“Nobody’s perfect.” The phrase on its own is undeniably cliché, yet any fan of classic Hollywood cinema will say that it’s one of the best lines from one of the best films in history—“Some Like It Hot.”
As the 50th anniversary of Billy Wilder’s iconic comedy—starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe—arrives, the Film Forum in West Village prepares to celebrate, by showing the film this week for a mix of longtime fans and first-time viewers.
The film centers around two jazz musicians, Joe and Jerry (Curtis and Lemmon), who decide to dress in drag as Josephine and Daphne in order to join an all-girls band, hide from the mafia in Florida, and make a couple bucks in the process. And this all happens in the first 10 minutes.
The rest of the film concentrates on two major love stories. Joe uses his disguise to find the way into the beautiful Sugar’s (Monroe) heart, while Jerry pities Osgood (Joe E. Brown) enough to finally except the offer of a date.
The ending involves the most original deus ex machina of all time—everyone just stops caring. Sugar does not care that she is in love with a man who is “no good,” and Osgood accepts his fiancée wholeheartedly, despite the fact that she has a penis. No questions are answered. Brown just shrugs his shoulders as they ride off on his yacht.
Despite a staggering reputation—it is number 22 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 best American films from the last 100 years—it still remains largely unappreciated by our generation. Crowds will flock to see this classic on the big screen, but it is likely that a very small portion will be coming from Columbia.
While typical explanations for this would be that students are disinterested in the culture of our grandparents’ generation, or that West Village is just too far away, the real reason is this: Columbia cinephiles too often choose art cinema over entertaining cinema, which is a terrible mistake. While “Some Like It Hot” may not be a foreign film with imbedded metaphors, it is pure entertainment of the highest quality. This doesn’t mean it is bad, or a waste of time, or inferior. It just means it is easy to enjoy.
Columbians are guaranteed at least one great laugh from “Some Like It Hot.” And if by some chance they end up not liking the film, they will simply have proven the fact that “nobody’s perfect.”
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