Perhaps someone can explain to me…
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Beau_Buffet — 10 years ago(March 29, 2016 09:42 AM)
Just want to say that Zelig is my favorite Woody Allen movie (big fan of him in general), and Some Like It Hot is probably my favorite American comedy of all-time.
There is nothing incompatible in loving these two particular movies. -
dmayo-911-597432 — 13 years ago(January 09, 2013 10:45 PM)
Hi, salesgab. We met over on the Citizen Kane page, and once again I think your personal response to an acclaimed film is sound. I'll tell the story of my own exposure to this movie, since it's both an old story and a new one.
I saw Some Like It Hot for the first time yesterday. However, I'm old enough to remember when it came out and how other kids talked about it in a gleefully knowing way, as if celebrating their initiation in the rites of grown-up entertainment. That talk, combined with the publicity stills of two men dressed as women cavorting with Marilyn Monroe, gave me a foreboding of ennui when I hadn't even studied French. I was and am indifferent to Marilyn Monroe, although I'm a male with standard wiring. I felt the cross-dressing gag to be a spent force as soon as I had seen the stills. And so I passed up that movie all these years.
Then I noticed that Halliwell's Film Guide gives SLIH four stars and refers to its qualities as "rarely duplicated and never equalled." Halliwell's is indeed my guide, so when the movie turned up on TV I watched it. I found it beautifully photographed. Otherwise, I kept waiting for the engine to turn over and finally realized that my old foreboding had been right. SLIH is a one-gag movie. What is essential to its appeal is that the gag is a naughty one; it paves the way for lots of nudge-nudge jokes about sex. Yes, "naughty" is a straitlaced word, but that's just the point. SLIH split the seams of a notoriously straitlaced decade in American history. It's far from being grown-up entertainment, but it was growing-up entertainment for moviegoers of the time and for Hollywood. It may be more than that to many people, just not to me.
Why does Some Like It Hot leave some of us cold? It might be interesting to pursue that question through comparisons with two movies that I, for one, like very much. The first is Preston Sturges's The Palm Beach Story (1942). I've chosen this example because it has several things in common with SLIH. Its mainstay is a wild train-to-Florida sequence. It gives us the funny millionaire character in two parts: an old one with a glittering eye for legs, and a young one with matrimonial ideas and a yacht. It works a running gag about sexual response. It even ends (mini-spoiler alert) with a madcap pairing of characters on the principle that any mate will do just not so madcap as in SLIH. The Palm Beach Story does make me laugh, again and again. If Sturges had made Some Like It Hot, I'm sure I'd have laughed at that the way others do; only then the others might not have laughed.
I'll also suggest a very different kind of comparison. To see another way of keeping the subject of sex in play throughout a movie, I recommend a non-comedy, The Haunting (the 1963 original). Apart from one brief, obliquely pointed dialogue, this film has nothing to do with sex on the surface. The surface, however, is a carefully-drawn map of underlying sexual tensions. Yes, that's another form of nudge-nudge entertainment. It's just a matter of finding a form that you enjoy. So it is with The Palm Beach Story.
Having reached the stage where I'm too opinionated to question my own response to a movie as you admirably do, salesgab, I maintain that if I give a movie one or two chances to impress me and it doesn't, then it was made for other people. I gave Some Like It Hot a chance yesterday. I'll give it a second one. But please, everybody, let's not impugn each other's wits for "getting" different things. -
onleft23 — 12 years ago(September 01, 2013 02:12 PM)
dmayo-911 -
Can't agree w/ your take but respect its well written and reasoned opinion.
& I will give The PB Story & Haunting a watch to see where and or why my response
to SLIH seems so 180 degrees different from yours.
You see watching this movie for the first time yesterday evening, I found myself
caught up in laughter all the way thru. And more than once still laughing at one
line and then getting a new laugh from the next. Not "ROTFL" type laughs but
authentic ones just the same.
The script was one of the most clever I've ever heard. For sure though I'd "bought in" the thing
beforehand - I mean Wilder, Lemmon, Curtis, & Marilyn Monroe -
I guess kinda like a Bill Cosby monologue, the guy could read the phone book and
still kill b/c the audience is so "with" the performer.
But for me - and maybe because of a pre-disposition - SLIH lived up to its rep - every bit so.
