11/17/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: Some Like it Hot

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Some Like It Hot (1959) film comedy directed by Billy Wilder; and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The supporting cast includes George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff. In 2000 the American Film Institute listed Some Like It Hot as the greatest American comedy film of all time.

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It is February 1929 in the city of Chicago. Joe is a jazz saxophone player, irresponsible gambler and ladies’ man; his friend Jerry is a sensible jazz double-bass player. They accidentally witness the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. When the gangsters, led by “Spats” Colombo, spot them, the two run for their lives.

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Penniless and in a mad rush to get out of town, the two musicians take a job with Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed to Miami. Disguised as women and calling themselves Josephine and Daphne, they board a train with the band and their male manager, Bienstock. Before they board the train, Joe and Jerry notice Sugar Kane, the band’s vocalist and ukulele player.

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Sugar sings I Wanna Be Loved By You in classic breathy Monroe style.

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Once in Miami, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as a millionaire named Junior, the heir to Shell Oil, while feigning disinterest in Sugar. An actual millionaire, an aging mama’s boy, the much-married Osgood Fielding III, tries repeatedly to pick up Daphne, who rebuffs him. Osgood invites Daphne for a champagne supper on his yacht. Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood occupied onshore so that Junior can take Sugar to Osgood’s yacht, passing it off as his. Once on the yacht, Junior explains to Sugar that, due to psychological trauma, he is impotent and frigid, but that he would marry anyone who could change that. Sugar tries to arouse some sexual response in Junior, and begins to succeed. Meanwhile, Daphne and Osgood dance the tango till dawn.

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Sugar runs from the stage at the end of her performance and is able to jump into the launch from Osgood’s yacht just as it is leaving the dock with Joe, Jerry, and Osgood. Joe tells Sugar that he is not good enough for her, that she would be getting the “fuzzy end of the lollipop” yet again, but Sugar wants him anyway. Jerry, for his part, comes up with a list of reasons why he and Osgood cannot get married, ranging from a smoking habit to infertility. Osgood dismisses them all; he loves Daphne and is determined to go through with the marriage. Jerry tries to discourage Osgood; the ending is one of the best one-liners in movie history.

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