‘Some Like It Hot’ and the Art of Near Perfection

‘Nobody’s Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot’By Lucy Jane SantosWhite Owl, 224 pagesA black-and-white motion picture with only a supporting role for Marilyn Monroe, a foremost star of Hollywood’s Technicolor era, at a time (1959) when widescreen cinema lured audiences away from black-and-white television? The Hollywood production code still prohibited explicit sexuality and violence, so the story of two musicians, Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), disguised in drag, fleeing the scene of a gangland murder they have just witnessed in what was supposed to be a comedy, baffled the first film preview audience. Were they supposed to laugh?Director Billy Wilder, and his screenwriter-partner, I.A.L. Diamond, did not even have a finished script when the film went into production. Yet this was not the first great film to carry on without knowing how it would end. It had been done with “Casablanca,” and Wilder wanted the freedom to evolve a finale that would organically arise out of the shooting schedule and work with actors on set.At a second film preview, the audience roared with appreciation and “Some Like It Hot” became a hit and a favorite of critics, with several books about the making of the film published. Lucy Jane Santos has drawn on those books to provide a nuanced and perceptive group biography of the film’s makers while generously taking aboard the contributions of biographies about Wilder, Monroe, Lemmon, Curtis, the producers who knew how to market the film, and yet more details about the film drawn from archives.Ms. Santos is clear that Wilder, who for years disparaged Monroe as an actress almost impossible to work with, eventually had to concede that as good as the writing was, as good as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were, the film simply would not have triumphed without her. She brought a depth of characterization to what could have been just another dumb blonde role, and perhaps even more important, a grasp of the mise-en-scène, starting with the crucial timing of her first entrance.When Wilder showed Monroe the shot of her walking on a train platform, she told him it would not do. The scene seemed flat to her. He rarely took kindly to actors who thought they knew better than the director, yet in this instance she was right. The reshot scene, with a blast of steam from the train that makes her swerve in her high heels becomes the perfect setup for Lemmon’s amazed reaction, verbalized as “like Jell-O on springs.” Marilyn Monroe in ‘Some Like It Hot,’ 1959. Via Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesWilder and Monroe often argued about the approach to her character. The quarrels aggravated the director’s bad back and demoralized Monroe who began arriving later and later on the set, withdrawing to consult with her coach, Paula Strasberg. Most treatments of the contention between director and actress focus on her frailties, ignoring how the psychosomatic Wilder became just as problematic. As Ms. Santos points out, he had troubles with other actors, including Humphrey Bogart during the shooting of “Sabrina” and Tony Curtis, both of whom resented the way the director played favorites and ignored or ridiculed them.Ms. Santos does not discount how difficult Monroe was to work with, but the actress is shown having to navigate all sorts of directorial and corporate demands even as she was coping with illnesses that were not mental but demonstrably physical, including endometriosis. Ms. Santos also deftly handles the legendary lore that has obscured what actually happened on the set, especially the continually changing stories of Tony Curtis, which seem to have depended on his own physical health and moods. He never thought he got enough credit for his superb acting and contributions to the way the film was shot.Jack Lemmon, respectful of the director and his fellow actors embodied the forgiving, understanding spirit of Joe E. Brown, playing the tolerant millionaire who is told by Lemmon that he has fallen in love with a man. As Lemmon takes off his wig to disclose his true sex, the benign Brown replies, “Nobody’s perfect,” which is of course the perfect ending in a film that always ranks with the best work Hollywood has ever produced.Mr. Rollyson is the author of ‘Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress,’ ‘Marilyn Monroe Day by Day,’ and ‘Female Icons: Marilyn Monroe to Susan Sontag.‘

‘Some Like It Hot’ and the Art of Near Perfection

‘Some Like It Hot’ and the Art of Near Perfection

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