“Some Like It Hot” (1959), perhaps Billy Wilder’s most crowd-pleasing film if not his deepest, is one of those special comedies that’s funny even in between its set pieces. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, as saxophonist Joe and bassist Jerry, spend much of the movie dressed up as women, having fled to Florida to escape 1920s Chicago bootleggers who know they witnessed a mob hit.
Varieties of humor
They decide to be “Josphine” and “Geraldine,” but Jerry blurts out “Daphne” when singer/ukelele player Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) asks “her” name. That’s an example of the film’s snort-worthy, random-timing humor.
On the unsubtle end of the spectrum, we get the plain ole absurdity of two obvious men passing as women in what is essentially a fantasy land. It’s especially extreme when Jerry prances around the beach in a ladies’ swimsuit – although considering the modest swimwear styles of the time, I suppose it could happen.
“Some Like It Hot” (1959)
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
After the buddies devise their public disguises of dresses and women’s hats (with padding in strategic areas), Lemmon spends most of the movie as Daphne. But Curtis gets the meatier role; he switches back and forth between Joe, Josephine and a third character, the millionaire Junior who affects a Cary Grant-esque “mid-Atlantic” accent. Lemmon is the better of the two as a comedic actor, but the understated Curtis gets more variety.
As we’d expect from Wilder and regular writing partner I.A.L. Diamond, the screenplay moves efficiently despite the logistical challenges for Joe and Jerry. Smoothly, Junior is able to take Sugar to “his” offshore yacht, because the actual yacht owner – an older bachelor who is not picky in his dating choices — is ashore, romancing Daphne.
This leads to a great set-piece for Curtis and a drawn-out gag for Lemmon. Junior claims an inability to be turned on by women, thus challenging Sugar to prove him wrong. Monroe plays Sugar as bubbleheaded, but knowingly so. She is appealing, although with all the Monroe hype through the ages, it’s remarkable how down-to-earth she is on screen.
Setting a high bar
When Daphne gets caught up in the attentions of the older gentleman, forgetting that he’s not a woman, it’s ridiculous on the face of it. (“Who’s the lucky girl?” “I am!”) But Wilder and Diamond ratchet up the events from shakily plausible to insane at such a carefully calibrated clip that I happily took the ride, and laughed at one of the most famous final lines in cinema history: “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Though I’m always impressed by movies that are simultaneously idiotic and ingenious (“Dumb and Dumber” is an all-time fave), “Some Like It Hot” isn’t quite perfect. A gag with a young porter who finds Josephine attractive never lands. And the film lags in the final act – before recovering with that great line – when it’s shorter on wacky sequences than it could’ve been. We merely get the mobsters chasing after the two buddies, who switch back and forth between their guises.
Thematically, “Some Like It Hot” is not as rich as the top-shelf Wilder films, with Prohibition being a set-up, not a theme. But it sets a bar for gender-swap comedies; the other greats owe a debt. “Some Like It Hot” unfortunately lacks a scene where one of the guys completely forgets what role he’s supposed to be playing, although it flirts with it via overlooked earrings and high-heeled shoes. “Mrs. Doubtfire” would take the next step when Robin Williams’ character forgets to change out of the old-lady disguise and blurts that he has to piss like a racehorse.
“Some Like It Hot’s” humor is blunt and old-fashioned, with the risque elements hinted at between the lines in a way Wilder had mastered by this point. Although there’s extreme violence in the mob-versus-prohibitionist battles, somehow it makes no impact on the tone, which remains light.
Some of today’s easily offended crowd might not like to see throwaway transgenderism as a source of absurdist comedy. But I haven’t heard any of that; “Some Like It Hot’s” good spirit must shine through for almost everyone.
IMDb Top 250 trivia
- “Some Like It Hot” ranks No. 133 with an 8.2 rating, making it the highest-ranked gender-swap movie on the list.
- Other 1959 films on the list are “North By Northwest” (No. 103, 8.3) and “Ben-Hur” (No. 184, 8.1).
- This is Lemmon’s second highest-rated film, behind “The Apartment” (No. 99, 8.3), which he made with Wilder one year later.
- It’s Monroe’s peak, barely. “All About Eve” (1950) is close behind at No. 139 (8.2).
Wilder Wednesdays looks at the catalog of legendary writer-director Billy Wilder.