I think it’s time We Revisit “Some Like It Hot” (1959) and the beauty that was Miss Marilyn Monroe

I love this movie. Marilyn was okay, but this film belongs to Jack Lemmon. He was a riot, especially after his date with Osgood.

Marilyn was a joy. Very natural in this.

Great movie, timeless. The entire cast was perfect. It's a comedy, not supposed to be Shakespeare.

This is one of my desert island films.

Lemmon is perfect, Joe E. Brown has the BEST last line in the history of film, and Marilyn was not happy with her appearance in this film (she thought she was too fat). She had a miscarriage during filming, and her husband at the time, Arthur Miller, blamed Wilder for making her do so many takes of things like her running for the dock at the end.

Fun fact: by 1959, most major films were in color, but Curtis and Lemmon looked so frightening in drag and full makeup that Wilder decided it was better to film it in B&W.

"All of my girls are virtuosos, and I intend to keep it that way!" (or however it goes exactly; The quote is not listed on the sites I checked to find it.....)

"She had a miscarriage during filming, and her husband at the time, Arthur Miller, blamed Wilder for making her do so many takes of things like her running for the dock at the end."

What bull! Wilder didn't make her do anything excessive during the filming of this movie. And the reason there were so many takes (sometimes over 40) of a scene was because Monroe couldn't remember even the simplest linges. The line "It's me, Sugar" took dozens of takes. So did "where's that bourbon?" Oddly she did the complicated beach scene with Tony Curtis without any difficulty at all. As for her miscarriage...well, that was probably brought on by Monroe's drug use and drinking. During the filming of SLIH she boozed on the set and took pills at night to put herself in a narcotic haze.

I love this film. And its location, the Hotel Del Coronado. But "revisit" Marilyn Monroe? Seriously, she's never left the public eye!

Trans incels seem to think the ending is an accurate representation of how lesbian sexual attraction works.

"I'm a man."

"Nobody's perfect!"

One of my favorite movies! Shout out to the scenes trailing bellboy “hey doll” and “That’s how I like em, big and sassy!”

She was fat in this flick. Not a slim 20s figure at all, stuffed into Orry Kelly's designs.

Marilyn didn’t look her best in this

[quote]During the filming of SLIH she boozed on the set and took pills at night to put herself in a narcotic haze.

Were you there?

So many great comedies are bursting with gay subtext!

This one is near the top of the Bursting With Gay Subtext List. Two men are life partners, They break up when the "straight" one meets a hot babe, and the really gay one meets a sugar daddy.

Was Wider gay?

This film is literally killing trans!

Marilyn was heavy, no question, and Orry-Kelly's clothes for her were hideously vulgar....even so, it's a great movie, and one of Marilyn's finest. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis could not possibly be better, and the script is a masterpiece--Hollywood craftsmanship at its finest..

Does someone need to be gay to write gay stuff? Nope. It’s not that hard.

Does someone need to be gay to write gay stuff? Nope. It’s not that hard.

My favorite comedy. Perfect movie. And Marilyn won Golden Globe.

Her femininity and vulnerability really shined through this movie.

She was at her heaviest here. But her best acting. She didn’t seem as insecure as she has in some of her other films.

Joan Shawlee as Sweet Sue sort of looks like Harvey Korman in drag.

"I'd like to borrow a cup of that sugar!"

"Were you there?"

Well, the people on the set saw her drinking from a thermos of vodka and orange juice. And it was well known that she was addicted to pills in order to sleep. I didn't have to be there to know THAT. Marilyn Monroe's life has been heavily documented. A lot of shit has been written about her, but her behavior in that regard has not been exaggerated.

"Marilyn was heavy, no question, and Orry-Kelly's clothes for her were hideously vulgar..."

She played a floozy who was in showbiz, she should have worn clothes that were vulgar and showed too much for the era. That's what good costumers do, make a slut look like a slut.

Someone on the SLIH set,(I can't remember who) after seeing Tony Curtis in his feminine drag, told Monroe "Tony's ass is better than yours." to which Monroe reportedly replied "well, he doesn't have THESE" and proceeded to pull up her top and expose her big bosom.

