What’s So Hot About Some Like It Hot

We revisit the classic comedy Some Like It Hot with Yale Professor Marc Lapadula. Take a closer look at the performances, directing, messages and historical impact of the groundbreaking, hilarious film.

Transcript provided by Youtube:

00:00
now you’ve done it now you have done
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done what get taller off one of my chest
00:04
and let me go get it
00:07
would you better come help me before
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Dallas buyers club tangerine and mrs.
00:11
Doubtfire there was some like it hot
00:14
yeah yeah oh well I guess some like it
00:18
hot I personally prefer classical music
00:21
well some like it hot Billy Wilder was
00:23
great he was told this is not going to
00:25
be a movie anybody’s going to want to
00:27
see it starts with a massacre st.
00:29
Valentine’s Day Massacre is not funny
00:30
and indeed when he showed it to the
00:34
first test audience nobody laughed they
00:36
didn’t realize it was supposed to be a
00:37
comedy and so he then instead of being
00:40
deterred and sort of saying oh I did I
00:42
screwed up he actually took it to a
00:43
nearby College where students went nuts
00:46
over it and that’s how he knew he had a
00:48
hit on his hand widely hailed is one of
00:50
the funniest comedies of all time some
00:52
like it hot was a pretty big deal when
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it came out in 1959 as one of the films
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that helped ultimately take down the
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oppressive censorship of the Hays Code
01:01
it defied the rules of the time through
01:03
body humor mainstreaming drag homosexual
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undertones and topics like bisexuality
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transvestitism and impotence I was kaput
01:11
finished all washed up and here you are
01:14
making a chump out of all those expert
01:17
much of the humor comes from emphasizing
01:20
juxtaposition to adult men arguing in
01:23
deep voices while wearing dresses go to
01:25
die of shame shut up and keep patches
01:27
yeah yeah or the visual comparison
01:29
between their managed physique and the
01:31
Econo kremen inform of Marilyn Monroe so
01:34
well like a man fasi the comedy conceals
01:38
the film’s deeper critique of the
01:40
misogynistic undertones of the male gaze
01:42
condemning male insensitivity and
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societies unthinking objectification of
01:47
women trying to work do you think I am
01:51
oh please here’s a basic rundown of the
01:55
plot Joe played by Tony Curtis and Jerry
01:58
played by Jack Lemmon are two jazz
02:00
musicians who
02:02
only witness a fictionalized version of
02:03
the real-life 1929 Chicago st.
02:06
Valentine’s Day Massacre orchestrated by
02:08
Al Capone to escape the mob joe and
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jerry joined an all-girl band disguises
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josephine and daphne joe falls in love
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with a band singer sugar cane Jerry
02:17
meets a millionaire who wants to marry
02:19
him and together the pair out which the
02:21
gangsters on their tail
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it’s disturbing the violence but the FB
02:25
opening of this film but that actually
02:27
was what heightens the comedy later the
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terror of that violence is actually what
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enables the comedy to really have really
02:34
high stakes because it is a life and
02:37
death comedy Tony Curtis is someone that
02:41
actually said that when Jack Lemmon
02:43
immediately took on the role he made it
02:46
this big flamboyant character and that’s
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sort of was going to be how he was going
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to play his female persona after Daisy
02:53
fresh and he said well I can’t have my
02:57
performance match jacks and it’s hard to
02:59
keep up with Jack so he said he actually
03:01
faced his character on his mother and
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Grace Kelly and he said my mother is a
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very sophisticated woman Grace Kelly was
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very sophisticated so I went and played
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it that way he’s always personing his
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lips the whole time well heavy days I
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hope this time you wind up with a sweet
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end of the lollipop Marilyn Monroe’s
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presentation in the film serves an
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iconic example of Hollywood’s
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objectification of women but there’s
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more going on here than a
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straightforward male gaze Monroe
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represented the pinnacle of male desire
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of the era now consider Marilyn’s first
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appearance she’s photographed mostly
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from behind shown from Joe and Jerry’s
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awestruck perspective the message of
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this opening her brain and her feelings
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are unimportant and unworthy of being
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photographed it leads from the main
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character starting from enlightened male
03:47
point of view
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like cello one spring so some sort of
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building motors
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even a train blow steam on her as she
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walks by as if nothing human or
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inanimate can resist her physicality
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Monroe is depicted as an icon of sex and
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both she and the people around her
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assume her overwhelming sex appeal is
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married to her lack of smarts her name
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sugar further
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sizes that she’s just eye candy messy
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around girl bye sugar boy what I love
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them
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Barlow come on sugar no pastry no butter
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and no sugar but simply interpreting
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Monroe’s portrayal as a female sex
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kitten is to miss the deeper layers and
04:27
nuance to the multiple trope she’s
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presenting in the character Monroe
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intertwines two classic female roles the
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white goddess who’s innocently brimming
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with sexuality has sexually
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inexperienced and the dumb blonde
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stereotype no just dumb candy brains it
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wouldn’t be on this crummy trying with
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his crummy girls back strikingly Monroes
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comedic performance counters the feeling
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that she’s a passive object she’s in on
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the joke and by understanding Wilders
04:51
intent so are we
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Monroe’s entree on the screen is the
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ultra objectified woman sets up the
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men’s journey of awakening throughout
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the film where they gain a better
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respect for women as equals not object
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capable in their own right and intellect
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some like it hot marked a departure for
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director Billy Wilder who is better
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known for his critically acclaimed
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darker dramas like Double Indemnity
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and Sunset Boulevard in his direction
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Wilder doesn’t go for flashy tricks of
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cinema he uses smart shot choices to
