Some Like it Hot!

So apparently, a startling amount of you are totally unfamiliar with this movie! This is a crime! I used to watch this over at my friend Emily's house at a young age (when we weren't watching Gone With The Wind), then I rediscovered it in my late teens and watched it a LOT! It is hilarious. Basically, Curtis and Lemmon- two musicians, have to hide out for a while from gangsters and they get a job with an all girl's jazz band, so they pretend to be women. Of course Marilyn is in the band and of course they both fall for her and become her best friends as women- and simultaneously try to woo her as men. Well, Lemmon gets into his own situation and kind of forgets himself and by himself I mean "him"self. It's a Billy Wilder concoction and here are some stats: (I did a little digging into this picture this week trying to help you guys out): It is listed in AFI's 100 greatest movies of all time, they ranked it #14 in greatest American movies and ranked it the #1 greatest comedy in their 100 years, 100 laughs list. Lemmon won the best actor Oscar, and the movie won several other Academy Awards and also Best Picture at the Golden Globes. I've got to say- I just love Jack Lemmon! He is so perfectly goofy. Some actors take goofy to proportions I don't care for (see Jerry Lewis), but Jack carried goofy like an art form. Tony Curtis was alright, but the show was stolen from him. I did get a kick out of his choice of imitating Cary Grant when he was pretending to be a millionaire while wooing Sugar (reportedly, Cary Grant saw the show and said, "I don't talk like that"-- yes you did Cary and we love you for it.) And finally, despite all the reported problems she brought, I am so glad Marilyn played Sugar. She is just darling. The problems she caused on the set are Hollywood legend. This movie was shot in the last few years of her life and we all know she was a downward spiral. Reportedly she was a no show, a mess when she did show, forgot her lines (many were written down on chalkboards- here is a little blurb about it from IMDB:

"Marilyn Monroe required 47 takes to get "It's me, Sugar" correct, instead saying either "Sugar, it's me" or "It's Sugar, me". After take 30, Billy Wilder had the line written on a blackboard. Another scene required Monroe to rummage through some drawers and say "Where's the bourbon?" After 40 takes of her saying "Where's the whiskey?", 'Where's the bottle?", or "Where's the bonbon?", Wilder pasted the correct line in one of the drawers. After Monroe became confused about which drawer contained the line, Wilder had it pasted in every drawer. Fifty-nine takes were required for this scene and when she finally does say it, she has her back to the camera, leading some to wonder if Wilder finally gave up and had it dubbed. "

That cracks me up! 47 TAKES TO SAY "It's me, Sugar"??????????
Oh Marilyn. She reportedly was not invited to the wrap up party. Crazy thing is, she made like 3 pictures after this one before her demise.

Where's the bonbon! Love it. Anyway, see this movie! It is a classic. The gangster parts wear thin to me and I usually fast forward past them when they come on screen. I've seen it so many times, I need not see them anymore.

So I guess you all want to know who won eh? I got two correct answers today and they were within 10 minutes of each other. Dad, I'm sorry to say, but this was Sue's week! She got you by a hair. (Incidentally, she was the one I was worried about giving an advantage to since I knew she listens to Filmspotting and they made a big deal out of this movie and played many of the lines from the movie including the "Nobody's perfect line" more then once I believe.) I tried to avoid the clips that they chose until the end when I gave up on you all. Off subject, but they also made a big deal out of "The Apartment" which is one I had never seen. I took their advice and rented it and LOVED it! I came to realize that I had never seen a Shirley McLaine movie when she was young and who knew she was so adorable? I just thought she was the cutest, charming thing ever. But that all doesn't have too much to do with Some Like it Hot. I can't resist adding the trailer, I watched it last night and it had one of the best trailer lines in the history of trailer lines:
"You've never laughed so hard at sex........or a picture about it"


So congrats again Sue! Take it away.