I just saw this movie again, the first time since the American Film Institute rated it as the Best Comedy. Now, I really like the film, and love Billy Wilder in general (Double Indemnity and the Apartment are two of my faves), and like the actors in it and a lot of the lines, but…the best? A few other films strike me as funnier…I’m sure we could all name a few, but some classic screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby, What’s Up Doc), Romantic Comedies (His Girl Friday, When Harry met Sally)…you get the idea.
Is there something I am missing? Were some of the lines funnier back when it was first released? Even the big socko finish [SPOILER] when Joe E. Brown responds to Jack Lemmon’s statement “I’m a guy!!” - “we all have problems” is cute, but the best?
This is not meant to be a slam, I just want to understand and if someone with more historical perspective can shed light, I would be most appreciative.
I think it has a lot to do with Maralyn Monroe. She’s a huge pop icon, but she didn’t make all that many truly great movies. So Some Like It Hot does double duty on these lists, both as a great comedy and as a sample of Maralyn.
I prefer the Apartment and Sunset Boulevard myself.
Oops - sorry for the blown quote, and thank you for the correction, ianzin.
I still don’t think that that changes the basic point of my post - the line is cute, but not outrageously funny. But again, I am open to gaining more perspective on this…is the movie so influential that I have been jaded by seeing so many of it’s knock-offs?
Interesting question. I guess I think His Girl Firday is funnier (just saw it again this weekend, BTW), but these things are all a matter of taste. There are a small handful of movies that might qualify (like those you mentioned). If anything else was #1, the AFI would be laughed out of existence. But as long as it was one of this handful, it’s just a matter of who was on the panel this time 'round.
Some Like it Hot
All About Eve
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Seven Year Itch
Niagara
Bus Stop
There’s seven off the top of my head without even consulting IMDB. How many great movies does she have to make?
Well, there is that two hour long strip of film that immediately precedes that line to consider as well…
I don’t think SLIH is the best comedy film ever made either, but it’s definitely in the top ten. The idea that you would disqualify it on the basis of a single line strikes me as quite odd.
Well, let me first say that I like the spoiler box feature.
Next, with lines like, “It’s like Jello on springs!”, Some Like It Hot is pretty hard to beat. I can’t recall when two such huge stars went in drag as a central plot device before SLIH. Perhaps a film buff can step in and provide some historical insight.
Otto, I am not disqualifying the movie on the basis of a single line (heck, I am not disqualifying the movie at all; I am not trying to slam the movie) - my point in referencing that line was that it representing a zinger - there were two hours of film leading up to it and it was the payoff for at least one of the plotlines in the story.
I found the line cute, but, along with the entire movie, not so funny that I thought “hey, this is the funniest movie ever!”
My point in posting this thread was to see if anyone had any perspective as to why this is considered the funniest movie ever. I mean, very few people have read Joyce’s Ulysses, but a number of us could come up with why it is considered the greatest English novel of the 20th century (even if we disagreed with that rating ourselves). Same thing with Citizen Kane - a person may not think it is the best film ever made, but might be able to describe why it is generally considered to be so.
I had heard that SLIH is the funniest movie since before the AFI ratings, so I assumed that, like Ulysses or Kane, some critical thought had gone into that rating. I know that humor is in the sense of the beholder, but I was wondering if anyone knew what the basic thinking was behind SLIH’s high regard.
Maralyn was in All About Eve quite briefly, in a minor role. The other movies Otto mentions don’t show up on these all-time classic lists with any regularity. You don’t normally see The Seven Year Itch or The Prince and the Showgirl mentioned in the same breath as Bringing Up Baby, or His Girl Friday, or the Apartment. They’re good movies, but they’re not what people think of as the best of the best.
For a pre-SLIH big star in drag, check out Cary Grant in Howard Hawks’s I Was a Male War Bride (1949).
WordMan, I’m with you. I have yet to see what all the fuss is about. SLIH = Zzzzzzz.
And, AFAIC, all those MM fans can stand in line in front of the Elvis fans who can stand in line in front of the Princess Di fans, all waiting to be seated in the dustbin of obscurity. Shouldn’t be too long now. Almost all the Valentino fanatics are gone.
I miss sharing threads with you. I guess now that you spend all your days drying glasses and rushing bums here in the CS you have no time for us riff-raff types from the old neighborhood. Sniff.
The topic was not whether Miss Monroe’s movies regularly make some arbiary list. The topic was whether she was in any “great movies.” I named seven. That some movie snobs sniff at a fine movie like “The Prince and the Showgirl” means nothing to me.
And speaking of Miss Monroe in All About Eve, who else could have played that role as well as she did? In a movie filled with stellar talent she more than held her own and made the most out of every moment she had.