So I’m sitting around watching this movie for the first time last night, and I was expecting a veiled sex comedy. Well, it’s a little less veiled than I expected; not too far out of my idea of what you could say in 1959, though. What I didn’t think you could do in 1959 is put Marilyn in that dress! I mean, I only call it a dress for lack of a better word. Like maybe “wide belt falling down in the back”. For all intents and purposes, the woman is topless - and there’s a whole lot of top to less, ya know. I mean, damn. (Gotta question the wisdom of putting her in a comedy drag film. I mean, I wouldn’t look like a very realistic woman if I was always on screen with this.)
So I’m thinking, who went to see this kind of movie then? Would my grandparents, a married Catholic couple with four children, the oldest 14, have gone? I remember reading a lot of books as a child (I think the Betsy books come to mind) where the A and B list movies were posted on the fridge and the good upright Catholic kids were only allowed to see A movies, but what were their parents seeing? Who were films marketed to? Would college girls have gone together to see it? Could it be a date movie, or would that be inappropriate? If so, what were some “safe” date movies?
It’s all very interesting to me because usually, especially given the original trailer and promotional materials on the DVD extras, with a more recent movie (maybe, I don’t know, late 60’s and beyond) I could tell you exactly who the target audience was, who would have wanted to see it, who would have looked down their noses at it, all that. And I realized I honestly just don’t know enough about how people in the late 50’s and early 60’s actually behaved to know a damn thing about it. (Hey, the dress certainly came as a surprise.) So, anybody got personal memories/opinions? Statistics? Academic citations?
A slight hijack but I have long felt that Some Like it Hot was highly over-rated. It’s mildly amusing but many it consider it the funniest film ever made. I thought it relied too much on the the joke of watching Lemmon and Curtis struggling as women. But then I didn’t find Tootsie very funny either so maybe there is something about cross-dressing comedies that I don’t get.
However I was amused by the famous last line “Nobody’s perfect” . Actually that might have been more daring in 1959 than Monroe’s dress because it was a clear reference to homosexuality.
The little bosomy black lace number in the link is not “the dress.” The dress is a see though mesh gown with sequins and spangles in the necessary places. In the movie Miss Monroe’s modesty was preserved by judicious use of the spot light since the mesh kept sliding around with the consequence that the spangles and sequins kept slipping off the naughty bits.
Mrs Gelding and I were high school seniors when the movie came out. We went. Mrs Gelding’s highly moral mother had no objection to her going and went later on our recommendation. It was no big deal at the time. Of course we had Bridget Bardot to ogle–Miss B’s publicity promised a lot more skin and lust than her movies actually produced. Some Like It Hot was held out as a sophisticated sex farce and that is just what it was. Funniest movie of all time? Probably not, but certainly one of the funniest.
That’s not the dress I’m talking about - it’s the one she sings “I Wanna Be Loved By You” in and cavorts around the boat in. The sheerness and the lack of contouring support make her breasts seem all but naked in that one, I assure you.
I found it not hilarious, but certainly clever. I’m still miffed that the AFI list didn’t have The Blues Brothers or Clerks on it, personally. Funny movie? Sure. Funniest movie? eeeehhhh…
The “Nobody’s perfect” line is a laugh riot, though.
If Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera wore this dress (hell, not that it’d be out of the ordinary), we’d think it was pretty damned slutty.
However, it does showcase the contours of non-implant-enhanced (although quite possibly taped up) beautiful large breasts, a comparative rarity these days. But they’re definately hanging out there, on a plate.
The code was in effect from 1930 until it was replaced by the current ratings in 1968. So, yeah, people weren’t all prudes back then, but Mr. Hays was and it’s a little shocking what got by the Office sometimes. (It’s my understanding the the Office didn’t always understand the dirty jokes, references, etc., so some were able to slip through.) But I guess the code was kinda dying by the late '50s, early '60s.
It was a big mainstream movie, with a big mainstream cast, put out by a big mainstream studio, and watched by a big mainstream audience. It got six Oscar nominations, for pete’s sake.
Not only that, but Marilyn had been in a previous Billy Wilder film, The Seven Year Itch, which is the one with the famous picture of her dress being blown up to her waist by the sunbway train passing underneath. (Although the famous picture was separately posed and reveals more than does the clip in the actual film.) Revealing Marilyn’s body was almost passe by 1959, especially since racier foreign films were appearing that made more sophisticated audiences abandon the increasingly idiotic Hollywood films.
Not only was the Hays Code pretty much a relic by the 1950s, but nothing in the film violated any standards.
And while the Hays Code did stop actual nudity and swearing, it did nothing to prevent adult content. It might actually have helped, because it forced writers to come up with interesting situations that focused on the behavior rather than relying on nudity and diry words for effect. Think of it as the difference between Saturday Night Live in the 1970s and the show today. Instead of skits with no point to them at all beyond saying penis and flaunting bodily fluids (today’s show) the early SNL skits had to make their points by being funny and sly.
Billy Wilder was one of the absolute masters of showing how adults behaved without violating any taboos. His is one of the great filmographies of all time.
That said, I feel encouraged by people like CyberPundit having the courage to say the truth: Some Like it Hot is a mildly amusing minor film, not remotely worthy of the number one comedy title.
The pic in Wallon’s link is not clear, but in the color shots of the dress that I have seen (including backstage film), the material is not transparent but flesh tone. Hence she is quite decently clothed. (Aside from the jiggle issue.) In B&W of course, it might raise questions on people with dirtier minds. I always assumed that the studio’s censors saw the dress or color pics of it and ok’ed it on that basis.
A lot of really juicy outfits in B&W films of the era turn out to be not so daring when seen in color.