Thanks, r25 for dragging out that old chestnut of a fable.

Monroe was very charming. She had a lot of charisma

Yes, Marilyn was fat in SLIH. Fat and pregnant. Those see through Orry Kelly designs didn't become her. But I guess that was in keeping with Sugar Kane's character; no matter how fleshly she got she was always going to flaunt it.

She seemed like she was having fun, even if she was struggling off screen...

Lemmon was terrific before the Neil Simon shtick wore him down.

[quote]Well, the people on the set saw her drinking from a thermos of vodka and orange juice. And it was well known that she was addicted to pills in order to sleep. I didn't have to be there to know THAT. Marilyn Monroe's life has been heavily documented. A lot of shit has been written about her.

As a member of a Los Angeles based fan club in the 90s and 00s, I had several opportunities to talk to five or so actresses (my favorite was Grace Lee Whitney, also from Star Trek) who were members of Sweet Sue's band and they spoke candidly about working with Monroe, alcohol was never discussed. There were issues with insomnia and pills and her marriage, but drunk...no. She didn't want to do the film and hated working with Tony Curtis.

agree she didnt look her best in the film and she was overweight. When she reluctantly went to the new york premier several months later she was horrified at her appearance and started on a crash diet and lost a lot of weight. At the end of her life she was anorexic thin and did have an eating disorder. Her final 2 years she was stunningly beautiful. No more so than the night at madison sq garden performing for the prez. If you look at the behind the scenes photos especially she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Several people at the after party that night commented on her looks, including the host of the party, Matilda Krim and DIanne Carroll who performed for the private party.

Finally, she didnt want to do the movie and only did it for the money. She hated everything about it. It was a big money maker for her tho while alive and especially after she died as the estate still collects royalties as she owned a percentage of the net profits.

I wonder why she hated this film so much.

She was in her Group Theater phase, very much under the influence of the Strasbergs, and married to a very serious playwright. She wanted to focus on drama, rather than comedy. She was waiting for "The Misfits", which Miller wrote for her, and which she hoped would change her image, prove she had more range than her previous dumb blonde movie roles had suggested.

I absolutely adore Jack Lemmon in this. He stole the movie. Loved Osgood and the bellhop too.

Marilyn was very chunky through the middle and the costumes were flapper style, so no waist cincher to reign her in.

Every time I watch this and Spats is on screen I think about how he gave Tallulah the clap.

I was just giggling to myself imagining Katharine Hepburn playing Sugar.

I always get the fuzzy end of that DAMNED old lollipop!

I've read quite a few books that discussed the filming off SLIH. MM was pregnant and putting on weight, but she was not as big as in Let's Make Love, her next movie. Her mental state was very bad while making SLIH. They were all exasperated with her - Wilder, Curtis, Lemmon, basically everyone on set except Paula Strasberg who sabotaged the production. Marilyn would look at Paula who would nod if she approved of a scene, if not Marilyn would just stop acting. Wilder didn't appreciate Paula co-directing his movie. If it could be worse, check out the making of the Misfits; from bad to worse.

Always makes me laugh, the last line was a gut buster the first time I heard it.

Grace Lee Whitney, known primarily for playing Janice Rand on "Star Trek", was one of the girls in the all girl band in "Some Like It Hot." I remember seeing her as a guest on the Maury Povich show. He, of course, asked what it was like to work with Marilyn Monroe. Whitney said that Monroe looked like a "big marshmallow", big and soft and white. She also said she drank consistently during filming. Povich asked "how could she perform if she was drunk?" And Whitney said "that's the only way she COULD perform!" In other words, Monroe was so insecure and so mentally unstable that she had to drink to shore up her confidence and ease her nerves.

