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Home , A Bullet for Joey, Billy Gray (comedian), Ceiling Zero, Charles Brackett, Charles Lang, Doane Harrison

December 5, 2017 (XXXV:15) (1959), 121 min.

National Film Registry, 1989

Academy Awards, USA 1960 Won Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, Orry-Kelly Nominated Best in a Leading Role, Best Director, Billy Wilder Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, & Edward G. Boyle

Directed by Billy Wilder Written by Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond (screenplay), & Michael Logan (story by) Produced by I.A.L. Diamond, , Billy Wilder Music Cinematography Charles Lang Film Editing Arthur P. Schmidt Art Direction Ted Haworth

Cast … Kane Kowalczyk …Joe / Josephine / Shell Oil Junior Jack Lemmon…Jerry / Daphne …Spats Colombo Pat O’Brien…Detective Mulligan Joe E. Brown…Osgood Fielding III Nehemiah Persoff…Little Bonaparte Mike Mazurki…Spats’ Henchman …Sweet Sue Harry Wilson…Spats’ Henchman …Sig Poliakoff Beverly Wills…Dolores George E. Stone…Toothpick Charlie Barbara Drew…Nellie Dave Barry…Beinstock Edward G. Robinson Jr….Johnny Paradise Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—2

Billy Wilder (b. June 22, 1906 in Sucha, , Austria- he worked. On the other hand, many of the partners complained Hungary [now Sucha Beskidzka, Malopolskie, Poland]—d. that if he heard an idea he did not like, he could be cruel and March 27, 2002, age 95, in West , CA) is one of insulting. Many writers quit on him because they could not take ’s most versatile writer-directors known for his his abuse. The seed that bloomed into Some Like It Hot was slashing wit and stinging social satire. Almost no other major planted by an obscure 1951 German film, Fanfaren der Liebe filmmaker slipped so easily into so many genres. As a youth he (Fanfares of Love), which was a remake of an older French was obsessed with everything comedy, Fanfares d’Amour (1935). Both American. He passed the entrance pictures are episodic, focusing on a pair of exam for the University of desperate male characters doing what they Vienna, but, disappointing his can to earn a buck. One of those schemes parents, he refused to go. Wilder involves dressing like women and became a journalist, which performing in an all-female band. Wilder although poorly paid, gave him a and Diamond both liked that particular great interviewing experience with device—and not much else. “The humor in such subjects as Richard Strauss the German movie was rather heavy-handed and Sigmund Freud. In 1926 he and Teutonic,” Diamond said. “There was a worked as an interpreter for jazz lot of shaving of chests and trying on wigs.” band leader Paul Whiteman on a Wilder officially retired in 1981, though for European tour which ended in a decade after he was known for itching to . He remained in the city want to return. He showed particular becoming a freelance journalist interest in directing Schindler’s List (1993), and becoming friendly with saying it would have become his most , then a small personal film. He collaborated closely with part actress. A fast and prolific Steven Spielberg on the script and was one writer, Wilder ingratiated himself in the growing German film of several directors considered to direct it (Roman Polanski and industry as a ghost scriptwriter for established writers who didn't Martin Scorsese both turned down the project). Wilder was also have time to meet their contractual obligations. Wilder continued famous for the modern-art collection which he put together over to write scripts for German films until Adolf Hitler came to his lifetime (he sold only a portion of it in 1989 for $32.6 power in 1933. Immediately realizing his Jewish ancestry would million). cause problems, he emigrated to , then the US. Although he spoke no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a Charles Lang (b. March 27, 1902 in Bluff, Utah—d. April 3, fast learner, and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with 1998, age 96, in Santa Monica, CA) moved to Los Angeles with whom he shared an apartment), he was able to break into his family when he was 3, attended Lincoln High School and American films. His partnership with started in began pre-law studies at USC. Forced to drop out of college due 1938 and the team was responsible for writing some of to the illness of his father, Lang began working in an East Los Hollywood’s classic comedies, including (1939) and Angeles film laboratory. He was quickly promoted and soon was (1941). The partnership expanded into a producer- working for director Cecil B. DeMille’s brother, William. Lang director one in 1942, with Brackett producing, and the two turned went with DeMille to Paramount and stayed for more than two out such classics as (1943), The Lost decades, and is credited with giving the studio’s films their Weekend (1945), which won Oscars for Best Picture, Director softer, romanticized look in the and . Lang excelled and Screenplay, and Sunset Boulevard (1950) which won an in the use of chiaroscuro, light and shade, and was adept at Oscars for Best Screenplay. After this final film the partnership creating the mood for every genre and style, from the somber dissolved. [Wilder had already made one film, (1935) to the glamour of Desire (1936) and the (1944) without Brackett, as the latter had refused to work on a Parisian Chic of Midnight (1939). Lang was an innovator in the film he felt dealt with such disreputable characters.] Wilder then use of long tracking shots; Lang's cinematography of The worked with I.A.L. Diamond. Brackett, an older man who Magnificent Seven in 1960 with and Steve frequently provided a strong argumentative counterpoint in the McQueen became the prototype for wide-screen westerns to writing room in contrast to Diamond, who possessed a cynical, come. He was also liked by many female stars, such as Helen humorous world view more in line with Wilder’s. As for Hayes and Marlene Dietrich (and, later, ) direction, Wilder’s idol and mentor was German director Ernst because of his uncanny ability to photograph them to their best Lubitsch. Wilder always kept a sign hanging in his office that advantage, often using subdued lighting and diffusion asked, "How would Lubitsch do it?" The look of the film was techniques. Though nominated eighteen times—more than any less important than the language for Wilder. Friends also say he other —for , he won just once, was as witty in person as he was on paper. Because of his for A Farewell to Arms (1932). He is the youngest nominee for rounded face and non-stop elfin energy, people often pictured the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at age 28, as well him as short and wiry, but he was in fact near 6 feet tall (taller as the youngest winner at age 30. Among his many outstanding than his favorite star, Jack Lemmon). As a writer, he had odd films of the ‘30s and ‘40s, are the lavishly photographed Bob habits. On the one hand, he hated writing alone, so he almost Hope comedy/thriller The Cat and the Canary (1939) and the always used a partner, someone to be in the room with him while romantic, atmospheric The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). Lang's Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—3

