and white was also a good move. And look out for some great in-jokes, such as George Raft scolding a coin-tossing crook with "Where'd you get that cheap trick?"
Perhaps the 120-minute running time is too long for the subject matter, and it does get a bit draggy in parts. Forty-two years have passed since the film was made, so that the somewhat naive laughs of gender and sexuality confusions no longer pack the same punch in a more enlightened age. Nevertheless, as an historical document this is still an important work.