***From Out In The 1950s Night-Marilyn Monroe’s Some Like It Hot

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

DVD Review

Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, directed by Billy Wilder

Let’s say a couple of guys, a couple of musicians, a couple of work-a-day musicians trying to rub two coins together, trying to cover rom rent and keep one step ahead of the repo man, one a sexy sax player and the other a hipster bass player (although aren’t all bass players hipsters and I am just being redundant here), working for dimes and donuts in a 1920s speakeasy band witness, quite by accident, the infamous Chicago gangster night of the long knives Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. And the pair were still alive after the event, at least for a while until those gangsters got hip, to tell about it (although being work-a-day guys and wise they wouldn’t dream of putting the figure on those dastardly gangsters). Yah, still alive at least for a while until the other shoe drops.

Let’s suppose those guys, and we can give them names, Joe and Bill, although let’s be a little free and easy with the use of those names since as we move on in the suppose world those names will vanish, wanted to stay alive long enough to play sexy sax and hip bass another day. Well what could they do? What would you do? What could they do in a 1950s black and white Billy Wilder film and not make the audience too uneasy. Simple, nothing to it, just have our pair join an all- girl band, a popular nighttime feature back in the 1920s, and get the hell, way the hell out of Chicago on the fastest train out, fastest train out to sunny Miami. And thus are Joe and Bill strictly for professional reasons, and for life reasons too now that I think about those hoods who have certain unfinished business with our boys (girls?), transformed from two working guys to two working girls (no, not that kind, really working, okay). And that transformation is not some trumped up over the top Mae West /Judy Garland drag queen thing down like you might have seen in the hip Village or North Beach Frisco scene but merely to transform handsome Tony Curtis into beautiful Tony Curtis and good-looking Jack Lemmon into fetching Jack Lemmon.

Let’s say too that among those girl band members there was this blonde, maybe even a blonde goddess, Marilyn Monroe, this blonde singer, built, full-figured as was the desired look, desired man look back then, kind of Podunk dumb as was also desired man look as well, swaying back and forth making one, or both, guys “forget”they were girls. Now like with all blondes a story came with it. Seems she had seen the seamy side of life, had been kicked around a little by guys, sax players in particular, and so what she was looking for was some “do right” guy. And it would not hurt, although she would be the first to tell you she was no gold digger, if that right guy had a few million (a lot of dough back then although just walking around money now) stashed away for a rainy day. Like I say a story came with her.

Let’s also say we know a few things when all the dust settles. We know Tony is not going to finish out his life as some over the top drag queen in the Village, not after he saw that full-figured blonde swaying her hips. We know that those big bad gangsters who wind up following the trail of our guys down to Miami are strictly RIP, or will be. And we know that once you get to the core of this film, one in an endlessly long line of a boy meets girl stories, that Tony and Marilyn are slated for heavenly, if poor, bliss. And Jack, well see the film for that, but this film may have been well before its time in suggesting some same-sex marriage proposition as valid, even if for laughs. Oh yah, and we also know this film was a great vehicle for Tony, Jack and Marilyn to strut their stuff. Kudos Billy.