Film Review: Some Like It Hot

A little while ago I was looking for some new comedies to watch that I’d never seen before so I googled “Top 10 Greatest Comedies” or something to that effect and one movie that was mentioned over and over was the 1959 classic Some Like It Hot. I went into the movie knowing nothing except that its stars were Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Of course, because of Grumpy Old Men I knew and loved Jack Lemmon and I recognized Tony Curtis, but I had never actually watched anything with Marilyn Monroe–which is crazy, right? Well, there are things you know and things you understand. I have always known that Marilyn Monroe was a beautiful celebrity and huge cultural icon, but I never understood why. I mean, she’s beautiful, but there are a lot of beautiful people. Beauty doesn’t mean you should be a celebrity.

I generally don’t watch old movies (old meaning anything before the 70s usually) because they depress me. I sit there and obsess over the fact that everyone in the film, while looking so young and vibrant, is probably dead or really, really close to death. In this case, all three of the leads are dead. Usually I start spiraling in to a full blown existential crisis (that can last for days), but I’m glad to report that this did not happen with Some Like It Hot–because I was instantly infatuated with Marilyn Monroe.

Well, perhaps not instantly, but that’s only because Marilyn doesn’t enter the film for the first (I can’t entirely recall) 20 minutes or so. I kept watching all the women because I wasn’t sure if I’d notice Marilyn or not. And now you see the level at which I truly did not understand. And then she arrived–on screen and directly into my heart. It’s not just her beauty, but her charisma. She’s intoxicating. She plays a “dumb blonde” but at the same time you know she’s so much more. I’ve never had a crush on someone postmortem. I briefly considered building a time machine. I mean, wow. The only person who might’ve even come close to Marilyn’s charisma (though in a different way) is Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.

And so, as you’ve probably begun to imagine, Marilyn was the revelation for me in Some Like It Hot. Jack and Tony were fine. I could see how the movie and comedy might’ve been somewhat scandalous in the 50s, but it was pretty tame by today’s standards. Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It didn’t make me pee my pants with laughter, but it was a lot of fun to watch and to be taken back 50 years and see what made my dad’s generation laugh. And also I couldn’t stop trying to imagine what Marilyn Monroe looked like naked, so that was fun too.

Today’s post was written by Rhett Soveran. Rhett is a writer and the Web Editor of WestJet’s up! magazine. Check out his blog (and upcoming podcast): Bailing Bucket.

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