work with chiaroscuro lighting adapted itself perfectly to the L. Mankiewicz saw her in a small part in The Asphalt Jungle expressionist neo-realism of films noir in the 1950's, most (1950) and put her in (1950). She then saw bigger noteworthy examples being Ace in the Hole (1951) and The Big roles in Niagara (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Heat (1953). He was at his best working with the directors Billy which launched her as a sex symbol superstar. Monroe was now Wilder and . The success of films like Sabrina (1954), a genuine box-office drawing card. Later, she appeared with Separate Tables (1958) and Some Like It Hot (1959) –all Oscar Betty Grable and in How to Marry a Millionaire nominees for Lang's cinematography—owed much to his (1953). That same year, Monroe wed famed baseball player Joe excellent camera work. Though he preferred the medium of black DiMaggio and starred in There's No Business Like Show & white, he became equally proficient in the use of color Business (1954). This was quickly followed with Wilder’s The photography on expansive, richly-textured and sweeping outdoor Seven Year Itch (1955), showcasing her considerable comedic westerns like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and How the West talent. While at the top of her celebrity popularity, rumors began Was Won (1962), as well as romantic thrillers like Charade to circulate that Monroe was difficult to work with. In 1955, Fox (1963) and How to Steal a Million (1966). He also earned the suspended her for not reporting for work on How to Be Very, American Society of ' Lifetime Achievement Very Popular (1955). Due to her habit of being continually late Award in 1991. Outside of the lens, Lang was known as one of to the set, her illnesses (whether real or imagined) and generally the ‘best-dressed men’ in the industry. Lang shot four of Wilder's being unwilling to cooperate with her producers, directors, and films, and received Academy Award nominations for three of fellow , her roles began to slow down. However, in Bus them--, Sabrina and Some Like It Hot. “He was Stop (1956), Monroe finally showed critics that she could play a so imaginative, so inventive, so ahead of his time,” Lang said of straight dramatic role. Despite her strong performance, director’s Wilder. “He likes to select photographers like he would actors.” saw the star as a risk. Wilder originally considered the role of Sugar in Some Like It Hot (1959), but when Monroe became available, he jumped at the chance to cast her. The film was an absolute smash hit giving Monroe her most iconic role. Though behind the scenes tales paint a much more frustrating picture, especially tensions between Curtis and Monroe over her flubbing lines and continual tardiness. Wilder has said, “I knew that I was going to go crazy at moments. And there were such moments, half a dozen moments, but you always tell yourself, ‘I’m not married to her, right?’ And then you come home, you have no dinner, you take a sleeping pill, and you wake up in the morning and you start again.” During production, she would show up hours late for work, claiming to have lost her way to the studio. Wilder would have to run 80-plus takes to get one line, like “Where’s that bourbon?” or “It’s me, Sugar.” She continually deferred to her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, in the midst of arguments with Wilder. All of this put epic strains on Wilder and the cast, especially Curtis and Lemmon, who had to be perfect on every take because Wilder would use the one where Monroe was perfect, regardless of how well they performed. Monroe also demanded the film to be in color (her contract actually stipulated that all her movies be filmed in color), but after looking at Curtis and Lemmon in the color film tests, they were deemed to be too grotesque-looking (they photographed with a green tinge). Exasperated, director Wilder finally had Monroe’s lines written on a blackboard for the actress to read. If Marilyn Monroe (b. Norma Jean Mortenson on June 1, 1926, you watch the final climactic scene where Tony Curtis has to say Los Angeles, CA—d. August 5, 1962, age 36, in Brentwood, goodbye to Marilyn over the phone, it is easy to see Marilyn's CA) had a rough childhood. Her mother was in-and-out of eyes going back and forth, back and forth. This is because she is mental institutions for most of Monroe’s life, forcing the young reading her dialogue directly off a blackboard. The stress led Monroe into foster care. Despite her rocky upbringing, by 1946 Wilder to make some disparaging remarks to the press after she began modeling swimsuits and bleached her hair blonde. shooting wrapped. “The question is whether Marilyn is a person Various shots made their way into the public eye, where RKO at all or one of the greatest DuPont products ever invented,” the Pictures head Howard Hughes eventually saw them. Despite her director once quipped. “She has breasts like granite; she defies reputation as a “ditzy blonde”, Monroe owned 200 books gravity; and has a brain like Swiss cheese—full of holes.” Later, (including Tolstoy, Whitman, Milton), listened to Beethoven he added, “I have discussed this with my doctor and my records, studied acting at the Actors’ lab in Hollywood, and took psychiatrist and they tell me I’m too old and too rich to go literature courses at UCLA. In 1948, Columbia gave her a six- through this again.” This prompted Monroe to call Wilder’s month contract, turned her over to coach Natasha Lytess and home and tell him to fuck himself. As the years went on, he featured her in the B-movie Ladies of the Chorus (1948). Joseph softened in his view of his experience working with her. “I had Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—4

no problem with Marilyn Monroe. Monroe had problems with or flubbing her lines. The kissing, of course, was not so Monroe,” Wilder said. “When it was all done, and my stomach unpleasant (being every man's fantasy), but before they kissed, got back to normal, it seemed well worth the agony of working poor Tony had to take a bite of a chicken leg. Curtis grew so sick with her.” of chicken, he couldn't eat it again for years. The rivalry between actors did not stop when the cameras were off. Curtis recalls a Tony Curtis (b. Bernard Herschel Schwartz on June 3, 1925 in famous scene in which he, Lemmon and Monroe were being The Bronx, New York—d. September 29, 2010, age 85, in outfitted by famous fashion designer Orry-Kelly. According to Henderson, Nevada) has said that while he had almost no formal Curis: “Orry-Kelly was prestigious-looking man, he had one of education, he was a student of the “school of hard knocks”. those plastic tapes. So he went in and measured Jack, and Jack Growing up, Curtis had to be the breadwinner as well as lookout came out in boxer shorts, stood in front of him and put the tape for his younger brother, Julius. In 1938, tragedy struck when around his neck: 16, 31, 29, 18. Took all the measurements of Julius was hit by a truck and killed. Curtis has stated that this loss Jack. Then he came up to me. I came out in the equivalent of never really left him and drove him to make something of Calvin Klein’s. And he measured me: 13 1/2, 14, 15, 37, 29 1/2. himself. Curtis joined the Navy in When he finished with me, he went to WWII and in 1945, he was Marilyn. But this is where the story came honorably discharged. Curtis from Orry-Kelly, not from me. He goes in realized that the GI Bill would to measure Marilyn and she comes out in a allow him to go to acting school pair of panties and a silk blouse. He stands without paying for it, he now saw there and measures: 29, 34, 18, goes around that his lifelong pipe dream of being her [waist and rear] and he said, ‘You know an actor might actually be Marilyn, Tony Curtis has a better looking achievable. Curtis auditioned for the ass than you.’ She unbuttoned her blouse, New York , and opened it, and said, ‘He doesn’t have tits after being accepted on the strength like these!’” Curtis laughed and clapped his of his audition piece (a scene from hands. “You can’t beat that story. She was “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in so pissed off. I loved her for that.” pantomime). He enrolled in early 1947. When film came calling, the Jack Lemmon (b. February 8, 1925 in actor changed his name to “Tony Newton, Massachusetts—d. June 27, 2001, Curtis” a nod to his favorite book, age 76, in Los Angeles, CA) has been . Initially cast as referred to as “America's Everyman” for his the ‘heavy’ in a lot of early film ability to be relatable to audiences in almost roles, he finally got the chance to any film. As a youth, Lemmon’s upbringing demonstrate his acting flair when he couldn’t have been more different than that was cast in the action , of his co-star Tony Curtis. Lemmon grew Sierra (1950). On the strength of his up in an affluent area outside of Boston and performance in that movie, Curtis won a part in Winchester '73 attended private schools before enrolling at Harvard. He, too, (1950). By the time he signed on with Wilder for Some Like It enrolled in the Navy and used his GI bill to pursue a career in Hot, the actor was enjoying his success from acting. Beginning in off-Broadway productions and radio, (1958). Initially expressed an interest in playing Lemmon’s first film role was with Judy Holliday in It Should the Jerry/Daphne role. Wilder needed a major star for box office Happen to You (1954). Lemmon earned his first big role in the insurance and Sinatra was his ace in the hole. Curtis has stated in comedy war drama Mister Roberts (1955) with and interviews “[Wilder] wasn’t sure Frank would be able to play it. . His complex portrayal of a somewhat dishonest Frank was a little bit cantankerous, and Billy didn’t want to take but sensitive character earned him the Academy Award for Best a chance on that.” Wilder was a bit surly himself, which makes Supporting Actor. Yet, he was still too unknown (and under Diamond’s version of events seem more likely: “Billy made a Universal’s contract) for Wilder to cast him, even though the lunch date with Sinatra, and he went and waited and sat there, actor was the director’s second choice (first choice for the role of and sat there, and Sinatra never showed up. He stood Billy up.” Josephine was Jerry Lee Lewis. was also in the Wilder, likely wouldn’t have reacted kindly to such an affront to running). Lewis was also offered the role of the zany “Daphne” his authority. Sinatra was out, and Tony Curtis was back in. turned it down because he “didn't think was funny.” While an impressive impersonator, Curtis wasn’t so Lemmon, who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance, adept at female voices. The actor found it impossible to maintain sent Lewis chocolates annually in gratitude. According to Lewis, a high-pitched womanly voice for an entire take. After watching every time he ran into Billy Wilder, Billy greeted him with, the rushes, Wilder decided to dub Curtis’ “Josephine” voice by "Hello, Schmuck!" Lewis later admitted he regretted rejecting the voice over artist . According to Curtis, it was a role. Curtis was signed first, but pressured Billy combination of Frees and his own voice. Additional trouble Wilder to cast a bigger box-office name than Jack Lemmon for brewed between consummate professional Curtis and his the second male lead. Once Marilyn Monroe signed on, Wilder notoriously late and flaky costar Monroe. They had to film take was able to cast Lemmon. (Anthony Perkins also auditioned for after take of their kissing scene because Monroe kept forgetting Daphne, but Wilder was set on Lemmon.) Once the actors were Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—5

