3 Reasons To Watch “Some Like It Hot” in 2023

If you have not seen Some Like it Hot, or are wondering if it demands a re-watch, I am here to tell you… WATCH IT!

I will provide a spoiler-free review that contains the broad strokes of the film, but it is the particulars of the story and filmic choices that make this movie something that holds up as exciting and fresh even in the modern era.

Spoiler Free Review

The played-out trope of men pretending to be women has new life breathed into it. New life in a 1959 black and white classic? Yes. There are things done in this classic movie that you have not seen in every other take on this old premise.

Fans of films will be familiar with the tropes and plot contrivances of stories that have been playing off the Cyrano de Bergerac idea of men not being who they say they are and still wining the love of their heart’s desire. You have seen it in Wedding Crashers, Fired Up, or the Nutty Professor.

But if you have not seen Some Like it Hot, this film has something interesting that varies from the standard coarse of the films that have followed it.

1. The Opening Chase

Our movie begins with a hearse full of the most tough looking group of hard men. Faces with cartoonishly large jaw lines and protruding brows that bake a permanent scowl into their faces.

The tension is tremendous, and nothing has happened. No dialogue. Just stone scowling men silently riding in a car with a coffin.

A cop car pulls behind them. They give it a once over, then they speed up without a word. When the police finally give chase, the cops fire a shot through the back window of the hearse, unprovoked.

The stone faces don’t flinch. They let the car get shot up a bit more until the coffin takes a slug and out comes the illegal booze they were carting.

The men look at one another nonplussed before calmly revealing the hearse has a secret overhead compartment for shotguns and automatic rifles.

The car chase shootout culminates in one of the most startling practical car stunts that will ever be shot (due to insurance and modern safety protocols).

The cop car (which looks like a model T) is so filled with stunt men that they are literally spilling out. Men hanging on to both sides of what would not even pass for a modern car at the time of filming. And with the vehicle filled to the point of men having to hang outside for the ride, the car skids sideways as if it was drifting.

Looking like it is going to crash, and only nearly not, the stunt men step off the sides of the car and continue shooting without missing a beat. It is so clearly dangerous and so amazingly effortless, but has the same bad ass intensity of the Terminator’s unshakable determined focus.

You might laugh at it. But you will be laughing at it like you laugh at the sheer unflinching machismo of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team in Predator or the action in RRR. As over the top as it is, it is unflinchingly unapologetic.

2. Tired Tropes Subverted

Here is how a movie like “Some Like It Hot” should go.

• Guys have to lie about being something they are not. (In this case women.)
• In disguise they are more honest than their usual lying self. This honesty attracts a girl.
• Guy one falls for girl, but he is not honest with her, so their genuine connection is tainted by a lie.
• Guy two is comic relief and gets whatever type of unwanted outcome the lie illicit (in this case an old man likes the woman Lemmon is pretending to be)
• The lie is revealed. Guy one loses the only girl who really knew him. Guy two usually has his circumstances go unchanged.
• Guy one gives impassioned plea to have the girl of his dreams see that the parts of himself she fell in love with were the only parts that were true.
• Guy one gets the girl. Guy two either gives in to the unconditional affection he has been shown or spends the last shot still trying to escape the unwanted advances

You can see this general formula in Wedding Crashers, Fired Up, White Chicks or countless TV show episodes.

But Some Like It Hot does something transgressive and different, even though it predates most familiar examples of these tropes. And gosh is it an unexpected breath of fresh air.

Sure, on the surface it ticks all the boxes (especially the Lemmon subplot with the classic comedic guy two role).

But Curtis never shares his world view or tells a childhood story that makes his conman persona understandable or sympathetic. He lies all the way through the e movie.

He even invents another fake persona (a millionaire) so Monroe only ever interacts with a dishonest Curtis.

But here is where things get interesting. Monroe is also lying to be more attractive to the millionaire. And she is using Curtis’ lies he told as a woman. In many ways Curtis is just courting a reflection of his deception.

And where Monroe will often play the ditz that believes Curtis to be Shell Oil Jr (the aire to the Shell Oil fortune) Curtis is just as much of a ditz with his lies. Both are doing such a bad job conning one another, but they are too buffoonish to notice.

Their inevitable get together might seem forced or unearned at first but it is anything but. They don’t ge together because love conquers all and the truth wins out over lies.

They fit together because Curtis was nice to Monroe. And she is just as much of a loser as him. What else is she going to do? She could never fit in with a millionaire (as she has shown trying to fit with Curtis’ parody of one).

She is going to give it a shot. She has set up her back story as having terrible taste in men and making bad decisions. Literally saying that she is going to go with him because she isn’t that bright.

3. Genre Defying Structure

Don’t hate me for the following analogy, what i say next I say understandings how loathsome. and cringey it is.

That being said, stay with me as I say, “This movie has an almost jazz-like structure.”

Terrible. I know. Let me explain. Comedy (and Some Like It Hot is a comedy) is about timing.

The changing key signatures of jazz throw off the listener’s sense of timing. You have to pay attention as the beat changes.

This can make listening to jazz or watching this movie feel like a disorienting experience.

But I would say that the movie holds your hand well enough and is pop enough that the time signatures changes give it a different feel without giving it a disjointed (bad jazz) stop-and-go quality.

The film starts with that car chase I described. Then we get the set up of a federal agent who is going to bust the speak easy the coffin full of liquor was going to.

We are treated to the whole inner workings of this illegal mob operation and the mobsters in charge of it. And then before the raid that the movie is building toward happens the camera almost stumbles into focusing on two musicians (Curtis and Lemmon). And they become the focus of the movie. Tempo and time signature change.

Then our Noir movie becomes a comedy. There is even a little timing gag where Curits and Lemmon are opening up door after door to ask for a job. There is a set fast paced tempo. Open the door. Ask for work. Quippy response from the women inside that gives you a sense that there is no work and these guys are unreliable and sleep around.

But out of no where they open a door and a girl is finishing her lunch. She has to take a moment to swallow before they do their little duet. Very fun. Very unexpected.

The comedy is interrupted by a very disturbing execution of a whole garage full of people. All lined up and shot against a wall as our main characters watch. Now our comedy cast is going to be hunted down and killed by our Dior cast. But back to wackiness as the men decide to dress like women and escape to Florida with an all female band.

Then you have a romance building between Lemmon and Monroe, and Curtis is trying to stay undercover. But Lemmon is eventually sidelined and Curtis takes over as the romantic interest for Monroe – literally stealing the lead role from Lemmon and forcing him into being the comedic sidekick.

Then Curtis uses his in with Monroe not to get her to fall for him (even after she admits being attracted to loser saxophone players). He tells her to go for a millionaire. Then concocts a new persona as a millionaire. Then Monroe starts lying to the fake millionaire.

You think Curtis is going to take advantage of Monroe. But he just provides the circumstances for her to try to take advantage of him. With her being the pushy one and him playing reluctant in a very subversive scene of female seduction of a male impudent.

Surprise! Key signature change. Don’t step on your dance partner’s feet. The mobsters are back, baby!

Just when you think the movie has found a comfortable rhythm it does something another movie like it would not do. And weirdly enough, for being such an old and well regarded film from a prominent filmmaker (Billy Wilder), there are still many tricks that I have not seen other movies attempt, let alone succeed to do better.

Wrapping up

Though some of the comedic charm Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” would have had in its day (1959) is certainly lost to the ages, there are still aspects of the film that remain fresh, effective, and even innovative.

You might laugh at the movie instead of with it. But I think that was its intention even back when it was made. The movie is suppose to be silly. But even in its silliness, it manages to be impactful and reach a depth and level of craft that is easy enough to overlook, but is certainly their.