Some Like it Hot, the acclaimed American comedy, is the choice of the National Art Gallery, Castellani House for next week’s Classic Tuesdays’ film.
According to a press release, the film, directed by the brilliant screenwriter and director Billy Wilder in 1959, tells the story of two small-time musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), who witness the St Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago in 1929 and flee for their lives from the mob boss, Spats Columbo (George Raft).
Their only refuge is in a travelling all-girls band, which necessitates new identities and drastic disguise. Both men fall for the band’s vocalist, ‘Sugar Kane’ Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe), and battle for her affections while needing to maintain their life-saving disguises. Two millionaire suitors, one real, one pretend, complicate the scene, as the mob eventually catches up with the fugitives in Miami, in this hilarious, fast-paced and wittily scripted film, co-written by Wilder and IAL Diamond from a previously existing story.
The release said the film won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, and was nominated for several other Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Black and White Cinematography and Best Actor for Jack Lemmon. It won Golden Globes for Best Comedy and Best Actor and Actress for Lemmon and Monroe. Billy Wilder himself, director of several landmark Hollywood movies including Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), received a total of 20 Academy Award nominations in his long career, winning two for Best Director and three for Best Screenplay.
The film’s running time is two hours, admission is free, and all are invited.
