Posts Tagged with Billy Wilder

61 YEARS OF “SOME LIKE IT HOT”
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61 YEARS OF “SOME LIKE IT HOT”

“To this day, I have never read a better comedy script in the history of film.”
Jack Lemmon

61 years have passed since Sugar, Joe/Josephine/Shell Oil Junior and Jerry/Daphne stole our hearts and made us laugh in the comedy that proclaimed “nobodies perfect!” and secured its place in history as a bonafied classic, still loved and adored around the world today.

This film simply needs no introduction, but if you are new to Marilyn films (or even to films in general) here is a brief synopsis of the film the AFI once ranked the ‘Funniest American Movie Of All Time.’

“When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) accidently witness a gangland shooting, they quickly board a southbound train to Florida, disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the two newest and homeliest members 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 7 Academy Awards, ‘Some Like It Hot’ is the quintessential madcap farce and ‘one of the greatest of all film comedies’ (The Motion Picture Guide.) “


“Some Like It Hot” made its debut around the world in March 1959. Premiere’s were held in Chicago (which Marilyn attended) and Memphis on 17th March and then in Washington on the 21st March. But it was the New York premiere at the Lowe’s Capital Theatre on 29th March 1959 that fans remember most for the photographs and video footage of Marilyn arriving at the theatre arm in arm with her then husband Arthur Miller, greeting fans and photographers and still looking every inch the movie star in a gorgeous silver evening gown and fur wrap.

 

So much has been said and written about the problems that occurred on the set of “Some Like It Hot.” And if we’re to believe everything we read, it’s any wonder the film was finished at all! But we are here today to celebrate this wonderful film and not to dwell on the trials and tribulations of its creation.
One thing that has always stood out, is the love and appreciation that everyone involved in the making of the film has shown throughout the years. You feel a sense of pride from them at having been a part of such genuine, well loved and highly respected film. Marilyn sadly only lived for a further 4 years after completing “Some Like It Hot,” so little is known of her opinion of the finished film once it had been released to the general public. But I like to think that had she lived, she too would have felt the same sense of love and pride at having been involved with a film that has brought so much joy and laughter into so many peoples lives.

“The film did go considerably over budget. However, when it was all done and we looked at the film, I must say we were immensely enthused and we genuinely felt that this was a truly wonderful comedy. I don’t know that I would have believed then that it could have stood the test of all the time that has passed since it was first shown, but we sure thought it was good. I didn’t know it would last fifty or a hundred years.
It became the cornerstone of the long relationship that we developed with Billy because he remained with us the longest of all the directors that we booked to our company. The film was a huge success and of course was a great launching pad for our company because it was very early on in our history and so it’s highly significant in my life and my career. With all the incredible movies that Billy’s made, this is in the top three. I like to think that it’s maybe the best American comedy ever made.”
Walter Mirisch (Producer.)


“It’s interesting that when Billy Wilder and I were shooting “Some Like It Hot” then a year later “The Apartment,” the general feeling in Hollywood was Billy was nuts and that neither one of the films would work. In “Some Like It Hot” he had Tony Curtis and me in drag for eighty five percent of the picture and the premise was really just a five minute burlesque sketch stretched to two hours. But Billy sensed it would work and he was right.. it became a classic.”
Jack Lemmon

“Years after our picture was finished, I looked at it and realised that it was bigger than all of us put together. Could they have done it with someone else in my part? Or Jack’s part? Or Marilyn’s part? No. Could someone remake it now? Of course not. Billy and Izzy tailored the characters to us as we were creating them. We had to adjust ourselves to that. It was demanding and trying and sometimes exhausting, but it was worth it. Because of that process, ‘Some Like It Hot’ is truly our movie. It was tailored to our individual talents and to our collective talents. Brilliantly conceived and brilliantly tailored.” Tony Curtis.

“Some Like It Hot” was like the greatest souffle ever made. It had the perfect ingredients, it had the greatest script, a great director, a great cast… of course the greatest Chef was Billy Wilder, but it really was like the greatest souffle ever made in history…… I was very happy to be a part of it.”
Sandra Warner (‘Emily’ from Sweet Sue’s Society of Syncopators)

“It’s well written, well directed, it’s well acted, the camera work was fantastic.. the cinematography was sensational….everything!”
Marion Collier (‘Olga’ from Sweet Sue’s Society of Syncopators)

“It was funny and it’s a comedy and comedies are the hardest type of writing there is and to make it come off the way Billy Wilder and I.A.L Diamond did was fantastic.”
Joan Nicholas (‘Betty’ from Sweet Sue’s Society of Syncopators, pictured playing the saxophone.)