in place, it came time to turn to more serious matters: the “Scarface’s” best friend and a role that was based on Capone’s costumes. Lemmon and Curtis knew that if they were to pass bodyguard Frank Rio. The coin-flip that made Raft a star was convincingly as women they’d need to look the part. And that credited to Hawks by Raft himself, “I spent most of my time on meant good clothes. “We were very cooperative,” Lemmon says the set practicing flipping the nickel. [...] I had to flip the nickel about being put in makeup and high heels, “but we did put our so that my hand was steady and firm and I even managed to do it feet down when we wanted better dresses. They wanted us to while staring at someone.” Hawks even had Raft flipping a coin select off-the-rack stuff from the costume department. We said while being shot in his death scene; Wilder pays homage to we wanted dresses done by Orry-Kelly, who was doing Monroe’s Raft’s famous coin-flip tonight. Wilder also built in self- costumes.” Curtis stood with Lemmon in solidarity. “I didn’t referential nods to the seminal crime movies: Near the end of the want to look like Loretta Young. You know, those high-waisted film, Spats sees a hood (played by Edward G. Robinson Jr.—son things, and I wanted a new designer dress of my own, not one of of Little Caesar star), flipping a coin and asks, “Where did you those used things. I went to Billy, and I told him Jack and I pick up that cheap trick?” Raft’s character Rinaldo did the same wanted Orry-Kelly dresses, too. He said, ‘Okay.’” thing in Scarface. Later, in a moment of frustration, Spats goes to smash a grapefruit into one his henchman’s faces, a nod to one of the most iconic moments in The Public Enemy (1931). Unfortunately for Raft, he became stereotyped as a . Like James Cagney, Raft came from the mean streets, unlike Edward G. Robinson and who had attended college. The tough guy was an image that Bogart tried to cultivate at one point in his career, with his public fights and tough-guy persona (often brought on, as actress/author noted, by alcohol) was an image that Raft tried to erase. According to James Cagney’s autobiography, Cagney By Cagney, a Mafia plan to murder Cagney was stopped at the insistence of Raft. Cagney at that time was President of the Screen Actors Guild and was determined not to let the mob infiltrate the industry. Raft used his ‘many’ mob connections to cancel the hit. Yet, despite not being able to shake his mob associations, Raft was extremely well-liked in Hollywood. Lemmon felt it was an honor to work with both Raft and O’Brien, and praised them in many interviews. Wilder, too, was a fan. The only frustration the director found was in Some Like It George Raft (b. George Ranft on September 26, 1901 in New Hot’s the final shootout scene. In the shooting scene, Spats kicks York City, New York—d. November 24, 1980, age 79, in Los the trademark toothpick from Toothpick Charlie’s mouth, after Angeles, CA) grew up poor in Hell’s Kitchen. As a teenager, he he's dead on the floor. Raft was afraid that he would miss the was a bat-boy for the New York Highlanders (Yankees), tried out toothpick and kick George E. Stone in the head, therefore he for semi-pro baseball, boxed at the Polo Athletic Club and missed his target constantly. After about ten takes, he only hustled pool. Childhood friends include Siegel managed to make Wilder furious. The director tried to show Raft and Owney Madden (the Irish crime boss of New York) and how to do it, only to kick Stone in the head, as Raft was fearing. Raft, himself, came close to having a life of crime. After trying Raft proposed that the toothpick should be replaced with numerous professions, Raft finally settled on dancing. “I was a something else, to make the target easier to see. A nail was dancer and for years worked in , in every Broadway painted to look as a toothpick, and Raft completed the shot in the café. I didn't want to be a big star, just a small dancer.” Raft first take. worked as a “paid dancer” (a male escort for female patrons) in several clubs, including the Roseland Ballroom, where his Pat O’Brien (b. November 11, 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin— dancing shoes were on display at the time of his death in 1980. d. October 15, 1983, age 83, in Santa Monica, California) came Both and George Gershwin recall on several to be called "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence"—along with occasions going to see Raft dance at Texas Guinan’s El Fey good friends James Cagney, Allen Jenkins, Frank McHugh who speakeasy in New York. Astaire said, “He was a sensation in were also known in the industry as “The Irish Mafia.” Even those days...the main attraction...George did the fastest and most though O’Brien often played an Irish immigrant, he was exciting Charleston I ever saw. I thought he was an extraordinary American born and had no discernible Irish accent. Yet, he could dancer.” According to Jack Lemmon, Raft spent hours teaching pour on the “brogue” when the role called for it. In the 1930s and him and Joe E. Brown how to tango for tonight’s film. Raft’s ‘40s, O’Brien starred in more than 100 films. O’Brien, who once dance act got him his first film role in Queen of the Night Clubs considered becoming a priest, often played one in such films as (1929), which was not a hit. He followed this with Quick Fighting Father Dunne (1948) and The Fighting 69th (1940). Millions (1931), but it was his chance audition for a role in O’Brien excelled in roles as beneficent men but could also give director ' film Scarface (1932), loosely based on convincing performances as wise guys or con artists. Over almost Al Capone that led to his star turn. Hawks thought that Raft had a five decades, he co-starred in nine films with Cagney, including “unique look” and signed him to play Guino Rinaldo, Here Comes the Navy (1934), Devil Dogs of the Air (1935), The Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—6

