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49. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Another Wilder film appears! This was one of the first classic films I watched when I started exploring the older decades of cinema. I watched it, because I just wanted to know if Marilyn Monroe really was that special. I had to see with my own eyes whether she deserved her status as probably the most famous sex icon of our modern age or not. The answer is of course "YES"! She's absolutely amazing. I've watched some other films of her (like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch) and time and time again, she steals the show with her charisma, her (seeming) innocence and her plain sensuality and femininity! She truly knew how to capture the cuteness, the helplessness, the hilarity, and above all, the sexappeal most of her roles required. The kind of characters she mostly played may not be as respectful or dramatically complex as the characters that were portrayed by screen legends like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn, but Monroe was absolutely fantastic in what she did, which was making audiences laugh, making them relate to her characters (even if there's not that much substance to them) and making men want to be with her. She was an absolute star!
Some Like It Hot is by far the best film Monroe was a major part of, in my opinion. It's actually one of my favorite comedies of all time! The reason for that is that Monroe's presence is merely one of the many things that makes this film so great. In fact, she's not even the best thing about it (which says a lot about how good this film really is)! It's an eventful, well constructed, well directed and perfectly written comedy (by the legendary Billy Wilder) and beside Marilyn Monroe's presence, we also get two awesome performances from Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
Marilyn Monroe plays the depressed, naive and adorable Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, who is the singer (and occasional ukulele player) of an all-girl band, and Lemmon and Curtis play Jerry and Joe, who are two musicians on the run for the mob, after they witnessed a massacre. They dress themselves as women and infiltrate into the all-girl band, which leads to a whole bunch of memorable comical and sexually tensive moments!
The strengths of this film are its script and the performances (especially Jack Lemmon's comical face expressions throughout are unforgettable). This film has one of the highest laugh/minute ratios ever for me personally, but there's also a certain melancholy to it all. The film basically features a couple of very desperate people, who just don't care anymore about their ego after a while and take a run with all the conventions that are set by society. They have fallen so deep that they'll eventually do almost everything and accept pretty much everyone to get what they want (mostly love). In the end they accept and embrace eachother, which causes a genuine happy ending, although it shouldn't be taken too seriously of course (which is fine for a comedy). This desperation causes a bunch of funny, tensive and heartfelt moments along the way! The film may never truly leave its comical mood, but I still feel related to these characters every time I watch it.
All in all, this film is just a hell of a ride. As I said before, I absolutely LOVE eventful films and this is definitely one of those. The story is also set in the depression era and Wilder decided to give the picture a wonderful old-fashioned look and atmosphere (while also cleverly mocking the social and cultural standards of those times), which is another aspect that I really love about this film. Let's just say that everything about this film just clicks with me (and many other people). It never fails to make me happy during rewatches and I'm sure it never will.
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Another Wilder film appears! This was one of the first classic films I watched when I started exploring the older decades of cinema. I watched it, because I just wanted to know if Marilyn Monroe really was that special. I had to see with my own eyes whether she deserved her status as probably the most famous sex icon of our modern age or not. The answer is of course "YES"! She's absolutely amazing. I've watched some other films of her (like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch) and time and time again, she steals the show with her charisma, her (seeming) innocence and her plain sensuality and femininity! She truly knew how to capture the cuteness, the helplessness, the hilarity, and above all, the sexappeal most of her roles required. The kind of characters she mostly played may not be as respectful or dramatically complex as the characters that were portrayed by screen legends like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn, but Monroe was absolutely fantastic in what she did, which was making audiences laugh, making them relate to her characters (even if there's not that much substance to them) and making men want to be with her. She was an absolute star!
Some Like It Hot is by far the best film Monroe was a major part of, in my opinion. It's actually one of my favorite comedies of all time! The reason for that is that Monroe's presence is merely one of the many things that makes this film so great. In fact, she's not even the best thing about it (which says a lot about how good this film really is)! It's an eventful, well constructed, well directed and perfectly written comedy (by the legendary Billy Wilder) and beside Marilyn Monroe's presence, we also get two awesome performances from Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
Marilyn Monroe plays the depressed, naive and adorable Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, who is the singer (and occasional ukulele player) of an all-girl band, and Lemmon and Curtis play Jerry and Joe, who are two musicians on the run for the mob, after they witnessed a massacre. They dress themselves as women and infiltrate into the all-girl band, which leads to a whole bunch of memorable comical and sexually tensive moments!
The strengths of this film are its script and the performances (especially Jack Lemmon's comical face expressions throughout are unforgettable). This film has one of the highest laugh/minute ratios ever for me personally, but there's also a certain melancholy to it all. The film basically features a couple of very desperate people, who just don't care anymore about their ego after a while and take a run with all the conventions that are set by society. They have fallen so deep that they'll eventually do almost everything and accept pretty much everyone to get what they want (mostly love). In the end they accept and embrace eachother, which causes a genuine happy ending, although it shouldn't be taken too seriously of course (which is fine for a comedy). This desperation causes a bunch of funny, tensive and heartfelt moments along the way! The film may never truly leave its comical mood, but I still feel related to these characters every time I watch it.
All in all, this film is just a hell of a ride. As I said before, I absolutely LOVE eventful films and this is definitely one of those. The story is also set in the depression era and Wilder decided to give the picture a wonderful old-fashioned look and atmosphere (while also cleverly mocking the social and cultural standards of those times), which is another aspect that I really love about this film. Let's just say that everything about this film just clicks with me (and many other people). It never fails to make me happy during rewatches and I'm sure it never will.
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