Comments on Screen Savour: Some Like It Hot (1959)

@Matt - Thanks so much. I hear you on the consiste...

2008-08-29T22:57:00.000-04:00

@Matt - Thanks so much. I hear you on the consistency of Hitchcock. So many of Wilder's films, like Hitchcock's great films, seem to defy aging.

Billy Wilder is perhaps one of my favorite directo...

2008-08-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

Billy Wilder is perhaps one of my favorite directors. I personally love Sunset Blvd more than other crime dramas such as The Maltese Falcon and other noirs of its era. Perhaps only Hitchcock in his prime was more consistent of a director than Wilder was IMO.

Same goes for Some Like It Hot. Comedies of the past decades can be hit or miss with today's audiences, but as FDR says, SLIH has a very contemporary feel, yet doesn't devolve into a gorefest ala Pineapple Express.

SLIH is definitely in my top 25 or possibly top 10 of the 1950's. Excellent coverage on this movie, T.S.!

@Deadpan - A Wilder marathon would be very enjoyab...

2008-08-28T10:13:00.000-04:00

@Deadpan - A Wilder marathon would be very enjoyable, I would think... how he was able to oscillate from comedy to noir to comedy is such a compelling directorial trait.

@FDR - Great point. Some Like It Hot does feel very modern in speed, and I agree with your assessment of the massacre; for a while the film doesn't really even feel like a comedy, and what a brave thing to do. I've heard the b/w cinematography helped make Lemmon and Curtis look more "normal" as the makeup they wore didn't look good in color. I'd never thought about the b/w during the massacre... excellent.

@Nick - Thanks for the compliment. Monroe looks great and goes a long way toward making the film so enjoyable... there's an old story about Wilder and Monroe and the trouble they had together. He's quoted as saying she was always late, always flubbing her lines, always needing re-shoots; he could have cast his grandmother and she would have been on time, nailed the lines and done it all in one or two takes, but no one would have come to the movies to see Billy Wilder's grandmother. :P

I love this film so much, I defintely do li...

2008-08-28T09:11:00.000-04:00

I love this film so much, I defintely do like it hot. That is a fine review.

I agree that Some Like It Hot is one of Wilder's b...

2008-08-26T16:36:00.000-04:00

I agree that Some Like It Hot is one of Wilder's best films, but it can be hard to analyze. In terms of speed alone, the film still feels contemporary. Wilder manages to include two massacres with machine guns without destroying the mood of a comedy, but he makes it work by emphasizing the killers over the victims, by using black and white film instead of color (which would have emphasized the blood), and by having one group cheerfully sing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" before the men get mowed down. Too bad Apatow did not use similar restraint and wit in Pineapple Express.

I have seen Sunset Blvd, Double Indemnity and The ...

2008-08-25T22:02:00.000-04:00

I have seen Sunset Blvd, Double Indemnity and The Apartment, but have yet to see this Wilder film. I am thinking of getting into a Wilder marathon following my Hitchcock.