Some Like it Hot: BFI brings Marilyn back to big screen

'Some Like it Hot' will show at BFI Southbank throughout July 2014. Voted the funniest film of all time by the American Film Institute, it's been meticulously restored and is back on the big screen. 

This is premium preview content: become a premium member for more film previews

Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing romp is everyone’s favourite comedy - or it should be. The film is perfection: relentless in wit and masterfully timed, with a script delivered deliciously by the faultless cast.

The plot...

Ostensibly, Some Like It Hot is a 'crime-caper' whereby two lowly jazz musicians enter self-imposed witness protection after seeing a bloody massacre led by villain Spats Columbo (based on real life gangster Al Capone). They find their escape from Chicago's mean streets with a Florida-bound group of musicians – including a ukelele player, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), The catch- it's an all-girl band. Copious amounts of breast-padding later and the sight of Joe and Jerry in full drag, played by Tony Curtis and J ack Lemmon respectively, will have you clutching your sides.   

Sex...

Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond's script sends up gangsters, the movie business, and the actors themselves. But the film is really about sex, sex, and more sex. From innuendos, to scantily clad slumber parties, from Sugar's gold-digging machinations, to Joe's quest to get her into bed. Having ditched their slacks for skirts, our heroic pretenders (and perhaps the worst drag-artists ever) are more bewildered, and turned on, than ever. 'It's a whole different sex!' Jerry cries as, forgetting their disguise, they blokishly gawp at the buoyant wonder of Sugar's strut.

Lies...

In a way it shouldn't be so robustly enjoyable, shot through, as it is, with Wilder's trademark skepticism. Each character lies shamelessly to get ahead. Not content with his 'Josephine' alias, Joe also charades as a yacht-owning millionaire. Funeral parlours are used as fronts for speak-easies.

Demons...

 Even candyfloss haired bombshell Sugar hides her drinking problem in her garter- and is happy for others to take the wrap. And it's here, as Sugar swigs from her hip flask, we detect a rare bluesy note. It's a small scene, baring little plot significance other than to bring her and Joe closer. She explains that she could stop drinking...only she doesn't want to. Monroe's ditsy irreverence gives way to something grimmer- reflecting not only her own battle with alcohol but the sure-fire knowledge of every audience member's acute awareness of the struggle. 

Marilyn Monroe

Wilder rather ungallantly referred to the experience of filming with Monroe as being "mid-flight, and there was a nut on the plane".  But the performance she gives is enough to eclipse even the bitterest memories of the reported fumbled lines and bad time keeping. As Sugar, she illuminates, seduces and provides some of the biggest laughs- all whilst pouring out from dresses more revealing than if she hadn't bothered with clothes at all.

Wilder ends the film at the first available moment; following his own advice that once the last event is done "-that’s it. Don’t hang around."  Next time you fancy catching a flick, why not give the new films out a miss and instead remember there are some incredible classic films in cinemas now that are well worth your attention. 

Want to read more? Members enjoy full access to all Culture Whisper's arts previews, exclusives and features. Click here to take our cultural quiz and get a month's free trial.