SOME LIKE IT HOT (Billy Wilder, United Artists, 1959)

Another one of my all time favorites, a film that has been written about endlessly. Here are the things I love about SOME LIKE IT HOT (Billy Wilder, United Artists, 1959);

I love Osgood (Joe E. Brown). This man literally steals every scene he is in. Dancing with Daphne (Jack Lemmon), chasing Daphne into the elevator, walking drunkenly to his dinghy, everything he does is perfect. But his best comes last as he utters the line "nobody's perfect". No better way to finish the best comedy ever written than with that line.

I love that this is the best comedy ever written and I love that man who wrote it. The characters are rich, the dialogue witty and sharp. Not a line gets wasted, not a scene is a throwaway. Everything is wrapped tightly in a neat little package from start to finish. Many talk of the "Lubitsch touch" but I definitely believe there is also a "Wilder touch". All of his films are filled with his sensibility, his panache. Its my understanding Wilder came here unable to speak English and taught himself by spending time on the streets listening to people. If this is true it is obvious in all his writing, for every film.

I love that they explode the gangster genre into a comedy. Way before films exploded genres fully in the late sixties and seventies, this film was at the front. Poking fun at the seriousness of the gangster genre and it's characters. A lead guy named "Spats"? Are you kidding me? And impeccably played by George Raft.

How about that main cast? Let's start with Tony Curtis. Here you have a man who turns in an iconic performance basically portraying his idol Cary Grant. It speaks volumes for Grant and Curtis both. Try watching this film then watch a Grant film. The performance by Curtis is eerie! And who wouldn't be able to pull off that performance next to the great Marilyn?

And Marilyn as Sugar Kane is out of sight. Three scenes stand out. In her first appearance on screen, that walk in the train station. When she sings her number on the train to Florida. But she is outta sight as she vainly tries to turn a frigid Shell Jr. warm on his yacht. When Curtis has to take off his glasses to wipe off the steam, you know Marilyn is doing her job.

But the captain of the ship, the man who drives everything is the inimitable Jack Lemmon. Both as Jerry and then even more so as Daphne, there is not a more impeccably great comedic performance on screen, ever. Try watching Daphne's dancing scene with Osgood or the scene when Daphne returns with Osgood's proposal without stopping and re-watching them due to how gut- bus tingly funny they are. And they are purely driven by Lemmon. Amazing performance.

I love that fifty years before gay marriage became a prominent social issue, before the rise of LGBT movements, this film tackled taboo topics and turned them on their heads. This film was released in the fifties and look at the topics it covers? Two men pose as women? One of them decides to wed another man? Brilliantly, there is a moment when Joe and Jerry have a conversation and Joe says "why would a guy want to marry another guy"? So incisive and insightful, fifty years ahead of it's time.

This is one of my all time favorite films, one that everyone should watch, it's that good!