Review: Some Like It Hot

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Written by: Billy Wilder & I. A. L. Diamond

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Joe E. Brown

Rating: [3.5/5]

When we face the fear of losing our lives, we get an injection of adrenaline that gives us the power to run faster and have more strength as a last-ditch effort. It serves as our body’s response to avoid death through desperation, which the gentlemen we follow in Some Like It Hot experience where they decide their only means of survival comes from completely disguising their identity and running away making for quite the comedic and jovial viewing experience. 

After witnessing a shooting by mobsters, musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) run for their lives when they get the opportunity to pose as women within an all-female musical group heading down to Florida. As they travel with the group, they encounter the gorgeous Sugar (Marilyn Monroe). 

Taking place during the prohibition of alcohol in the United States, this feature takes us back to a time when mobsters ran around rubbing out witnesses and setting off the plot. Two guys in desperation mode, running for their lives without two nickels to rub together makes posing as women the only option, which sets off one of the major lessons this feature seeks to share. Something quite progressive for 1952 to put in a widely distributed feature film: men are gross. It’s something easy to say but this feature seeks to display exactly why through the lens of men pretending to be women providing quite an enlightening experience. From the pinching of their bottoms to demeaning words, this feature shines quite the light on the way men engage with women they do not even know. It remains one of the feature’s defining features giving it quite the staying power. 

In their disguise as women, they get the opportunity to interact with their band members in ways they should not have access to if they posed as their true selves. This dynamic certainly has the potential for some seedy actions by these two men, but this film obviously does not want to go that route even though they get tempted by the circumstance they find themselves in. It demonstrates these two having the capability to act like gentlemen in this scenario as it creates several comedic moments for all of the actors involved to shine. 

With this feature, we get the delightful trio of Marilyn Monore, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in the lead roles and each of them is such a delight in what they represent in the story. Of them all Monroe puts in a dazzling performance as the lovable Sugar. She plays the typical role of her Billy Wilder performances portraying such a straight-faced and lovable character that sets her up to be taken advantage of by others. She has this naivete that she pulls off so well while also delivering her lines in ways only she could. Some of her line delivery in this feature is pure dynamite in the way it sizzles on the screen making her quite the object of desire for Joe and Jerry. 

Lemmon and Curtis put in hilarious performances as both Joe and Jerry and then when they assume their women identities with Josephine and Daphne. In each role, they need to bring a different type of comedy and do so wonderfully. Without a doubt, Lemmon stands out in this regard, especially in the way he reacts to Joe’s horrendous ideas he continues to envelop himself in stupidly. When he dons the wig and figure of Daphne he needs to withstand the advances of Osgood (Joe E. Brown) making for many hilarious moments expanding the commentary of this feature along with the ridiculousness of the plot. Curtis and Lemmon create such electric chemistry together as they take on this journey and truly along with Monroe make the film in all of its hilarity. 

While having a third act that drags on for far longer than necessary, Some Like It Hot has retained its status as one of the funniest films ever made, and with good reason. It combines an absurd plot, with some strong social commentary, and hilarious jokes put on by such a wonderful cast of characters. Several scenes have a pitch-perfect quality to them in the way they present circumstances for these characters and how they react to them. This trio gets into their shenanigans all wrapped up in dodging these mobsters who want to take them out, and not in a nice way.