She DID drink during SLIH. In "Billy Wilder in Hollywood" , a good bio of Wilder, it stated that Wilder "knew that the thermos she carried to the set contained vodka and orange juice and that she frequently refreshed herself from its contents." Later Wilder and Arthur Miller exchanged heated telegrams after Wilder said some things in an interview that Miller didn't like. Wilder said this in one of the telegrams: "HAD YOU, DEAR ARTHUR, BEEN HER NOT HER HUSBAND BUT HER WRITER AND DIRECTOR, AND BEEN SUBJECTED TO ALL THE INDIGNITIES I WAS, YOU WOULD HAVE THROWN HER OUT ON HER CAN, THERMOS BOTTLE AND ALL, TO AVOID A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. I DID THE BRAVER THING. I HAD A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN."

2:20 Billy Wilder talks of Marilyn's prideful bosom on the set of Seven Year Itch. So it might very well not be a fable, R26.

Marilyn looked better in color.

[quote]She also said she drank consistently during filming. Povich asked "how could she perform if she was drunk?" And Whitney said "that's the only way she COULD perform!"

Yeah, she's four sheets to the wind in this scene.

Tony Curtis famously said, when asked what it was like to kiss Marilyn Monroe, "it's like kissing Hitler." He was heard saying it, so yes, he said it. But after getting backlash about it, he bullshitted a lot about it, saying he never said it, saying he said it sarcastically, etc. Here's another version he gave about what he supposedly said about her, from a short interview he gave to EW:

EW: Well, Monroe was difficult, no?

TC: Everybody quotes me as saying that kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler. I never said that. I said kissing Marilyn was like f—ing her, the way she would grind against me. But she did have difficulties. Showing up late. Spending all morning on one or two lines of dialogue. There was nothing laid back or amusing about Marilyn on that movie. She was drinking a lot on the set. I know she was drinking champagne out of coffee mugs when we were doing that scene [on the train]. She spilled some on me and I knew it was champagne.

EW: Still, she must have been something. You actually got to kiss Marilyn Monroe.

TC: Oh, I did more than kiss her. We knew each other way before then. I met her in 1949. She was just starting out. She was wearing see through blouses back then. She was luscious. I drove her home from the studio one day in this Buick that I had, and then we ended up going out for about four or five weeks after that. We saw each other quite regularly. But we knew it was never going to work out between us.

EW: Why not?

TC: Well, you know, rubbing and kissing and all that good stuff — it doesn’t always mean you’re going to fall madly in love.

I don't have much regard for this blond woman even though I can appreciate watching the movies.

'Millionaire' was funny but she seemed to play the secondary character in all the later, bigger movies. I can see the trouble the directors (Olivier, Cukor, Wilder) had because she played characters with a physical presence but no intellect. The man had the major role and if he was weak (Montand) or unsympathetic (Olivier) the film failed.

Elsie Marina in The Prince and the Showgirl was not without intellect.

^. Did you see Elsie make decisions and think about the consequences before doing things?

I thought Marilyn Monroe looked dissipated and bloated in SLIH. She played the dumb blonde role (even Sugar Kane admits she's "not very bright") to perfection, but looked worn and used, even though she was supposed to be this irresistible sexpot. She WAS something to look at though, bursting out of the glittery, low cut, see through costumes Orry Kelly designed for the film. Oh, and here's another tidbit about Monroe's nutty behavior; she wanted to be the only blonde in the all girl band! But she had to settle for being the only blonde with platinum hair.

Look, I know nothing about ladies and hair.

But I reckon Monroe had the big hair for all her films except 'The Misfits'.

Do you reckon she had to wear curlers like this before going on camera?

Where's my ukulele??

Pay attention, Norma

Here's Marilyn doing her hair without curlers.

I'm sure there's a hairdresser here who can explain what she's doing.

Very special and unique film star- an absolute camera magnet and superb comedienne. She was also a pretty talented musical star. Unfortunately a very troubled woman who was nearly impossible to work with as time went on.

Yes, she was nearly impossible to work with from 1955 until death.

I blame Strasberg and those New York loonies.

Marilyn's REAL hair was reddish brown, and very curly, an unruly mop. I can only imagine what the constant bleaching and straightening must have done to the state of her hair. She bad wigs in her last completed film "The Misfits." An officer on the scene when her body was found said that her hair looked "all burnt up." I'm sure it was.