“When it was all over you know, I was naturally absolutely drained and I knew I had the final shots and I looked at the rushes… it was kind of like an exhaustion. There was a moment of ‘never again’…… well all I can tell you is if Marilyn was around today I would be on my knees begging ‘please let’s do it again.”
Billy Wilder

It’s hard to believe that “Some Like It Hot” is the grand old age of 60, with frequent screenings on Television, revivals at the Cinema and fans being able to access it through online streaming services as well as the film being updated to Blu Ray quality, this is truly a classic of cinema that will NEVER be forgotten and fans old and new can continue to enjoy this wonderful movie for the next 60 years and beyond.

 
Let’s raise a toast to “Some Like It Hot” which proves that whilst “nobodies perfect”… this film certainly is!
 
Cheers!

 

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STILL DELICIOUS 65 YEARS ON

“Ooooooh do you feel the breeze from the subway? Isn’t it delicious?!”


MARILYN MONROE, the name conjures up images of glitz and glamour. She embodies everything that people love about Old Hollywood and more, her platinum blonde hair and sumptuous red lips are still the envy of millions of adoring fans around the world. Of course, to her loyal fan base, Marilyn was so much more than that, a talented actress and comedienne, intelligent, well read and always eager to learn more and improve her craft.

However, 65 years ago, in the early morning hours of September 15th 1954, Marilyn Monroe unknowingly transformed herself into a pop cultural icon and legend when she stood over a subway grate and saw her white halter neck dress billowing over her head.


The post-midnight hours of September 15th 1954, outside of the Trans-Lux Theatre near 52nd Street on Lexington Avenue, a luminous Marilyn wearing a white pleated halter dress, stepped over a subway grating. With a crew member operating a powerful fan positioned below the grille, the stage was set for a legendary scene. Hordes of reporters and spectators (estimates range from several hundred to five thousand) watched the crew film take after take of history-making moment.

The postscript of the film of this New York sequence was unusable. Her skirt had flown up to her waist, and the cheers of the crowd were clearly audible. The famous scene’s true setting was the controlled atmosphere of a Twentieth Century FOX soundstage. Unlike the iconic images that exsist, in the finished film Marilyn’s skirt billows up only slightly above her knees and a full body shot is never shown. Back in New York, a fifty-two foot high picture of The Girl with the upswept skirt was mounted above the marquee of Loew’s State Theatre at Times Square.

 

Paul Wurtzel, who was then FOX’s head of special effects once remembered:

“I think they really used the wind from the subway train.  At least, we never sent anyone to New York from our department for that segment, so I don’t think anybody rigged it.  The location shoot was partly unsuccessful because there was just too much noise and commotion.  We did not have the techniques then that we have now to dub voices.  I was standing inside a wind tunnel under the stage where the subway grating was and on cue we’d remove this sliding top to create the effect of the train going by and blowing up Marilyn’s skirt.  Well that scene took all day, what with Billy Wilder filming it over and over and over again, and there I was underneath her.  Marilyn had a habit of squatting down and talking to me.”


Publicist Roy Croft remembers:

“The skirt blowing episode was fantastic. The production crew had picked this Lexington Avenue newsreel theatre, which they had in those days – the crew had picked this one because at two in the morning the street is entirely deserted and we’d have no problem. So they re-dressed the theatre with this monster movie and so forth.

I helped leak the story – and Walter Winchell had it – that Marilyn was going to be on Lexington Avenue at two in the morning. So they had one of the biggest crowds ever.. There were all the working progress – the real photographers – plus the amateurs.

So when the scene starts, all these flashbulb cameras were going off… pop, pop, pop and my God, you couldn’t do anything. Finally I stepped out and said to the working press, “Fellahs, will you tell this bunch to calm down and not shoot? Let them get the scene, then Billy Wilder, the director says he’ll re-do – move the big cameras out of the way – so that everybody can get real good pictures of Marilyn and Tom.”

Well they did that, finally got the shot, then moved the cameras, then everybody starts shooting. That was the night that Joe DiMaggio and Winchell came, and he was reported as saying he disapproved of Marilyn showing her legs and that sort of thing, which I don’t think was true.
I think it was a made up quote. I never heard him say it and I don’t think he ever did say it. He was quoted as saying he was irate and what not, but when he had married her she was a major personality and a sex symbol and he knew what he was getting into.”

The location of the famous “upskirt” scene still exsists today, the theatre is gone and all the surrounding shops and buildings have changed, but you can still feel the “goosepimples” of knowing you’re standing in the same spot where history was made.


Legacy

The legend and image of Marilyn in the white dress has lived far beyond that night of September 15th 1954 as evidenced here:

 

There have been numerous dolls released over the years depicting Marilyn in her most iconic pose.
Just a small selection of the enormous amounts of memorablilia on the market using that famous image over a subway grate.
Various Ad campaigns over the years have paid tribute to this iconic moment.
And who could forget Marilyn Monroe in wax form!

