The film voted the funniest movie of all time by the American Film Institute comes to DVD….again. Well, nobody’s perfect so Sony/MGM tries again with this new 2 disc set.
Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) are a sax player and bass player in a band in 1929 Chicago. They’re currently working in Spats Columbo’s (George Raft) speakeasy (remember prohibition was on at the time). Toothpick Charlie (George E. Stone) rats out Spats to Detective Mulligan (Pat O’Brien) and a raid closes down Spat’s joint. Joe and Jerry escape, but they’re out of a job.
They run over to the Poliakoff agency to try and find another gig, but are tricked by the secretary that Joe spurned. Seems that Poliakoff (Billy Gray) is looking for a sax player and bass player but for an all girls band headed for Florida. Jerry is all for it playing dress up, but Joe refuses. They find another gig, but have to borrow the secretary’s car. To get the car they have to go the garage where it’s stored. It also happens to be the garage where Toothpick Charlie is playing cards with his boys.
While they’re gassing up the car, Spats arrives and gives Charlie his Valentine’s Day present – he fills him full of lead (da dirty rat!). Joe and Jerry are witnesses to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. So now Jerry has no hesitation about dressing up as two girls and joining the band since Spats and the boys are looking for two guys not two gals. They rechristen themselves Josephine and Daphne.
They board the train but are both taken with the voluptuous Sugar Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe). They arrive at the resort and Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) takes a shine to Daphne. Joe disguises himself as a millionaire, with the voice of Cary Grant.
Josephine and Daphne
He requisitions Osgood’s yacht to pose as his own, but has Jerry distract Osgood by taking Daphne for a night out on the town. Things seem to be going along fine until Spats arrives to attend a conference of the “Friends of Italian Opera.” Will Spats notice our heroes and give them a belated Valentine’s Day present?
What can be said about Some Like it Hot? It’s simply a classic and perhaps Billy Wilder’s greatest comedy. It surely earns its place at the top of the American Film Institute’s best comedies. The performances are spot on and this is one of Jack Lemmon’s finest moments. Tony Curtis even gets to strut his comedic muscles as the impotent billionaire with the voice of Cary Grant.
However, the film would not be as well remembered if it was not for the fine performance of Marilyn Monroe. It’s somewhat off putting to imagine that Wilder had originally approached Frank Sinatra for Joe and Mitzi Gaynor for Sugar. Luckily Sinatra stood Wilder up for lunch and was deemed too difficult - though he hadn’t met difficult until he met Marilyn Monroe.
She constantly had acting coach Paula Strasberg on set and it took 60 takes to attempt one simple scene. However, the results on screen were fabulous. You really can’t imagine anyone else in the role after seeing the current cast.
Some Like it Hot is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.66:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a mixture of old and new. Some Like It Hot has had at least two other DVD releases (with MGM’s DVD output being taken over by Fox, I can imagine that even another might be in the works someday).
The first MGM release was a movie only release and the second did add some special features. This new edition ports over those special features and adds some more to them.
The first disc has a new audio commentary made up of a new interview with Tony Curtis, a 1984 archival interview with Jack Lemmon, and new commentary with Paul Diamond (I.A.L. Diamond’s son) and the screenwriting team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Disc 2 starts with the new 25 minute documentary “The Making of Some Like it Hot.”
Va va voom
It features interviews with Billy Wilder (archive footage), Jack Lemmon (archive footage), Tony Curtis (footage from the Maltin interview), I. A. L. Diamond (archive footage), Barbara Diamond (I. A. L.’s wife), and Walter Mirisch. The next new documentary runs 20 minutes and is called “The Legacy of Some Like it Hot.” It has what appears to be new interviews with Tony Curtis, Hugh Hefner, UCLA film professor Howard Suber, filmmaker Curtis Hanson, and archive interviews with Diamond, Wilder, and Lemmon.
The special features ported over are the 31 minute “Nostalgic Look Back” where Leonard Maltin interviews Tony Curtis. Also the 12 minute “Memories from the Sweet Sues” which interviews Marian Collier, Laurie Mitchell, Sandra Warner, and Joan Nicholas who played band members in the movie. There is also the 12 minute “Virtual Hall of Memories” that has stills of Lemmon, Curtis, Monroe, Wilder, and behind the scenes stills. Finally there’s a press book gallery, theatrical trailer, and trailers for Princess Bride and West Side Story. The case contains a collector’s booklet and a set of lobby card reproductions.
Some Like it Hot is a classic and belongs in every film collection. However, I would bet that most collectors already have it in their collections. If you don’t have it then definitely get this collector’s edition.
The other editions were not enhanced for 16x9 televisions as this one is, so if that matters to you then you’ll want to get this edition. The new special features are nice (especially the commentary), but I don’t know that they justify upgrading if you were happy with the previous special edition. Well, nobody’s perfect.
Shell Oil, Junior
Some Like It Hot – Collector’s Edition is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
USA
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