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created 12/15/97. |
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review
added: 6/28/02
Some
Like it Hot
Special
Edition - 1959 (2001) - United Artists (MGM)
review
by Adam Jahnke of The Digital Bits
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Film
Rating: A+
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras):
C+/C/B-
Specs and Features
122 mins, NR, letterboxed widescreen (1.66:1), Amaray keep case
packaging, single-sided, dual-layered (layer switch at 1:33:20, in
chapter 12), A Nostalgic Look Back
interview with Tony Curtis and Leonard Maltin, Memories
from the Sweet Sues featurette, Virtual
Hall of Memories, original pressbook gallery, theatrical
trailers (for Some Like it Hot,
Avanti, The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The
Fortune Cookie, Kiss Me Stupid,
Irma La Douce and
The Apartment), animated
film-themed menu screens with sound, scene access (16 chapters),
languages: English (DD 5.1 & DD Mono), French and Spanish (2.0
Mono), subtitles: French and Spanish |
"Well
nobody's perfect."
It often seems as though the American Film Institute compiles their
annual 100 Best Whatever lists
for no reason other than to irritate people and provoke arguments. I
mean, come on
100 Years, 100
Thrills? Who the hell even understood what that was
supposed to mean? Perhaps no AFI list was so predestined to start
fights than 100 Years, 100 Laughs.
More than any other genre, your taste in comedy is highly personal
and subjective. Face it. Laughter is universal. Comedy is not. If
everybody in the world shared my sense of humor, I'd be summering in
the Hamptons right now, on hiatus from my tremendously popular
sitcom.
At any rate, there is plenty to argue over on AFI's comedy list.
But the fact that Some Like it Hot
is ranked at #1
well, I've got no beef with that. Other movies
have made me laugh harder and longer than this one, but the comedy
in Some Like it Hot is so
elegant, so perfectly crafted, it's almost Shakespearean. The film
takes place during Prohibition, when organized crime was in its
heyday. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play Joe and Jerry, two starving
musicians who have the misfortune to witness the St. Valentine's Day
Massacre. Mob boss Spats Colombo (George Raft) orders the boys wiped
out, so a desperate Joe and Jerry take the only way out of Chicago
they have: disguising themselves as women to join an all-girl band
on their way to Florida. Complicating things further is the
irresistible lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe at her best).
Both Joe and Jerry (now "Josephine" and "Daphne"
because Jerry doesn't like the name "Geraldine") are
attracted to Sugar, but only Joe gets anywhere when he takes on
another disguise, this time as a frigid (but male) millionaire.
Meantime, Jerry has his own rich suitor (Joe E. Brown) to contend
with.
Men in drag is a comedic staple, but rarely has it been handled
with as much wit and style as it is here. Tootsie
comes closest to approaching this level of sophistication, but it
tends to get bogged down in sentimentality toward its conclusion.
Some Like it Hot avoids this
problem totally. The late, great director Billy Wilder never once
loses sight of the fact that he's making a comedy, and priority one
has to be laughs. Although the movie crosses the two-hour mark, it
never once drags
I mean, slows down. Wilder and his longtime
writing partner I.A.L. Diamond crafted an ideal script, with
dialogue that is both hilariously clever and moves the story along
and has probably the single greatest closing line in movie history.
As for the cast, Lemmon and Curtis are fantastic, no matter what
they're wearing. Lemmon, of course, would go on to make several more
classic comedies both with and without Wilder, but Curtis was never
funnier than he is here. And then there's Marilyn. If you only see
one Marilyn Monroe movie, make it this one. Some
Like it Hot captures everything that made her legendary.
She's funny, touching and, needless to say, unbelievably sexy.
MGM has released two versions of Some
Like it Hot on DVD: a bare-bones edition as well as a
special edition (reviewed here), which runs about $7-10 more. Both
discs use the same non-anamorphic transfer. The picture is not
great, with a lot of wear and tear on the print, an occasionally
unstable image (that is particularly distracting during the opening
credits) and very noticeable edge enhancement, especially in the
Chicago scenes for some reason. It could and has looked much worse,
I suppose, but a movie of this stature deserves much better. The
sound is equally underwhelming. The "digitally enhanced"
5.1 surround mix is thin and virtually indistinguishable from the
original mono track, which isn't much better but at least it's
presented the way Wilder intended. Despite a few enjoyable songs,
this isn't a movie that is going to benefit much from an audio
upgrade.
The extras on the special edition aren't the most comprehensive
I've ever seen and it's debatable whether or not they're worth the
extra money. Most enjoyable is a 30-minute interview with Tony
Curtis, conducted by Leonard Maltin. Curtis is still quite a
character and his stories about Lemmon, Monroe and Wilder are
terrific. Curtis seems genuinely proud to be associated with the
movie, as well he should be. Also interviewed on the disc are four
members of Sweet Sue's band. Running a mere 12 minutes, we don't get
a great deal of insight into the movie here, but it's nice to hear
from these ladies. The Virtual Hall of
Memories is nothing more than an extensive still gallery
divided into five groups: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon,
Billy Wilder and Behind-the-Scenes. The pictures are good, and there
are a lot of them, but it's presented as a video feature, not a
series of still images that you can go through at your own pace.
Rounding out the disc are the film's original pressbook, with
vintage newspaper ads and promotional photos, and seven theatrical
trailers in fairly ragged condition for Billy Wilder films,
including this one.
Some Like it Hot is an easy
movie to recommend, but the DVD is not. The extra features are
certainly acceptable for a disc that's as relatively inexpensive as
this one, but the uneven quality of the movie's presentation may
cause some fans to steer clear. Not to mention the fact that the
special edition comes saddled with grotesque cover art that makes
Marilyn Monroe look like Popeye. Some
Like it Hot is definitely a movie worth owning on DVD,
especially if you can pick it up cheap. Otherwise, you may want to
hold out for the movie to receive a proper restoration.
Adam Jahnke
ajahnke@thedigitalbits.com |
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