No image in the history of pop culture is more iconic and as instantly recognisable as Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate in “The Seven Year Itch,” no-one, not even Marilyn could predict the impact that image would have on the world and here we are, 65 years on, still captivated by that “delicious” moment in time.

Sources:
Books:
“Blonde Heat: The Sizzling Screen Career Of Marilyn Monroe.”
“Marilyn Monroe: Platinum Fox.”
“Marilyn Monroe: On Loction.”

 

 

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SOME LIKE IT HOT AT 60: THE DEL

Where the magic happened: The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego

When we think of “Some Like It Hot”, we immediately think of Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Joe E. Brown etc but there’s another main character in the film: the beautiful and iconic Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Of course, in the film, the hotel is being disguised as the “Seminole Ritz” in Florida, where Sweet Sue and her Society of Syncopators frolic on the beach by day and play to hundreds of hotel guests at night

Marilyn and the iconic Del tower.

The cast and crew spent 2 weeks filming all the exterior and beach shots at the hotel and by all accounts, the shooting went very well. The only real problem that arose was the continuous sound of planes flying overhead. The Del is located near the Coronado Naval Base, so every so often they would have to stop and wait for the deafening thunder of the areoplanes engines to pass before contuining with the shoot!

That same continuous flow of areoplanes can still be seen and heard if you visit or stay near the Del to this day!

Sugar and “Shell Oil Jr” meet for the first time.
Sugar and Daphne discuss the “millionaire” they have just met!

A lot of fans are always surprised to know that the interior shots of the Hotel weren’t filmed in San Diego, but on a sound stage in Los Angeles. However, if you are lucky enough to stay or even visit the Hotel Del Coronado, you’ll still feel like you could bump into Sugar, Daphne or Shell Oil Jr around every corner!

Up until recently, the Hotel Del Coronado has remained true to its history and kept its authentic victorian look inside and outside of the Hotel. However, as of March 2019, it emerged that it would be going through a $200M renovation ( https://www.marilynrememberedfanclub.com/200m-hotel-del-coronado-reconstruction/ ) we can only hope that any changes to the look and feel of the Hotel will be minimal.

Here are some shots taken of the Del in recent years:


The Del is very proud of its ties to “Some Like It Hot” even inviting the cast and crew back to celebrate the films 25th and 50th anniversary respecitvely.
Here are some news reels from 1984 when Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Billy Wilder came together to celebrate the movies 25th birthday:
https://youtu.be/nRg551tTOOI
https://youtu.be/i93CFNAhDPA
https://youtu.be/bKQEUHSQwgY

For more information on the Hotel Del Coronado, head here: https://hoteldel.com/

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“SOME LIKE IT HOT” AT 60: THE TV SHOW

“Some Like It Hot” was one of the biggest successes of 1959, audiences adored it and continued to flock to theatres to see Sugar, Joe and Jerry create mishap on screen.

With the ever increasing popularity of Television, it’s no surprise that The Mirish Company would try and turn their most successful film: “Some Like It Hot” into a ongoing television series.

The series would focus on the mishaps and adventures that Joe and Jerry would face in their new identities, trying to recreate the magic that was created on film by bringing it into peoples homes and television sets throughout the year.

The premise of the show was this: Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon reprising their roles for the pilot) are still on the run from the mob, so they decide to up their game and go under the knife for a complete facial transformation (enter the two new actors playing Joe and Jerry: Vic Damone and Dick Patterson.)

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis reprising their roles as Jerry and Joe for the pilot.
An voila! Vic Damone and Dick Patterson assume their roles as Jerry and Joe

With new faces on their fronts, Joe and Jerry assume their problems are behind them. However they are soon enlisted by federal agents to help track down Studs Columbo (Spatz Columbo’s twin brother of course!) Studs Columbo is determined to track down and rub out the two musicians who had his brother killed, Joe and Jerry reluctantly agree to get back into drag and get the goods on “Girl-Crazy” Castro, the gangster who deployed the machine gun that killed Toothpick Charlie in the original film.
There is no mention of Sugar in the pilot, she has been replaced by a character called Candy Collins (Tina Louise). Collins is Studs Columbo’s moll who eventually falls for Joe after he reveals his true identity to her.

Candy Collins replaces the character of Sugar Kane
Joan Shawlee reprises her role as Sweet Sue

The pilot was shot at NBC studios in mid March 1961 and quickly vanished into thin air. Neither NBC not the potential sponsor Proctor and Gamble picked up the show. The precise reason this show was a no-go is still unclear, however one studio memo said: “As this is essentially a joke show, it would be difficult to sustain on a high level.”

By the end of 1961, the pilot was considered dead. Perhaps at the end of the day, “Some Like It Hot” should always be considered a one off, no sequal.. no remake.. no television series.. Just a beautifully perfect one off movie ever to be repeated.

More on this planned TV show can be found here: “Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion.” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Like-Hot-Companion/dp/1862058644