Irish in Us (1935), Ceiling Zero (1936) Boy Meets Girl (1938), trusted it when we wrote it; we just didn’t see it. The line had Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Fighting 69th (1940), Torrid come too easily, just popped out.” Neither writer has ever taken Zone (1940) and his own screen swansong, Ragtime (1981). claim for the film’s final line: Wilder claims Diamond wrote it, Diamond claims it was Wilder's line.

Nehemiah Persoff (b. August 2, 1919 in Jerusalem, Palestine [now Israel]) emigrated with his family to the in 1929. After serving in Army during World War II, he worked as a subway electrician, maintaining signals while he began to pursue his acting career in the New York theater. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actors Studio and eventually began his acting career in 1948. Short, dark, chunky-framed and with a distinct talent for dialects, Persoff became known primarily for his ethnic villainy, usually playing authoritative Eastern Europeans. This typecast had him playing everything from cab drivers to Joseph Stalin, standout film roles include Leo in The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart, Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man Joe E. Brown (b. July 28, 1892 in Holgate, Ohio—d. July 6, (1956), The Sea Wall (1957) and gangster Johnny Torrio in Al 1973, age 80, in Brentwood, California) as often claimed that he Capone (1959). Persoff’s role in Some Like It Hot was originally was the only youngster in show business who ran away from offered to Edward G. Robinson, but Robinson turned it down, home to join the circus with the blessings of his parents. In 1902, having vowed never again to work with George Raft, with whom the ten-year-old Brown joined a circus tumbling act called the he had a fist fight on the set of Manpower (1941). [Despite the Five Marvelous Ashtons, which toured various circuses and avowal, Robinson did co-star with Raft in A Bullet for Joey vaudeville theaters. Brown began adding comedy bits into his (1955).] Persoff’s later roles were some of his most famous: as vaudeville act using his famous rubbery face for jokes. Initially 's Jewish father in Yentl (1983) and the voice of hired for non-comedy roles in film, he didn’t register with the Papa Mousekewitz in the (1986). When public until he signed with Warner Brothers in 1929 for the film declining health and high blood pressure forced him to slow adaptations of Broadway shows such as Sally (1929) and Top down, Persoff took up painting in 1985, studying sketching in Speed (1930). Known for his wide mouth which earned the Los Angeles. Specializing in watercolor, he has created around nickname “The Great Open Space” and the “Mammoth Cave”, 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited up and Brown shrugged off endless descriptions and commented: “I’ll down the coast of California. open my mouth until my stomach shows if people think it’s funny.” And the people thought it was funny. Almost from the George E. Stone (b. George E. Stein on May 18, 1903 in Lódz, start of his movie career until the 1940s his pictures where Poland, Russian Empire [now Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland]—d. May among the 10 biggest box-office earners. Additionally, his 26, 1967, age 64, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California) background in vaudeville made him a natural at physical played some of the best-named roles in the business such as comedy. It was not at all uncommon to see Brown, outfitted in Johnnie the Shiek, Boots Burnett, Ice Box Hamilton, Wires all-white, suddenly face-plant into mud. Kagel, Ropes McGonigle, Society Max, and Toothpick Charlie. described his characters as “forever the hapless soul—whether a A minor prototype of the “Runyon-esque” character for more soda jerk, a football player being thrown over the goal line for a than three decades, Stone was actually close friends with writer lastminute touchdown, a bungling reporter, or a rookie baseball and would play a host of colorful “dees, dem and player baffling the manager.” Despite the attention of his mouth, dos” cronies throughout the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. Initially a it was not of abnormal size. He told one reporter that he achieved vaudeville and Broadway hoofer, the runt-sized Stone (5’ 3”) the visual trick by throwing his head back so that his wide- finally scored in his first “grownup” part as the Sewer Rat in the opened mouth occupied the foreground of the audience’s field of silent drama 7th Heaven (1927) starring with the once-popular vision. By the time Wilder selected him for tonight’s film Brown romantic pair Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor. As “Georgie” was a well-known comedic character actor. Regarding Brown’s sounded too child-like, the actor began billing himself as immortal line, there is some discrepancy on its origin. Wilder and “George E. Stone.” From there he was featured in a number of Diamond were known as extremely precise writers, yet when it “tough guy” potboilers, particularly for Warner Bros. His came time to Some Like It Hot’s final punch line, they were characters often possessed a yellow streak and could be both indecisive. They got as far as Lemmon’s reveal, but what comes broadly comic or threatening in nature, with more than a few of next? One of the writers suggested a placeholder. Wilder said to them ending up on a morgue slab before film's end, including his keep it in so they could send the script to the mimeographer, they Earl Williams on The Front Page (1931) and Otero in the classic would fix the line afterwards. “We have a whole week to think gangster flick Little Caesar (1931). Stone's most popular role of about it,” Wilder said. “We thought about it all week. Neither of the 1940s was as The Runt in the Boston Blackie film series us could come up with anything better, so we shot that line, still which ran from 1941 to 1948. Suffering from failing eyesight in not entirely satisfied.” Viewers felt entirely differently. “The later years, he was virtually blind by the late but, thanks to audience just exploded,” Wilder said. “That line got one of the friends, managed to secure sporadic film and TV work. In his biggest laughs I’ve ever heard in the theater. But we just hadn’t Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—7

