The movie, Some Like It Hot, lies out many different themes from the beginning of the movie, but the most important and true subject is about the disguising leads to romance and comedy. The movie started up with the shooting action as an introduction before two male characters showed up in the illegal basement club behind the fake funeral. As the film continued to develop, our two main characters joined the actress on the train to Miami, Florida. Joe disguised himself as a girl named Josephine tried to escape from a group of gangsters with Jerry or Daphine (disguised name) after witnessing the revenge taken place in the garage. Joe whose desire was to capture the interest of Sugar Cane disguised himself again as Shell Oil Junior, a bachelor and also the heir to the Shell Oil Company. On the other hand, Sugar had a plan to marry a rich bachelor living in Miami, Florida. As their chemistry and love developed, and the comedy involved, each scene contributed to make a beautiful and refreshing film to watch. A love scene on the cruise yacht showed the deep love though Joe told a lie from the beginning until the end about his disease. However, their disguises were exposed when Spats Colombo arrived at the hotel to join the convention which resulted in death. During the escape, Joe heard Sugar sang a song full of heartbreaking voice due to the unfulfilled love she was supposed to get from a fake millionaire, and this moment gave Joe a blind love despite in danger of escaping the gangster after secondly witnessing the death of Spats Colombo. Joe came to Sugar in his disguised cloth as Josephine and kissed her which led the cover up were finally exposed to everyone, especially to Sugar and their band. This was the moment he truly knew that what happened from the beginning until the end was a true love. Likewise, Sugar, though getting aware of the truth, she abandoned her desire to marry a millionaire in Florida and rode on the boat with Joe. Life does not always come to meet our need, but we can truly find the happiness in different way. That’s the true love which the film indicates about.
The film, Some Like It Hot, depicted a non-fiction story in the linear chronological order to attract the audience’s attention from the moment it started. It began with an early scene where the police chased the wine robbers which required the intercutting plot by plot because both vehicles were on the move. The next scene was to capture the raid inside the basement bar where Joe and Jerry managed to escape the arrest. The next scene on the train gave a complete different to move the camera in the small area but remained to capture the scene perfectly. Normally, a good film always contains the three elements indicating issues the main characters are facing, struggles or obstacles, and the solution. Likewise, Joe and Jerry witnessed the revenge between Spats and Charlies in the garage; hence, they had to disguised as girls to join the band to Miami, Florida to escape. Ironically, Joe fell in love with Sugar when he disguised himself as the heir to the Shell Oil Company. Furthermore, the gangster convention took place in the hotel they were staying which led to the expose of their coverup, especially when they hid below the table witnessing the murder of Spats and his members. Eventually, the solution of the film took place when Joe, Jerry, Sugar, and Osgood rode the boat out of the port. The storytelling of this film gave a smooth storyline from the beginning until the end which the audiences understood well which clarified that screenwriter had a high knowledge in literature to convey the meaning of the film to the audiences with his style.
The screenwriter illustrates all the three elements through the acting and behaviors of the characters in the film. Marilyn Monroe as Sugar, Tony Curtis as Joe and Jack Lemmon as Jerry were at their best at acting like realistic in the film which indicated the truth definition of how the characters put themselves in real life rather than performing their acts. One scene when Joe disguised himself as the heir to the Shell Oil Company on the beach approached Sugar, Curtis seemed like a real millionaire behaving straightforward without noticed and completely different from the way he acted as Joe and Josephine. The other scene took place on the ship where their chemistry was undeniably charming. Curtis and Monroe performed their acts natural like a like couple during the early 19th century. The screwball dialogue exchanged between Monroe, Curtis, and Lemmon were hilarious, and the way they delivered their conversations seemed so natural which always gave the best impression. As noticed, Curtis had to change his character back and forth because he disguised as a girl and fake millionaire which indicated the variety of chrematistics to behave accurate as the theme of the film.
This film was actually made into black and white rather than color, but the qualities of the photograph and lighting could still be considered as the best. Even though black and white, all every scene did not make the audience any difficulties to watch, and all objects shown in the film could be identified clearly. One of the most intriguing scenes and camera shots was nowhere but the first opening scene when the police chased the wine robbers. The intercutting scenes was captured with the shooting response back and forth on the road was amazing as the technology during that period of time was not as advanced as today. However, the skill of capturing the photograph was presented remarkable. Similarly, the plot of the hidden man waiting the song ended to kill Spats and his members witnessed by Joe and Jerry causing them to run for life was wonderful which required the cameraman to follow the main characters to escape the gang.
The editing was clearly hard for the shooting scene between the police and the wine robbers was definitely hard for the editor because it was about the chase scenes in which they needed to indicate the action and edit back and forth to create intense excitement. The editing would elaborate as a real scene which was viewed as the left, right, front, and back of the vehicles. These required lots of camera to shoot, and at least thirty to forty cameras to make the action more realistic. The editor was given a hard time to make sure from one scene to others were the following scene. For instance, when the Spats’ gang shot the light of the vehicle, the editor had to make sure the following scene was the light broke.
The location which the director chose to capture the beautiful beach in San Diego, California, was suitable for the theme of the film which was supposed to be at Miami, Florida. The decision to film in California might be a reason of weather and also the hometown of Hollywood which could be much easier to launch the premier in here. The set as seen in the film was supposed to be inside the hotel and basement bar. Moreover, the scene which Joe and Jerry ran from the gangster indicated the complex structure of building resulting in wider space to capture the escape scene in the full screen as the effect to alter the scene to be more realistic. The costumes were the best choices, especially when Joe disguised as the heir to the Shell Oil Company, and when Sugar sang on the stage. There might have been a reason why Billy Wilder chose to make the film in black and white color rather than the color one which was about the crossdressing of Joe and Jerry as girls to join the band. The scene could be unrealistic if the film was made in color. People would doubt how come the band did not recognize Joe and Jerry as boys when they met for the first time at the train station. However, the makeup went well with other characters in the film.
This film was considered as one of the best screwball comedy I have ever watched after introduced to the early film era of black and white. What really interest about this film was that Billy Wilder made it into black and white though the color was clearly introduced to the cinema already, and the film also stood up to the level where it might be put into a contest with the color films at that period of time. Honestly, my eyes still cannot adjust to the black and white color in the film yet, but so far this film gave an impression on how Billy Wilder directed such a hilarious film involving many varieties of theme. The storyline and screenplay were well-written, and the dialogue was extremely intriguing when the screwball dialogue was exchanged between the characters. The romantic scene between Monroe and Curtis was completely blowing my mind, and they brought all of the skills and acting techniques to demonstrate the love of a couple sailing on the ship. Their natural appearance and look were undeniably beautiful though compared to the current Hollywood film stars. As the film was deemed one of the best romantic and screwball comedy, it brought fame to the director, screenwriter, actors and actress. At the beginning, I focused on watching the movie without any notice to the film analysis and found it hilarious from the start of the film after the action scene. Surprisingly, the way they exchanged screwball dialogue without changing their facial expression was amazing. However, after having watched the film for the second time, I believed it required much effort in every single plot to demonstrate their acts and gestures to meet the standard the way Billy Wilder wanted.