Some Like It Hot

A detailed Summary of Some Like It Hot

After viewing Billy Wilder's classic Some Like It Hot, it is no wonder that the film was voted as the number one comedy by the American Film Institute. Wonderfully constructed, this movie has all the characteristics that has made a Wilder feature as signature as it is. Delicious costuming, a subtle use of shadows and setting to establish a mood, and characters who share a stunning repoire with each other.

As the film opens, the viewer is transported back to 1920's Chicago. Billy Wilder utilized black and white to create a mood of nostalgia and an improved use of shadows. (I know this through prior study of the film.) These contrast tones also helped the viewer to remember the cop movies of the 20's and 30's. Prohibition was in full swing and a speak easy run by Spats, the mobster kingpin, is under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But one would think that an agent for the FBI would have more sense than to clean his badge in the open air like the one in the film does. At this point we meet Gerald and Joe, played by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. These young men are at the end of their ropes and are so happy just to have a job. After the club is raided by the police, the young men retreat into an alley behind the

As the men travel to Florida in a tightly packed train, we watch, as they are required to remind themselves that they "are boys." Jack Lemmon is exceedingly creepy as a girl, always giving a perverted wheeze after delivering a sexual innuendo of some sort. Joe E. Brown fantastically plays the character of Osgood the Millionaire. This character is a good balance of weirdness for "Daphne". Gerald has spent the first part of the movie being a dirty minded weirdo and now he has found a fellow cut of the same cloth. Joe has been using his close relationship with Sugar to glean information of her perfect type of man. Hence the character of "Shell Oil Man" is created. But this millionaire has a weakness that only Sugar can cure and she takes his treatment into her own hands, so to speak. Wilder takes an embarrassing male illness and makes it so funny. This situation is tame by today's standards but yet still causes cheeks to flush and eyes to dart nervously around the room. The cutaway scene between Sugar and Shell Oil is in hilarious contrast with Daphne's "good" time with Osgood. But it could not be all fun and games in Florida. Stereotypical mob characters are having a contrived opera convention at the very same hotel that the girls' band is playing at. The entrance of the bosses is shown through the film's fluid use of shadows as characterization. My question is: Were the twenties so hard up for women that men had to hit on people who were obviously of the same sex? But this was most likely created to create a freaky sexual tension. If not for anythi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Billy Wilder, Florida Stereotypical, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Osgood Sugar, Shell Oil, Gerald Joe, Illinois Finding, Institute Wonderfully, Daphne Gerald, jack lemmon, gerald joe, billy wilder, monroe shown, shell oil, marilyn monroe,

Approximate Word count = 1052
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies