Last week's Cinema Sunday looked at a film called The Children's Hour. Because of LGBTQ+ themes involved, the film's approach to the subject of a same sex relationship was curtailed, muted and forced to endure a tragic ending in compliance with the Motion Picture Production Code, otherwise known as the Hays Code.
This week's Cinema Sunday post is about another movie with LGBTQ+ themes (in this case, cross dressing) where the producers of the movie said "Fuck the Hays Code" and was made with out the approval of the code.
That movie is Some Like It Hot, a 1959 American romantic comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
While the Hays Code remained in force through the mid-1960's, the commercial and critical success of Some Like It Hot without imprimatur of the code was seen an early harbinger of the code's slide into irrelevance.
Our story opens in Prohibition-era Chicago in February 1929. So it's colder than a witch's big toe. In a speakeasy owned by gangster "Spats" Colombo are a pair of musicians just trying to earn a buck and just get by: Joe (Tony Curtis), jazz saxophone player and an irresponsible, impulsive ladies' man and his pal Jerry (Jack Lemmon), an anxiety plagued jazz double bass player.
"Spats" Colombo's joint gets raided by the cops and ol' "Spats" ain't too happy about that so he takes out his anger with a Tommy Gun on the informant who ratted him out.
Unfortunately, Joe and Jerry are in the vicinity and witness the hit.
Even more unfortunately, "Spats" Colombo witnesses Joe and Jerry witnessing the hit.
Joe and Jerry flee before "Spats" Colombo can have a conversation with them with his Tommy Gun but they can't stay out of his reach forever.
Fortunately, Joe and Jerry have a way out of town.
Unfortunately, that way out of town involves Joe and Jerry having to dress up as women named Josephine and Daphne so they can join Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed by train to Miami.
On the train Joe and Jerry befriend Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the band's vocalist and ukulele player.
Sugar confides to "Josephine" that she has sworn off male saxophone players, who have taken advantage of her in the past. She hopes to find a gentle, bespectacled millionaire in Florida.
Once in Miami, Joe concocts yet another disguise, wooing Sugar as gentle, bespectacled millionaire Junior, the heir to Shell Oil. ("Junior" also sounds like Cary Grant.)
Meanwhile, actual millionaire Osgood Fielding III is persistently pursuing "Daphne". Joe convinces "Daphne" to actually date Osgood so "Junior" can use Osgood's yacht as part of his seduction of Sugar.
"Daphne's" date with Osgood goes too well. Osgood asks "Daphne" to marry him. And Jerry is so caught up in his role, "Daphne" says yes.
Meanwhile, "Spats" Colombo and his cronies have shown up for a mobster conference... er, a meeting for "Friends of Italian Opera", yeah, that's the ticket.
Joe and Jerry see "Spats" and decide it's time to go on the run again.
Joe has "Junior" break up with Sugar but he's starting to feel bad about his deception of Sugar and breaking her heart. So he goes to say good-bye to Sugar with one last kiss... while he's dressed as "Josephine".
The film ends with Sugar chasing after Joe - "Josephine" - "Junior" and joining him in a boat piloted by Osgood with "Daphne" by his side. Osgood's chattering away about his plans for the wedding and "Daphne" is trying to shut him down gently but nothing is working.
Then Jerry takes off his wig and announces, "I'm a man, Osgood!"
Osgood with a smirk replies, "Well, nobody's perfect."
Which is the best movie ending ever.
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
As Osgood Fielding III, Joe E. Brown is the epitome of "that guy who was in that thing" with at least 54 films to his credit. Brown was in Show Boat (1951) as Cap'n Andy Hawks which we covered in this Cinema Sunday post right here.
I want to take a moment to talk about a performer who is NOT what I would call "that person who was in that thing". The part of "Spats" Colombo was played by George Raft who is most famous in film history for being that guy who was NOT in that thing.
Raft was most known for his portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. His casting as "Spats" seems to be spot on in that regard.
But movie stardom went to George Raft's head and he thought he knew better than the movies studios what movies Raft should make. Among the lead roles Raft declined included High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), All Through the Night (1942) and reportedly also Casablanca (1942). All these parts went to Humphrey Bogart which propelled him to superstardom.
With a reputation for being difficult to work with and with an unerring penchant for turning down roles in hit movies, Raft's star began to dim and the offers began to dry up, reduced to supporting roles wherever he could find work. His role as "Spats" in Some Like It Hot was Billy Wilder throwing him a bone.
Some Like It Hot is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning for Best Costume Design.
In 1989, the Library of Congress selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
And it is a reputation that Some Like It Hot so richly deserves. It is a very funny, delightful movie.
And if you don't agree?
"Well, nobody's perfect."
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