final years, close friend Raymond Burr gave Stone a reoccurring way there at the age of twenty. For a time he worked as a crime role on his popular TV series Perry Mason as a court clerk. reporter on Nachtausgabe (and/or as a film and drama critic; accounts vary). Many colorful stories are told (mostly by Wilder Mike Mazurki (b. December 25, 1907 in Tarnopol, Galicia, himself about this part of his life: it is said that he fell in love Austria-Hungary—d. December 9, 1990, age 82, in Glendale, with a dancer, neglected his work, lost his job, and became a California) was one of cinema’s first serial thugs and specialized dancing partner for “lonely ladies,” and a gigolo. He spent his in playing strongarm men, gangsters and bullies for over 50 years time on the fringes of Berlin café society, met some young on screen. Standing at a towering 6’5”, “Iron Mike” (as he was filmmakers and tried his hand as a scenarist. known) played football for College in the Bronx and The first picture made from a Wilder script was turned to professional wrestling in the early 1930s. Mazurki told Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday, 1929), directed by the LA Times that , whose father was a fighter, had another young hopeful, ..[Other collaborators been his benefactor. She found odd jobs at the studios for the included Edgar Ulmer, Fred Zinneman and Eugen Schüfftan] “It boxers and wrestlers in pre-war Los Angeles. Another version was about young people having a good time in Berlin, and it was has him being discovered during a match at the Olympic talked about a lot,” Wilder says. “It represented a good way to Auditorium in Los Angeles when a movie director thought he make pictures: no unions, no bureaucracy, no studio, shot silent would be a perfect Mongol type. By then the actor had been on cheap stock: we just ‘did it.’ As a result of its success, we all involved in hundreds of wrestling matches, and his mashed face got jobs at UFA, the huge German studios. . . . .I’d write two, and cauliflower ears belied his gentle nature. A United Press three, four pictures a month. I accumulated about a hundred International correspondent once described his battered face as silent picture assignments, and then, in 1929, when sound came “an eroded slag heap . . . traversed by gullies.” One of his most in, I did scores more.” They included Gerhard Lamprecht’s memorable performances was in the 1945 classic version of Emil and the Detectives and vehicles for many of the Murder My Sweet, in which he portrays Moose Malloy, a sinister German stars of the period. goon who has just been released from prison and hires detective Philip Marlowe to find his old girlfriend. The picture, remade Wilder had his eye on Hollywood but left Germany several times titled Farewell My Lovely, has been praised over faster than he had intended when Hitler came to power in 1933: the years for its faithfulness to the Raymond Chandler mystery “It seemed the wise thing for a Jew to do.” Stopping over for a on which it was based. Mazurki's first featured role was in The time in Paris, Wilder (in collaboration with Alexander Esway) Shanghai Gesture, a 1941 shocker in which he was cast as a directed his first film, (Bad Blood, 1933). A Russian coolie. Some of his other films include Dick Tracy fast-paced movie about young auto thieves, it was made on a (1945), Samson and Delilah (1949), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad shoestring and featured Danielle Darrieux, then seventeen. Soon World (1963), Requiem for a Gunfighter (1965), The Adventures after, Wilder sold a story to Columbia and this paid his way, via of Buyllwhip Griffin (1967) and The Man With Bogart's Face Mexico, to California. Wilder arrived in Hollywood speaking (1980). almost no English and shared a room and “ a can of soup a day” with Peter Lorre. After two hard years, Wilder became a writer for Paramount. He had no great success, however, until in 1936 the producer Arthur Hornblow asked him to collaborate with Charles Brackett on a script, Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife for . Bracket was a novelist and a New Yorker drama critic, an urbane man from an old New England family. In spite of the radical differences between the two men, they formed a highly effective writing team, with Bracket selecting and polishing the most promising of Wilder’s “prodigious stream of ideas.” Among the excellent entertainments they wrote for Paramount directors in the late 1930s and early 1940s were Midnight and for , Ball of Fire for Howard Hawks, and Lubitsch’s Ninotchka. BILLY WILDER from World Film Directors V. I. Ed. John Wilder was infuriated by directorial misinterpretations Wakeman. H.H. Wilson Co. 1987 of his scripts and frequently bounced onto the set to say so. Eventually Paramount gave him a chance to show how it should “Billy” (Samuel) Wilder was born in Vienna, Austria, the be done. His first American film as director was The Major and younger of two sons of Max Wilder, a hotelier and restaurateur the Minor (1942), about a disenchanted career girl stranded in and Eugenie Dittler. Sent to the Vienna realgymnasium and New York who masquerades as a twelve-year-old because she University of Vienna which he left after less than a year to work lacks the adult train fare back to Iowa. (then as a copy boy and then as a reporter for Die Stunde. thirty) played the heroine, , the military-school officer she falls in love with, and the result was universally In those years after the First World War, young writers enjoyed as “an enchanting film farce.” Wilder followed this very working in the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire gravitated successful debut with Five Graves to Cairo (1943), a fairly naturally to the cultural ferment of Berlin, and Wilder made his ludicrous war thriller, which cast as Field Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—8

Marshal Rommel. Wilder, who was awed by the inventiveness of depravity. Wilder, whose mother, grandmother, and stepfather Stroheim’s performance, says, “he influenced me greatly as a had all been murdered by the Nazis, had first revisited Berlin in director: I always think of my style as a curious cross between 1945 during a brief tour of duty as colonel in charge of the film Lubitsch and Stroheim.” section of the United States Army Psychological Warfare Division. A Foreign Affair, in its rigorous eschewal of national Raymond Chandler, not Brackett, was Wilder’s stereotypes and its cheerful insistence on the universality of coauthor on Double Indemnity (1944), based on the novella by human weakness, is in its ribald way an act of faith. It drew from James Cain. This brilliant film noir starred and Marlene Dietrich a wonderfully ironic, cooly defiant Fred MacMurray as lovers who plan the “accidental” death of performance as a nightclub singer. Stanwyck’s husband, and Edward G. Robinson as the cold- A cruel and haunting picture, Sunset Boulevard (1950) blooded insurance agent who was a controversial, world-wide investigates the claim. Double success, regarded by many as the Indemnity (which the Hays best film ever made about Office condemned as “a Hollywood and by others as a blueprint for murder”) is a film treacherous calumny…. of great originality, not least in Louis B. Mayer wanted Wilder’s decision to begin the Wilder horsewhipped, but it film with MacMurray’s seemed to James Agee that the Dictaphone confession. Wilder film allowed Norma Desmond has “always felt that surprise is and her contemporaries a not as effective as . barbarous intensity that had a By identifying the criminals “kind of grandeur” compared to right off the bat–and the small, smart, safe-playing” identifying ourselves with them–we can concentrate on what Hollywood of the 1940s. follows–their efforts to escape, the net closing, closing.” Sunset Boulevard, which brought Wilder and Brackett Shooting the film on location in Los Angeles, Wilder, and his Oscars for best story and best screenplay, was the last film they cameraman John F. Seiz worked for seedy realism rather than wrote together–“sometimes match and striking surface wear out,” Hollywood chic–”I’d go in kind of dirty up the sets a little bit Wilder explained. His next picture was one of the blackest ever and make them look worn. I’d take the white out of to come out of a commercial studio, Ace in the Hole (1951), also everything….The whole film was deliberately underplayed, done known as The Big Carnival. An Albuquerque newsman down on very quietly; if you have something that’s full of violence and his luck () finds a man trapped in a mine cave-in drama you can afford to take it easy.” Howard Barnes in his and creates a journalistic scoop by postponing a rescue for six review called Double Indemnity a thriller that more than once days. Vast crowds arrive to enjoy the tragedy, a carnival moves reached “the level of high tragedy,” and the film is now widely in to exploit the crowds, and in the end the man dies. The film regarded as a classic of the genre. Neil Sinyard suggests that it is was much admired in Europe, but in the United States it was a also an indictment of American materialism and a study of the disaster, destroying at a stroke Wilder’s reputation as an conflict between reason and passion, order and anarchy. infallible audience-pleaser who could make gold out of trash. Ace The Lost Weekend (1945) captured four Oscars: one for in the Hole was seen as an insult to the American people in best picture, one for Ray Milland as best actor, two for Wilder as general and to the Fourth Estate in particular. Its failure was best director and as coadaptor with Brackett of Charles Jackson’s regarded as clear evidence that Wilder had all along owed his novel. Set (and partly filmed) in New York, it observes an success to Charles Brackett. (Since then the picture has been alcoholic writer as he struggles against his craving; then discussed with increasing admiration by critics who praise it as succumbs, then lies, cheats, and steals to buy drink. As in Double “a harsh allegory of the modern artist” and compare it, in its Indemnity, the audience is forced to share the growing passion, anger, and courage to Stroheim’s Greed.) desperation of an individual in a state of moral collapse….The Wilder’s next three films were all highly profitable film has touches of mordant humor and an unconvincing upbeat adaptations of stage plays–the exuberant prison-camp comedy ending but is otherwise quite uncompromising; it was (1953), the romantic satire Sabrina (1954; Wilder’s nevertheless a commercial as well as a critical success, last film for Paramount), and (1955), in confounding the studio bosses and movie columnists who had which the dreamy humor is sometimes overwhelmed by the prophesied disaster. prodigious presence of Marilyn Monroe. The Spirit of st. Louis (1948) took wilder from Third (1957), Wilder’s account of Lindberg’s 1927 flight from New Avenue to fin de siècle Vienna, where an American phonograph York to Paris, was an expensive failure. It was followed by salesman (Bing Crosby) falls in love with an Austrian countess another estimable play adaptation, Witness for the Prosecution (). This mildly amusing romance was followed by a (1958), with Charles Laughton hamming unforgettably as the more acerbic study of the clash between American and European barrister defending against Marlene Dietrich. values in A Foreign Affair (1948), which has Congresswoman These five movies were written by Wilder with an assortment of visiting postwar Berlin to investigate the moral collaborators; the next film, however, marked the beginning of turpitude of occupying GIs. Like many subsequent Wilder films, the second great writing partnership of his career, with I.A. L. this one derives excellent comedy from the spectacle of human Diamond. Love n the Afternoon (1957), about the regeneration of Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—9