This was Monroe's last great movie. After this came Let's Make Love and The Misfits - and then she was gone.

"Let's Make Love"...ugh, what a terrible title for a movie. And it was SO bad. The only thing notable about it was the indiscreet affair Monroe had with her co-star Yves Montand, right under the noses of their long suffering spouses Arthur Miller and Simone Signoret. Marilyn was mad about the philandering Montand; she thought they were in love and that he'd leave Signoret and marry her. He didn't. In interviews he rather dismissed his affair with her; of course to him it meant nothing, just another affair with another actress. He later said he thought Marilyn was not as sophisticated as he thought she'd be and that she had a "schoolgirl crush" on him. He also weirdly said "if Marilyn were not married and I were not married, I wouldn't object to marrying her." Anyway, his rejection of her was just another dismal chapter in Marilyn Monroe's life.

r51...theyre called "pin" curls....because you twist or roll the hair and secure it with bobby pins while it dries creating curls.

I tried to watch "Let's Make Love" on the big Cinemascope screen.

Yves Montand is a not-particularly-attractive Italian man who couldn't keep our interest for 2 hours. Monroe didn't do much so poor George Cukor had to drag in some guest stars to give it some oomph.

R56 Charlton Heston was asked to play the male lead in Let's Make Love but during a chance conversation with Lawrence Olivier he told Heston that he had a terrible time working with Monroe in The Prince And The Showgirl - and it influenced Heston to turn the role down.

^ That might've been interesting because the lead character was a bit of a klutz and Cukor may have actually made Chuck Heston into a vaguely-likeable comedian.

How about how a STAND IN posed as Marilyn for the poster?

"Marilyn's REAL hair was reddish brown, and very curly, an unruly mop"

Not a haircutter, eh? MM's hair was set and styled, not curly, not unruly. I wish you ignorant hair boys would go away.

Didn't her production company produce this film? It was a huge hit, so she probably lived off that money the rest of her short life (though sadly, she didn't die rich).

For her uncompleted final film, hairstylist to the stars Sidney Guilaroff bleached her hair white.

Marilyn was not appreciated... sadly

"Not a haircutter, eh? MM's hair was set and styled, not curly, not unruly. I wish you ignorant hair boys would go away."

Ever seen any pictures of her BEFORE she became Marilyn Monroe? Norma Jean Baker had reddish-brown (her mother was a redhead), very curly hair. The hair was dyed blonde, straightened, and voila! She became Marilyn Monroe. And a little plastic surgery and dental work didn't hurt, either.

R63, It was was produced by The Mirisch Company for United Artists. However, in order to get Marilyn on board, Harold Mirisch agreed to giving her 10% of the gross.

Trivia: Billy Wilder originally wanted Frank Sinatra for the Jerry/Daphne role and Mitzi Gaynor for Sugar. I highly doubt though that Frank would've accepted the part. Imagine Frankie boy in drag!

"The hair was dyed blonde"

The hair was BLEACHED blonde, dear, not dyed blonde. Plus, Marilyn could have permed he original brown hair to get the wavy in-style look of the 1940s. Perm came in a box.

"The hair was BLEACHED blonde, dear, not dyed blonde. Plus, Marilyn could have permed he original brown hair to get the wavy in-style look of the 1940s. Perm came in a box."

Bleached, dyed, who cares? And you think she permed her hair? If so, she must have been perming it since she was 13, since there are photos of her at that age with the kinky dark hair.

R63 I'm one of those ignorant hair boys you're complaining about.

I don't understand what you mean by MM's hair being 'set and styled'. Was that using foul-smelling chemicals, curlers, curling irons, bobby pins?

[quote]Did you see Elsie make decisions and think about the consequences before doing things?

You do realize it was she, not the Duke who was in charge of the relationship from the moment she realized the dinner invite was for two. She brings foils a coup and brings peace to Carpathia by reuniting the Duke and his son while charming the Duke's mother-in-law, aforementioned son and the entire embassy staff during her short 36 hour involvement in their lives.

