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Review Archive
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    		•

    FILMS

    Some Like It Hot (1959)
  • Starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

  • Directed by Billy Wilder

    • Damnit I miss Jack Lemmon. This is the first time I've seen Tony Curtis in a film, and this is the third part I've seen Marilyn Monroe in—but goddamnit, I miss Jack. He had a stammer and befuddled stutter that always makes me laugh.

    Part of this may stem from the fact that Lemmon looked a lot (a lot!) like my grandfather, and, sadly they're both gone now. Grampa Murphy passed away New Years Eve of 1995. Jack Lemmon passed away June 27, 2001.

    I have only pictures of my grandfather and some memories that are getting fuzzier and more faded with each passing year. I suppose I like watching Jack Lemmon movies because his of mannerisms and the way he carries himself, and points, and taps people in the chest, and talks fast—and I can think, "Hey, that's sorta the way Grampa Murphy was. Sorta." Of course, whether Grampa actually acted like Lemmon way or not is irrelevant, isn't it? It's how I remember the man that's important—and I remember him as resembling Jack Lemmon. I'm not saying identical or anything. Just a resemblance, and that helps in some small way.

    Curtis and Lemmon are starving musicians who witness a mob murder and have to dress as women to escape getting wacked. By today's standards, that's a moderately tame and almost cliche premise. But today's movies have Arnold Schwarzenegger saving the world so, as an audience, we're really willing to believe anything, aren't we?

    Curtis and Lemmon join an all-girl band, of which Monroe is a ukelele-playing singer. And her character's name is, drum roll, please, "Sugar Kane." Now how can you beat that? I feel bad for Monroe sometimes, because (and this may be ancient history for some people, but I'm just now realizing it) she's handed yet another role where she's a ditzy, dumb, blond beauty. She can play that part. We've already seen it How to Marry a Millionaire and The Seven Year Itch. There are, however, a few moments in Some Like It Hot here Monroe brings more to the roll than the lines of the script. There's some facial expressions and movements, subtleties of character, that are neither ditzy nor beautiful—but rather completely human. And real. That's nice to see. Unfortunately, we don't get to see enough of that from Monroe.

    There are both small jokes and big jokes that made me smile, some that even made me laugh out loud. A few of them were obvious, like when the pair are still getting used to being dressed as women and Lemmon is unsure of which bathroom to use. But some of them are wonderful, throwaway lines that almost slide under your radar—like Curtis (as Josephine) giving Lemmon (as Daphne) advice before Lemmon's date with a man, "Fix your lipstick."

    This is a good film. But watching a movie like this makes me want to see another Tony Curtis movie and it makes me wish Marilyn Monroe was allowed more range. But most of all it makes me miss Jack Lemmon and Daniel Murphy.