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prioritize the comedy and communicate
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the character relationships in Swift
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entertaining ways take a simple example
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like the beach scene for sugar ditches
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the beach ball game to speak to Joe
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disguised as jr. heir to shale oil a
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medium long shot introduces the
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characters Joe draws sugar and by hiding
05:35
himself behind his paper creating a
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mysterious persona by the time she sits
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on the beach below jr. their positions
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have reversed sugar is smitten he has
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literally brought Marilyn Monroe to her
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knees
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the film’s visual choices mostly results
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wanting to magnify Monroe’s beauty while
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making lemon and Curtis look even semi
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believable as women or at least not
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distracting the bad movies were
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predominantly made in color at the time
06:01
but some like it hot was shot in black
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and white because Wilder failed to
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makeup used on lemon and Curtis had a
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green tint that made them look terrible
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Marilyn Monroe’s contract with the
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studio required that she always be
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filmed in color because she believes she
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was better that way
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but in this case the black and white and
06:17
do her looks any harm just asked anima
06:20
tog referred Charles Lange who was
06:21
nominated for an Academy Award for the
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film the contrast is the black and white
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also mirrors the binary black and white
06:27
conception of female versus male but it
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some like it hot highlights neither
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gender is as superficial or as black and
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white as they tend to present themselves
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just as sugar while perhaps initially
06:39
drawn to Joe from his millionaire
06:41
persona playing into the stereotype that
06:43
women are after money falls for him
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anyway
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when she realizes who he really is a sec
06:48
support player one of those no-goodniks
06:50
you keep running away from I know every
06:53
time a representative scene that
06:54
captures the film’s progressive nature
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shows Jerry debating whether or not to
06:58
marry off good the eccentric millionaire
07:00
who has fallen for him I’m engaged
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congratulations who’s the lucky girl I
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what buzz good proposed to me
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we’re planning a June wedding in one of
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the film’s funniest dialogues we see
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Jerry fully embracing the female persona
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you’re a boy I’m a boy that’s the boy
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all I’m a boy oh boy I wish I were dead
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I’m a boy
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my boy oh boy am i avoid dressing as
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women educates Joe and Jerry and the
07:31
audience about the discriminatory
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challenges of being a woman walking the
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proverbial mile in a woman’s high heels
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gives them deeper sensitivity towards
07:39
the opposite gender pretty I don’t care
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just so long as you’re wearing a skirt
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along with its message of tolerance and
07:45
flowering of societal boundaries some
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like it hot help send lotion the
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eradication of one of Hollywood’s most
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restrictive institutions the Hays Code
07:54
the Hays Code was a set of moral and
07:56
ethical guidelines agreed upon by studio
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heads across Hollywood which had been in
08:00
effect
08:01
decades and would have objected to the
08:03
majority of the film’s content including
08:05
its entire premise of cross-dressing men
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it seems ridiculous now
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but films weren’t protected by free
08:10
speech back in the first half of the
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20th century director Billy Wilder took
08:14
a gamble by neglecting to submit the
08:16
shooting script of some like it hot to
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the code censorship board before filming
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really had a hit once the Catholic
08:22
Church came out and condemned it gave it
08:24
a C rating because they said it promoted
08:26
homosexuality lesbianism and all kinds
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of other sexual deviant behavior the
08:32
outrage over its material they have just
08:34
helped it become the instant hit it was
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sound like Inhofe became the
08:38
highest-grossing sum of the year and in
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conjunction with a few other key
08:41
rebellious movies Wilders wild act set
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off a trend eventually leading to the
08:46
Hays Code official extinction in 1968
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some like it hot was so immediately
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iconic the Tony Curtis was referencing
08:53
it in his own movies a few years later
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like insects in the cellar girl because
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you’re wearing a woman’s robe oh no not
09:00
at all in fact I was thinking I look
09:02
just like Jack Lemmon did in that movie
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where he dressed up like a girl remember
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oh yes cross cut to The Birdcage where
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they where they sort of have to act like
09:16
men they have to act like straight men
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Robin Williams don’t and Nathan Lane
09:21
it’s because of some like it hot that
09:24
you would have that scene you’d have
09:25
that relationship media men Smith Smith
09:29
that’s it yeah
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get the gun LTG down the picture is also
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considered Marilyn Monroe’s last great
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work before her tragic descent and death
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I just think it’s a very influential
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film it remains an influential film it’s
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something that isn’t just funny in the
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time in which was made it transcends its
09:50
time everybody watches it today that
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final line which they thought it was
09:54
just going to be a line they just put in
09:55
there because they couldn’t think of
09:56
anything better but they kept saying
09:58
we’re going to come up with something
09:59
better and we’re going to replace it
10:00
they just never could come up with
10:02
anything else and just sort of stayed in
10:03
the film and neither one of them wanted
10:05
to take al diamond the co-screenwriter
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with Billy Wilder neither one of them
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they each said the other one thought of
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the
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and yet it’s one of the most with
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memorable lines in the history of film
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I’m a man well nobody’s perfect
10:20
you