Far from a Lorelei Lee, Pola Debevoise, The Girl or Cherie, Elsie was extremely intelligent, spoke two languages and Monroe looked the best she ever did on film thanks to Jack Cardiff,

I've also held the dress Olivier kept repeatedly pinning the medal in for the finale. Four copies were made. At one time, a copy was among collections in LA, Spain and England. The fourth was shredded from age and lack of care. Her fan from the film sold for $10,000. Her purple "over-coat" is now in a museum in Ireland.

A collector in Germany owns her script from the film and Joshua Greene, son of the film's co-producer, Milton Greene, was considering a P&S book with rare photos and pages from said script. Don't know current status of project.

Monroe's natural hair color in late 1945 as Norma Jeane Dougherty at the Bluebook Modeling Agency on the grounds of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sylvia Barnhart, hair stylist at Frank and Joseph's across the street from the hotel took NJ on as a client and over six months carefully straightened and lightened her hair. When Barnhart moved to the Hollywood Blvd salon, Monroe followed and the pair would have a personal and professional relationship until early 1953.

Norma Jean had sad difficult childhood. No wonder Marilyn had problems.

Stupid junkie bitch

Bleached, dyed, who cares?

WE CARE. This is a gay forum in case you didn't know, nitwit

I heard somewhere that Marilyn at some point in her life used the same person (a woman, supposedly) who did Jean Harlow's hair to do her own hair bleaching. That seems ominous; Harlow's hair began to fall out in clumps due to the harsh chemicals used on her hair. In a biography of Harlow, a guy who did her hair said that in order to make her hair platinum blonde (that is, white) these ingredients were used: ammonia, peroxide, Clorox (Clorox bleach!) and Lux flakes (a kind of laundry detergent). Sounds truly horrible. Some people say the chemicals used on her hair may have contributed to Harlow's death from kidney failure. Inhaling fumes from that stuff can be damaging to the kidneys.

I love how we can see Tony's ass through his wet shorts when he stands up from the bathtub.

Marilyn was divine!!!

We can see Tony’s ass?

You can never go wrong with Marilyn. Say what you will, she was CHARMING.

Her breathy baby girl voice is cringy.

"Some jokes fall flat"

All of Wilder's movies are uneven like that.

I love Monroe

The second half of the film is supposed to be set in Florida, although it was actually filmed at the Hotel del Coronado, in Coronado, California, which is next to San Diego. They have held 25th and 50th anniversary events there. If you visit that hotel you can visit the small gallery in the building which has photos from the filming of "Some Like it Hot."

I may have to go. Thanks r84

[quote]R25 Someone on the SLIH set, after seeing Tony Curtis in his feminine drag, told Monroe "Tony's ass is better than yours." to which Monroe reportedly replied "well, he doesn't have THESE" and proceeded to pull up her top and expose her big bosom.

R86 is appalled

One of the three funniest movies ever made.

I'd also go with the more recent Clueless, and Airplane (although the latter doesn't hold up anymore).

Runners up: Clue. Bringing Up Baby. The In-Laws.

MM was indeed heavier in this movie, but she was one of those rare people who looked great at any weight. Her appeal was kind of indestructible.

Her performance is very well done. In the excellent [italic]Alternate Oscars,[/italic] historian Danny Peary chose her as Best Actress of that year.

R89 I always say she should have been nominated.

She was pregnant in this movie. Lost the baby at 5 months along.

Marilyn is a legend

Was she drinking to get rid of the pregnancy?

Jack Lemmon recalled filming the famous upper berth party scene with MM. He said he was dreading it and expected to be tied up for hours getting it in the can. He said that most of it was done in one take because MM was in top form and knew all of her dialogue. They were in and out in a few hours. He appreciated that professionalism from MM for that day.

As much as Wilder complained about MM, apparently a project that came to him long after SLIH had him thinking about hiring her again. MM died before anything could be worked out.

Tony, like his good buddy Jerry Lewis, was an absolute pig as far as Marilyn was concerned. They talked trash about her long after she was dead.

Marilyn deserves better