an aging American playboy () through his love for a Dutch Detweiler in Fedora complains that his Parisian innocent (Audrey Hepburn), has been called “Wilder’s Hollywood has gone: “The kids with the beards have taken over, most emphatic tribute to Lubitsch,” a of the with their zoom lenses and handheld cameras.” Wilder himself, greatest elegance and charm. though he has been generous in his praise of some of his juniors, In the roaring comedy of errors that followed, two is similarly contemptuous of that which he regards as stylistically broke, speakeasy musicians (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis) pretentious and self-conscious in contemporary cinema. His own happen to be in a garage on February 14, 1929, just in work is for the most part not visually distinctive, relying more on time to witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Choosing language than on images to convey his misanthropic vision. between death and dishonor, they dress up as women and join an Coming of age in Berlin between the wars, it seemed to all-girl band, which is on its way to ….Completed with Wilder that (as one of his characters says) “People will do great difficulty because of Marilyn Monroe’s increasing anything for money. Except some people. They will do almost incapacity for work, Some Like It Hot (1959) is widely regarded anything for money.” That, as he acknowledges, is the theme of as one of the cinema’s greatest comedies. Gerald Mast, indeed, all his pictures, and in the best of them he has expressed it thinks it’s Wilder’s best film, “a rich, multilayered confection of dramatically enough or wittily enough to make it palatable to parodies and ironies,” calling subtly into question conventional millions. That he has been concerned to sweeten the bitter pills notions of masculinity, femininity, sex, he hands his audiences displeases some love, and violence. of his recent critics: David Thomson, for After the delirious pace of example, has called him “a heartless Some Like It Hot, Wilder achieved an exploiter of public taste who manipulates almost equal success with The situation in the name of satire.” In fact, Apartment (1960), a quiet, sad, often what has happened, as Neil Sinyard says, bitter comedy about the perennial is that “a director previously identified conflict between love and with a cinema of acerbity and risk in a money….The film brought Wilder climate of tasteful timidity has come to Oscars for best film, best director, and- represent a cinema of temperateness and with coauthor Diamond–best story and geniality in a climate of sensationalism best screenplay and shock.” None of Wilder’s subsequent movies has equaled the success and He lived in a relatively modest prestige of the best of the films he apartment crammed with paintings by made between 1950 and 1960, though such artists as Picasso, Klee, Chagall, all have had their admirers and Dufy, and Rouault. defenders…. Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), He is a chain-smoker, and, admired abroad for its “glorious” bad taste, its ruthless way of according to Axel Madsen, his most striking physical trait is poking fun at American greed and hypocrisy, opened in the restlessness: similarly says that “speed is United States to a storm of abuse. It was called “sordid” and absolutely of the essence to him. He cannot do anything slowly.” “slimy” and was condemned by the Legion of Decency for Wilder is a famous wit and sometimes a cruel one; he once leaving adultery unpunished. Deeply hurt, Wilder retired for a remarked that “All that’s left on the cutting-room floor when I’m time to Europe and, according to Maurice Zolotow, actually through are cigarette butts, chewing-gum wrappers and tears. A considered suicide. The improbably positive ending of the director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a otherwise savage satire that followed, sycophant, and a bastard.” (1966), was regarded by some critics as evidence that Wilder had lost his nerve. from Philip Kemp’s entry in The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia. Ed. Andrew Sarris, Visible Ink, Detroit, 1998. The most widely discussed of Wilder’s late films was Fedora (1978), a sadder and wiser variation on the theme of During the course of his directorial career, Billy Wilder Sunset Boulevard. . . . Sunset Boulevard was made when Wilder succeeded in offending just about everybody. [He offended the was at the peak of his success, and it has a confidence and public, press, Congress, Hollywood establishment and religious audacity lacking in the later films. Perhaps, as Adrian Turner and leaders and critics] Neil Sinyard suggest, Fedora is “even richer because of that, the vision of a man who knows the system inside out but who. . . has Wilder presents a disillusioned world, one (as Joan been increasingly placed in the situation of an outsider looking Didion put it) “seen at dawn through a hangover, a world of in. Thus, the tone of the film is extraordinarily ambivalent, cheap doubles entendres and stale smoke. . . the true country of constantly pulling between sombreness and romance. . .this despair.” ambivalence is thematically of the utmost relevance and importance. . .the whole film is about ghosts, mirror images and Themes of impersonation and deception, especially doubles–about the pull between truth and illusion, youth and emotional deception, pervade Wilder’s work. Frequently, age.” though–all too frequently, perhaps–the counterfeit turns genuine, masquerade love conveniently developing into the real thing. For Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—10