Thanks again for your perspective I took something from it if not persuaded by it. -
dmayo-911-597432 — 12 years ago(September 01, 2013 10:16 PM)
onleft23
We don't want this to become an endless loop of acknowledgements, but do let me say thank you for your friendly reply. It's refreshing to see a difference of opinion expressed in that spirit.
I'll have another look at SLIH one of these days. -
Veltaine — 12 years ago(April 05, 2013 06:02 AM)
Reasons why this is the greatest comedy ever made?
I.A.L Diamond's script, even the most insignificant scenes in the film are loaded with witty lines and satire.
The acting, Monroe had huge talent as a comedic actress. Jack Lemmon had excellent timing and his facial expressions were hilarious.
The outrageousness of having a tough guy from the Bronx playing a prudish, high-strung lady.
The sexual tension between the three main characters. Bearing in mind this was just before the 'sexual revolution' of the sixties.
The pure outlandishness of the plot, interwoven with the viewer's thinking; well, what the hell else could they have done in that situation?
Possibly the best last line of any film ever made.
There are more reasons, of course, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.
"My car is outside."
"Naturally." -
michaelward15 — 12 years ago(June 28, 2013 09:38 AM)
I don't remember laughing one time when I saw Some Like It Hot which is really strange to me because not only is it regarded as a classic, but I really like Billy Wilder generally. One, Two, Three had me in stitches the hole time and nobody seems to appreciate it.
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mam13143 — 12 years ago(January 18, 2014 06:48 PM)
Saw this when first released in a jammed movie theater and the audience laughed more than any one I ever experienced. Remember for 1959 this was something they hadn't seen, and all the actors were great. Black and white film was still an ok medium cause tv was still showing a lot of b&w. Lemmon was the real star but they all excelled. And the story and direction also excel. Have never seen a comedy funnier but not to say there aren't a lot of other good ones over the years.
Remember this type of comedy had not been seen before and was so revolutionary it was banned in some states and condemned by the Catholic Church. Hard to imagine now. In fact, imagine Adam Sandler doing this film. Sex, nudity, toilet humor and soft core porn would abound (see his latest, the Do Over, for reference). Anyone seeing it today for the first time cannot truly appreciate the impact it originally had. TV shows today have more sex and bad language than this film does.
Lots of other great comedies out there, but few of them made today. -
MicahFish — 12 years ago(January 24, 2014 08:41 AM)
Simply because it was ground breaking for it's time. It's been borrowed, and rehashed so many times by now that the comedy may not seem even seem original anymore, but it was in this film. Even despite that, though, nothing like this had been done before.
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crlnrgbrght5 — 12 years ago(March 16, 2014 03:16 PM)
Matter of taste I guess. I myself found it very funny, especially Lemmon. The Op stated that they prefer Woody Allen comedies and Monty Python, but Allen never made me laugh, and I prefer John Cleese in "Fawlty Towers".
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mrgogonyc — 11 years ago(June 18, 2014 08:22 AM)
I think a cofactor in our OP's reaction to "SLIH" is expectations. You hear repeatedly how fine, wonderful and hilarious a film is and you sit to watch (may I guess by himself?) and say "Huh?"
The only way we are disappointed in this life is when we have expectations.
This film is in my top 5 comedy favorites. I say "favorite" so that I don't get in big debates about "best" comedy. "Tootsie" is my fave, followed by "His Girl Friday". I'd put "SLIH" around 3rd with "Female Trouble" right after. "Libeled Lady" is up there. "MP and the Holy Grail certainly rules.
"Valley of the Dolls" and "Cobra Woman" stand on their own as hilarious. That certainly wasn't their intention, but few are funnier.
"If it is not in the frame, it does not exist!" -
pauline_evans — 10 years ago(October 27, 2015 12:25 PM)
It's really all a matter of personal taste isn't it. Speaking for myself I liked "Some Like It Hot" well enough, the bit I liked best was the end when Joe. E. Brown finds out that the woman he's proposed to is really a man and says "Nobody's perfect", but I wouldn't say it was THAT funny either, definitely not the funniest film ever. On the other hand, I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a stick than watch either Woody Allen or Monty Python. As I said, it's a matter of taste and we can't all like the same things.
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fanaticita — 10 years ago(November 26, 2015 02:34 PM)
Some Like It Hot is one of my favorite films of all time. I've seen it at least 10 times, and whenever I feel like I need a good laugh, I watch it again. It has everything. . . silliness, great acting and great actors, hilarious plot, sensuality, fun costumes, etc. It's one of the best