Some Like It Hot (Collector's Edition)
by Billy Wilder
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: George Raft, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Pat O'Brien, Tony CurtisDirector: Billy Wilder
Brand: Sony
Producer: Billy Wilder
Writer: Billy Wilder
Producer: Doane Harrison
Producer: I.A.L. Diamond
Writer: I.A.L. Diamond
Writer: Michael Logan
Writer: Robert Thoeren
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0; Portuguese (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-07-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Some Like It Hot (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: One of Billy Wilder's best comedies gets deluxe treatment it deserves
Summary: 5 Stars
Billy Wilder's most popular comedy finally receives the deluxe treatment it deserves. MGM previously released this classic comedy in a nonanamorphic widescreen version a couple of years back. While that edition looked pretty decent this anamorphic transfer puts any previous editions (including my much favored laserdisc edition) to shame. Wilder's comedy operates as a spoof of gangster films and a comedy about gender roles. Jerry (the late Jack Lemmon) and Joe (Tony Curtis) are two musicians on the lam when they witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. With Spats Columobo (George Raft) and his men looking for the duo they go undercover as musicians cross dressing and joining an all female band headed for a gig in Florida. Becoming a woman allows Joe/Josephine to spent time with Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) the latest woman that catches Joe's fancy. Jerry/Daphne on the other hand finds himself romanced by a rich man (Joe E. Brown) who won't take the hint as Jerry tries to blow off his advances.
And you thought the 50's were tame. One of Wilder's richest 50's comedies "Some Like It Hot" continues to be very funny inverting our expectations constantly and playing with the roles that Jerry and Joe take on with their new identities. Joe's eyes open the most as before he was a pretty ruthless womanizer. Becoming a woman puts him in the crosshairs of every male insight and he's on the receiving end of all the smirks, comments and passes that he would have used with Sugar before his change. Wilder mixes social commentary so deftly with comedy (like Hitchcock's work with suspense and social commentary) that at his best--and he's at his best here--it reminds us how entertaining a movie can be without being heavy handed. It's also filled with some marvelous in jokes (for example Colombo played by George Raft observes a thug flipping a coin and comments, "Where did you pick up that cheap trick?" Raft of course did the exact thing in one of his signature roles in "Scarface" from 1932).
A great movie looks even better in this sharp looking transfer. The black and white imagery of the film looks gorgeous. Originally Marilyn Monroe lobbied to have the film shot in color which Billy Wilder felt wouldn't work for this comedy (he persuaded her to agree to shoot in black and white when he showed her make up tests for Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in color where their make up as women made them look slightly green) while the film certainly would have looked great in color the sumptuous cinematography by Charles Lang ("The Magnificent Seven", "Wait Until Dark") looks extremely good in this wonderful looking transfer. Detail is quite good and blacks are solid with a nice array of different textures evident in the transfer. Audio is presented in the original mono and sounds fine.
For those that are into such things the special features here are a huge improvement over the previous edition. We get a commentary track compiled from comments by the late Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and I.A.L. Diamond's son (working with the comedy writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel--honestly I could have thought of better writers to pair with Diamond's son). While the insights aren't exactly a revelation it is an enjoyable commentary track.
We also get two terrific documentaries on the making of the film. The first features a mixture of new and older interviews from the cast and crew. The second documentary "The Legacy of `Some Like it Hot'" is packed with trivia about the making of the film, Wilder & Monroe's relationship on the set and the difficult time Wilder had making the film with his leading lady including footage shot in the 80's of Wilder and Diamond.
Finally we get "Memories from the Sweet Sues" featurette with members of the women who played in the band, an interview with Tony Curtis entitled "Nostalgic Look Back" where Curtis reveals that actor/voice artist Paul Frees did much of his voice as Josephine because he had difficulty reaching the high voice. We also get the imaginatively titled but unimpressive "Virtual Hall of Memories 3-D Tour" The original pressbook appears on the DVD as well and we get reproductions of various lobby cards. Finally we get previews and the original theatrical trailer.
Far more impressive than the lackluster previous DVD releases "Some Like It Hot" looks solid in this re-release although the film could look a bit more vibrant. The featurettes are, for the most part, very good and the compiled commentary track adds loads of trivia (some of which is duplicated in the featurettes) about the making of the film. I do wish that a film historian such as UCLA professor Howard Suber had been involved in some way to help provide context for the movie but that's just personal preference. A fine release that could have been great with a wee bit more effort on the part of Sony/MGM.
Summary of Some Like It Hot (Collector's Edition)
When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) accidentally witness a gangland shooting, they quickly board a southbound train to Florida, disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the twonewestand homeliestmembers of an all-girl jazz band. Their cover is perfect...until a lovelorn singer (Marilyn Monroe) falls for Josephine, an ancient playboy (Joe E. Brown) falls for Daphne, and a mob boss (George Raft) refuses to fall for their hoax! Nominated* for 6 Academy AwardsÂ(r), Some Like It Hot is the quintessential madcap farce and one of the greatest of all film comedies (The Motion Picture Guide). *1959: Director, Actor (Lemmon), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography (B&W), Art Direction (B&W), Costume Design (B&W, winner)Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player. (When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant--a spot-on impersonation.) The script by director Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is beautifully measured; everything works, like a flawless clock. Aspiring screenwriters would be well advised to throw away the how-to books and simply study this film. The bulk of the slapstick is handled by an unhinged Lemmon and the razor-sharp Joe E. Brown, who plays a horny retiree smitten by Jerry's feminine charms. For all the gags, the film is also wonderfully romantic, as Wilder indulges in just the right amounts of moonlight and the lilting melody of "Park Avenue Fantasy." Some Like It Hot is so delightfully fizzy, it's hard to believe the shooting of the film was a headache, with an unhappy Monroe on her worst behavior. The results, however, are sublime. --Robert Horton
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