all his much-vaunted cynicism, Wilder often seems to lose the considered the best in their time, they have continued to be the courage of his own disenchantment, resorting to unconvincing best over time. changes of heart to bring about a slick last-reel resolution. Some Some Like It Hot demonstrates Wilder at the peak of his critics have seen this as blatant opportunism. “Billy Wilder,” form. Marilyn Monroe, who has remained a universal icon Andrew Sarris remarked, “is too cynical to believe even his own among movie stars longer perhaps than any other female star, is cynicism.” Others have detected a sentimental undertow, one also at her peak in this film. Marilyn has never been funnier, which surfaces in the unexpectedly mellow, almost benign late more alluring, or more captivating, than she is in this film. Some films like Avanti! and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Like It Hot also proved to be a milestone in the careers of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, who spend more than three quarters of But although, by comparison with a true moral the film in drag. And let us not forget George Raft and Joe E. subversive like Buñuel, Wilder can seem shallow and even Brown, whose work in the early days of the sound era now is facile, the best of his work retains a wit and astringent bite that largely forgotten, but who in this film each give one of the sets it refreshingly off from the pieties of the Hollywood memorable performances of their careers. mainstream. When it comes to black comedy, he ranks at least the equal of his mentor, Lubitsch, whose audacity in wringing Even the most successful of sound comedies tends to date rather laughs out of concentration camps (To Be or Not To Be) is quickly, but Some Like It Hot has managed to remain today as matched by Wilder’s in pivoting Some Like It Hot around the St. fresh and lively as it was three decades ago. Billy Wilder and his Valentine’s Day Massacre. writing partner, I.A.L. Diamond, turned to a German farce of the twenties for their original The consistency of source material, but putting a Wilder’s sardonic vision allows couple of guys in drag has been him to operate with assurance a familiar comic shtick far across genre boundaries. Sunset longer than that. Greek and Boulevard–“full of exactness, Roman audiences roared at the cleverness, mastery and gag in the works of playwrights pleasure, a gnawing, haunting such as Plautus and Terrence. and ruthless film with a dank Elizabethan audiences did the smell of corrosive delusion same when Shakespeare hanging over it,” wrote Axel continued the tradition, and Madsen–has yet to be surpassed music halls and variety shows among Hollywood-on- in England, America, and Hollywood movies. In its cold Europe also used the gag as a fatality, Double Indemnity sure-fire way to get a laugh. qualifies as archetypal noir, yet the same sense of characters What helps Some Like It Hot rise above its 2600-year- trapped helplessly in the rat-runs of their own nature underlies history is the combination of Wilder and Diamond’s wise- both the erotic farce of The Seven Year Itch and the autumnal cracking dialogue and Marilyn Monroe’s powerful performance melancholy of Sherlock Holmes. Acclamation, though, falls as Sugar Kane (née Kawalchick), a singer in the all-girl beyond Wilder’s scope: his Lindbergh film, The Spirit of St. orchestra, “Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators.” Louis, is respectful, impersonal, and dull. What also helps are Lemmon and Curtis’ finely- controlled performances as two musicians hiding in the band in By his own admission, Wilder became a director only to order to escape from George Raft and his gang after they have protect his scripts, and his shooting style is essentially functional. witnessed a scene based on the infamous Valentine’s Day But though short on intricate camerawork and stunning Massacre. compositions, his films are by no means visually drab. Several of Jack Lemmon graciously consented to a lengthy them contain scenes that lodge indelibly in the mind: Swanson as interview for this videodisc. His comments on the making of the the deranged Norma Desmond, regally descending her final film, his theories about comic acting, and his analysis of Billy staircase; Jack Lemmon dwarfed by the monstrous perspectives Wilder’s unique powers are incorporated into the analysis of the of a vast open-plan office; Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend) film that appears on Analog Track Two. This analysis focuses on trudging the parched length of Third Avenue in search of an open the structure and technique of Some Like It Hot, provides pawn-shop; Lemmon again, tangoing deliriously with Joe. E. background on the film’s making, and demonstrates how the film Brown, in full drag with a rose between his teeth. No filmmaker follows classic principles of comedic construction. capable of creating images as potent–and as cinematic as these There are two ingredients that are necessary for any can readily be written off. comedy that tells a story: (1) an underlying pain and (2) a three- step structure of desire, deception, and discovery. The analysis Howard Suber: “Some Like It Hot” (Criterion Notes) on Audio Track Two explains why it is that comedy requires Billy Wilder is to the sound era what Chaplin, Keaton deception, and demonstrates how this principle works in this and Lloyd were to the silent: one of the foremost masters of the film. medium’s comic forms. Like them, his comedies were not only There is another kind of pain and deception that underlies Some Like It Hot: the notion that Marilyn Monroe was Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—11

