Throwback Movie Night: Some Like It Hot

In 1959, Marilyn Monroe's most popular movie, "Some Like It Hot" was released. Billy Wilder directed the film and it starred MM, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis as three members of an all-girl traveling band. Lemmon and Curtis are musicians who were witness to a mob hit in Chicago and dressed as women to escape the mob, who were hunting them down.



This was the first movie I'd watched with Marilyn Monroe in it. I think I mentioned several weeks ago how I has seen the biopic on Marilyn Monroe and thought it would be nice to see the real thing in a movie someday. I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed with Ms. Monroe's acting ability as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, a ukelele/singer in the band. Tony Curtis plays Josephine and Jack Lemmon plays Daphne. Of course, each have their own girl problems...just of different sorts. Tony Curtis wants to woo Sugar, and so he has to go back and forth between pretending to be her friend Josephine, and pretending to be a male millionaire on vacation. Jack Lemmon has other problems and a millionaire has fallen in love with Daphne and he has to try to keep up the charade and try to escape the affectionate nature of the smitten millionaire, but gets sort of caught up in the romance and soon finds himself happily engaged, all while still running from the mob.

I thought Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon completely stole the show. I find Jack Lemmon hilarious in almost everything and Tony Curtis wasn't half bad, either. Marilyn Monroe wasn't terrible, but sort of predictable. Admittedly, she wasn't cast to be a comic. Her sex appeal got her the part and a lot of the movie was specifically designed with that in mind. I did like some of her outfits... I usually do like the costumes in a lot of these older movies. I might try to watch her in a different movie sometime. One where she's not so out-acted. Maybe she'd be better. This was the one that seemed to be her most well-known film, though.

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were very funny at times. I think the movie was worthwhile to see, but I don't know that I need to watch it over and over again. I also didn't think it was amazingly hilarious. It was good and Lemmon had some really classic lines and scenes, but the story really dragged on at some points. I was surprised to learn that "Some Like It Hot" was voted #1 on AFI's 100 Funniest Movies of all time... Hmm.