SOME LIKE IT HOT

Saturday, May 14th 2005 at Dolores Park in San Francisco

Showtime: 8:30 pm

Sponsored by The San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation

1959    119 mins.     United Artists Some Like It Hot is one of the all-time great screen comedies, relying as it does on one simple premise: two male musicians hiding out, dressed as women, in an all-girl band. The film has boundless energy, as do Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the lead roles. And its influence would extend to such recent "drag" films as Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire. Billy Wilder had an almost schizophrenic presence in his films of the 1950s and into the 1960s, alternating such movies as this one, his sweet Oscar-winner The Apartment (also with Jack Lemmon), Sabrina, and later, The Fortune Cookie, with such serious films as Stalag 17, Sunset Boulevard, and The Big Carnival (Ace in the Hole). "If you want to tell people the truth," Wilder is quoted as saying, "you'd better make them laugh, or they'll kill you!" He didn't always follow his own advice.One of filmdom's greatest curtain lines ("Well, nobody's perfect!") was written by Wilder's collaborator, I.A.L. Diamond, the night before the final scene was shot, and was actually a concession to Marilyn Monroe's undependability on the set. Wilder took to shooting around Marilyn because she was so often late or missing, and decided to have the film end with just Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown, in case she didn't show up. In fact, despite what became a luminous performance as Sugar Kane ("She's like Jell-O on springs!" says Jack Lemmon's character at one point), Marilyn was disliked on the set, was often late, spent hours keeping cast and crew waiting as she stayed in her trailer, and had such trouble remembering her lines that Billy Wilder had "crib sheets" taped to the set's furniture for her. Still, her vulnerability shows through, and adds a poignant dimension to what is otherwise an outrageous comedy. Some Like it Hot was nominated for six Oscars, but won only Best Costume Design in a Black and White Film, a category long-since dispensed with by Hollywood! It features great jazz played on the soundtrack by Art Pepper, Shelly Manne, Barney Kessel, and Leroy Vinegar. It was based on an old German film, Fanfares of Love, and inspired the musical Sugar. by Kenn Rabin