nothing more than an early “T and A” girl who could drive men relationship is flipped and mirrored in low comedy as Lemmon mad but couldn’t act. The sources of Marilyn’s personal pain, gets engaged to a real millionaire, played by Joe E. Brown. both in her personal life and during the making of the film, could "You're not a girl!" Curtis protests to Lemmon. "You're a guy! explain why she appealed to women as well as men. Although Why would a guy want to marry a guy?" Lemmon: "Security!" Marilyn never received the recognition for her acting ability that The movie has been compared to Marx Brothers she so desperately desired during her lifetime, she was, in fact, classics, especially in the slapstick chases as gangsters pursue the one of the most effective comedians in film history. heroes through hotel corridors. The weak points in many Marx Above all, it is Billy Wilder’s comedic genius that makes this Brothers films are the musical interludes--not Harpo's solos, but film the classic that it is today. The acerbic one-liners, the careful the romantic duets involving insipid supporting characters. construction of character and situation, the simultaneous "Some Like It Hot" has no problems with its musical numbers sentimental/cynical use of music and love scenes, the running because the singer is Monroe, who didn't have a great singing lines and gags, and above all the absolute economy that makes voice but was as good as Frank Sinatra at selling the lyrics. everything contribute to the forward frenetic motion of the film Consider her solo of "I Wanna Be Loved by You." The are elements that make Billy Wilder one of America’s model situation is as basic as it can be: a pretty girl standing in front of writer/directors of comedy. an orchestra and singing a song. Monroe and Wilder turn it into one of the most mesmerizing and blatantly sexual scenes in . She wears that clinging, see-through dress, gauze covering the upper slopes of her breasts, the neckline scooping to a censor's eyebrow north of trouble. Wilder places her in the center of a round spotlight that does not simply illuminate her from the waist up, as an ordinary spotlight would, but toys with her like a surrogate neckline, dipping and clinging as Monroe moves her body higher and lower in the light with teasing precision. It is a striptease in which nudity would have been superfluous. All the time she seems unaware of the effect, singing the song innocently, as if she thinks it's the literal truth. To experience that scene is to understand why no other actor, male or female, has more sexual chemistry with the camera than Monroe. : “Some Like It Hot” Capturing the chemistry was not all that simple. What a work of art and nature is Marilyn Monroe. She Legends surround "Some Like It Hot." Kissing Marilyn, Curtis hasn't aged into an icon, some citizen of the past, but still seems famously said, was like kissing Hitler. Monroe had so much to be inventing herself as we watch her. She has the gift of trouble saying one line ("Where's the bourbon?") while looking appearing to hit on her lines of dialogue by happy inspiration, in a dresser drawer that Wilder had the line pasted inside the and there are passages in Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" drawer. Then she opened the wrong drawer. So he had it pasted where she and Tony Curtis exchange one-liners like hot potatoes. inside every drawer. Poured into a dress that offers her breasts like Monroe's eccentricities and neuroses on sets became jolly treats for needy boys, she seems totally oblivious to sex notorious, but studios put up with her long after any other actress while at the same time melting men into helpless desire. "Look at would have been blackballed because what they got back on the that!" Jack Lemmon tells Curtis as he watches her adoringly. screen was magical. Watch the final take of "Where's the "Look how she moves. Like Jell-O on springs. She must have bourbon?" and Monroe seems utterly spontaneous. And watch some sort of built-in motor. I tell you, it's a whole different sex." the famous scene aboard the yacht, where Curtis complains that Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures no woman can arouse him, and Marilyn does her best. She kisses of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft, a movie him not erotically but tenderly, sweetly, as if offering a gift and that's about nothing but sex and yet pretends it's about crime and healing a wound. You remember what Curtis said but when you greed. It is underwired with Wilder's cheerful cynicism, so that watch that scene, all you can think is that Hitler must have been a no time is lost to soppiness and everyone behaves according to terrific kisser. basic Darwinian drives. When sincere emotion strikes these The movie is really the story of the Lemmon and Curtis characters, it blindsides them: Curtis thinks he wants only sex, characters, and it's got a top-shelf supporting cast (Joe E. Brown, Monroe thinks she wants only money, and they are as astonished George Raft, Pat O'Brien), but Monroe steals it, as she walked as delighted to find they want only each other. away with every movie she was in. It is an act of the will to The plot is classic screwball. Curtis and Lemmon play watch anyone else while she is on the screen. Tony Curtis' Chicago musicians who disguise themselves as women to avoid performance is all the more admirable because we know how being rubbed out after they witness the St. Valentine's Day many takes she needed--Curtis must have felt at times like he Massacre. They join an all-girl orchestra on its way to Florida. was in a pro-am tournament. Yet he stays fresh and alive in Monroe is the singer, who dreams of marrying a millionaire but sparkling dialogue scenes like their first meeting on the beach, despairs, "I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop." Curtis lusts where he introduces himself as the Shell Oil heir and wickedly for Monroe and disguises himself as a millionaire to win her. parodies Cary Grant. Watch his timing in the yacht seduction Monroe lusts after money and gives him lessons in love. Their scene, and the way his character plays with her naivete. "Water Wilder—SOME LIKE IT HOT—12

polo? Isn't that terribly dangerous?" asks Monroe. Curtis: "I'll movie, you know what it is, and if you haven't, you deserve to say! I had two ponies drown under me." hear it for the first time from him. Watch, too, for Wilder's knack of hiding bold sexual symbolism in plain view. When Monroe first kisses Curtis while From Nobody’s Perfect Billy Wilder A Personal Biography. they're both horizontal on the couch, notice how his patent- . Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, NY, leather shoe rises phallically in the mid-distance behind her. 2002 Does Wilder intend this effect? Undoubtedly, because a little “The Pullman berth party is my homage to the later, after the frigid millionaire confesses he has been cured, he stateroom scene in Night at the Opera,” Wilder said, “though no says, "I've got a funny sensation in my toes--like someone was one could have done it better than the Marx Brothers. When the barbecuing them over a slow flame." Monroe's reply: "Let's bullets fall out of the gang’s trousers in Some Like It Hot, I’m throw another log on the fire." doing another homage to them, to the great scene in Animal Jack Lemmon gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop in the Crackers when the silverware falls out of Harpo’s sleeves. I wish parallel relationship. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. I could have made a Marx Brothers picture, and I talked about it Diamond is Shakespearean in the way it cuts between high and with them, but it’s one of those never-was films. I’ve got a low comedy, between the heroes and the clowns. The Curtis heedful of those.”… character is able to complete his round trip through gender, but Lemmon gets stuck halfway, so that Curtis connects with “The first time I saw Jack and Tony dressed as women,” Monroe in the upstairs love story while Lemmon is downstairs in Wilder said, “I felt wonderful, but Tony Curtis was bashful. He the screwball department with Joe E. Brown. Their romance is didn’t want to come out of the dressing room. After a couple of frankly cynical: Brown's character gets married and divorced the days, he was fine with it. way other men date, and Lemmon plans to marry him for the From my young days seeing shows in Europe, I alimony. remembered , the great female impersonator. I figured But they both have so much fun in their courtship! Barbette would be the perfect teacher for the guys. The only While Curtis and Monroe are on Brown's yacht, Lemmon and thing I worried about was, he would teach them too well, because Brown are dancing with such perfect timing that a rose in they couldn’t be too good as women, but should be kind of Lemmon's teeth ends up in Brown's. Lemmon has a hilarious clumsy and awkward, so the audience is in on the joke and scene the morning after his big date, lying on his bed, still in pulling for them. Perfect wouldn’t get the laughs because perfect drag, playing with castanets as he announces his engagement. is not funny. Part of the secret was the boys never camped it (Curtis: "What are you going to do on your honeymoon?" up.”… Lemmon: "He wants to go to the Riviera, but I kinda lean toward Niagara Falls.") Both Curtis and Lemmon are practicing cruel “Sydney Pollack, one of our best directors, understood deceptions--Curtis has Monroe thinking she's met a millionaire, what not to put in when he did . Dustin Hoffman makes and Brown thinks Lemmon is a woman--but the film dances free up his mind he’s going to become an actress, and then, suddenly, before anyone gets hurt. Both Monroe and Brown learn the truth he’s walking down the street dressed like a woman. No need to and don't care, and after Lemmon reveals he's a man, Brown show how it happened. Just cut.” delivers the best curtain line in the movies. If you've seen the

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE FOR BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS XXXVI, SPRING 2018 January 29 Mervyn LeRoy, Gold Diggers of 1933 1933 February 6 Michael Curtiz, Casablanca 1942 February 13 Jacques Tourneur, Out of the Past 1947 Februry 20 Fred Zinnemann, High Noon 1952 February 27 and , Singin’ in the Rain 1952 March 6 Yasujiro Ozu, Tokyo Story 1953 March 13 Satiyajit Ray, The Big City 1963 March 27 Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew 1964 April 3 Ousman Sembène, Black Girl 1966 April 10 , Dog Day Afternoon 1975 April 17 Robert Bresson, L’Argent 1983 April 24 Alan J. Pakula, The Pelican Brief 1993 May 1 , Mulholland Drive 2001 May 8 Jacques Demy, The Young Girls of Rochefort 1967

CONTACTS:...email Diane Christian: [email protected]…email Bruce Jackson [email protected] the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto [email protected] cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/ The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Dipson Amherst Theatre, with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News.