SOME LIKE IT HOT Blu-ray Review: Criterion Re-issues the Perfect Comedy

Some Like it Hot is one of those films that I can't remember not having seen; and yet, every time I watch it, it still feels fresh and funny. There is so much I learned from it for the first time: prohibition (I'm Canadian, we didn't have that here); the subtle style of spats; day for night film shoots; that the Dodgers used to be a Brooklyn team. I'm fairly certain it was the first Marilyn Monroe film that I saw, and like many others, encouraged an interest in her life and work. When my parents took a trip to San Diego many years ago, I told them to take pictures of the Hotel Coranado, where it was filmed as a stand-in for Florida. Suffice to say, this is not only a favourite film of mine, but one of the best films ever made.

As my colleague Josh Hurtado has written: "There's nothing not perfect about Some Like It Hot. From the incredible dialogue, to the staging, to the spot-on casting, it is the result of a confluence of remarkable talent meeting up at just the right time ... it feels just as fresh as if it'd opened last week."

Criterion Collection have re-released Some Like It Hot with a fresh 4K UHD and Blu-ray disc, complete with several hours of special features. Co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, the story of Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), two down-on-their-luck musicians in 20s Chicago who witness a mob killing and find themselves hiding out while dressed as women in an all-girl jazz band, Joe falling in love with the beautiful but dim Sugar Cane (Marilyn Monroe), while Jerry is courted by a millionare, remains one of the most oddly convoluted and yet hilarious road trips you'll find on the silver screen.

It never ceases to amaze that this film is just over two hours long. It's not easy for any comedy to maintain the necessary energy for that length of time, let alone one that relies on a fairly fast pace, but this film never lets up. But one of its greatest features it that it never relies too heavily on one type of humour. Obviously the sight gags are key, with Curtis and Lemmon in drag, a priceless shot of Monroe's walk on a train; Curtis rising from the bath Les Diaboliques-style, fully clothed; Lemmon and his paramour Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) tango-ing until dawn.

But there is also the dialogue: the several well-placed jokes about type O blood; the Scheboigan conservatory; Daphne's flat chest; 'that's how I like 'em, big and sassy'. Not only running jokes and gags but one-liners make nearly every moment in the film, a moment to get a laugh from the audience. But the plot still hums along, and it never feels slow, you never have an incling to look at your watch. Curtis doesn't even do his amazing Cary-Grant impression as Junior, the Shell executive that Sugar sets out to seduce, until a full hour into the film, and by the time Jerry/Daphne reveals himself to Osgood (to set off one of the greatest final lines in cinema history 'Well, nobody's perfect'), you would swear the time had flown by.

Not only do the dialogue and sight gags stand the test of time, but so does its queer message. Certainly, men dressing in drag for laughs was not new to the Hollywood of 1959; but Some Like it Hot showed that, not only did this act (at least temporarily) save Joe and Jerry, but it also liberated them. As Joe/Josephine gets to know Sugar as a friend and not a mere sex object, he falls in love rather than his standard love-'em-and-leave-'em routine. Jerry/Daphne decides marrying a man would be a good option for his future security. Even Sugar's golddigging is not necessarily negative, but a necessity born out of a society that leaves her few options for a safe and secure life. Heteronormativity is rejected in favour of the found family with a different gender make-up.

This was one of Monroe's last films, and it is one of her best (some have argued the best). Her Sugar Kane is sweet, kind, funny, a bit dim but mostly just a hopeless romantic. The chemistry between her, Curtis, and Lemmon is the heart of the film. All of them have both terrific comic timing, and an absolute commitment to the sincerity of the material, never treating the story, or their characters, as unworthy of the love they seek. And they all look damn good in a dress.

Some Like it Hot remains a film that had the perfect blend of cast, crew, story, and timing. There's a reason it's remained on the lists of 'best movies of all time' for decades. As Josh has said, it's a perfect film.

EXTRAS

The 4K restoration was done from the original 35mm camera negative, with some missing scenes being filled in from a duplicate negative. With remasted sound fromn the monaural soundtrack, it looks and sounds as wonderful as we can imagine it did when it first screened.

A trio of shorter docs makes for a good introduction to the film, for those who might not know its history. The Making of Some Like it Hot somes some great footage of Wilder and co-writer I.A.L. Diamond (with whom he made his best films) at the Hotel del Coronado. Diamond's wife, Barbara Ann Bentley, provides memories of Wilder and her husband's writing routine, which consisted of sitting around for hours until they had their 'eureka' moment. The doc reveals how Lemmon was the first to sign on, and that Frank Sinatra and Mitzi Gaynor were the initial choices for the other two leads (respect to them, but thank goddess neither were cast). There's also not only behind the scenes photos, but video footage, adding a colourful dimension to the backstory. The Legacy of Some Like it Hot, hosted by filmmaker Curtis Hanson, discusses how the film defied the censors in the last years of the Hays Code.

Two of the most interesting supplements come from the women of the film. A clip from a radio interview given by Marilyn Monroe gives us a side of her not often heard, even considering the journalist was trying to get personal information out of her, it's nice to hear how interesting and well-spoken she was (she is never given enough credit for this). She talks about how she would grab books if she had to vacate her home (but doesn't say which ones), and how she wanted to retire to Brooklyn. Another short piece interviews four of the women who were in Sweet Sue's Society Syncopaters; each remembered the pleasures of working with Lemmon and Curtis, and how wonderful Monroe was. Given the importance and beauty of the clothes, another doc profiles Orry-Kelly, the costume designer, and discusses his inspirations, how he made Monroe's famous nude and black dresses, and designing to make Lemmon and Curtis look good as women.

Author Sam Wasson provides an essay that looks at how Wilder's film might have been an accidental queer manifesto, as Wilder was always more interested in the comedy aspect. But the highlights of the supplements are two longer interviews with Wilder and Curtis. The former are two conversations the filmmaker had with Dick Cavett on his 70s talk show; Wilder is clearly a very witty and funny man, but also insightful, duscussing the Berlin of his youth, German and Jewish mythology and the effect it had on his upbringing, the women stars he admired, meeting Sigmund Freud, and his experience working with actors in Hollywood (there's a great story involving Humphrey Bogart and a Canadian army cadet that had me in stitches). The latter is a conversation with Curtis and Leonard Maltin. Curtis' love of Some Like it Hot and his gratitude for being a part of the film is clear, and he loves to tell stories about the good (working with Lemmon and Monroe), and the weird (finding a way to urinate without having to get our of his costume) tells us so much about the film business.