Perhaps it’s a sign of the “generation gap”, or perhaps it simply indicates that I’m a moron, but here’s Factoid That Strongly Dates Me: when I hear the phrase “some like it hot”, my thoughts don’t usually connect to the classic 1959 film of the same name. Instead, my immediate mental image relates to the not-so-classic 1985 song of the same name by short-lived “super group” Power Station. Hey, I still like that tune!

Although the ditty dominates my memories, I’m not a total buffoon. The film remains regarded as a classic, so it has to live up to a tremendous reputation. It placed 22nd on the AFI’s Top 100 Movies of all-time list, and it made number one on their specialty chart that documented their choices for the best comedies. Hot is the funniest film of all-time? I can’t agree with that, but I did think that it provided a consistently entertaining and enjoyable experience.

Set in Prohibition-era Chicago at the end of the Twenties, Hot stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as Joe and Jerry, two jazz musicians who encounter perpetual economic troubles. They land a good gig at a speakeasy but lose that when the cops raid the joint. After that, they witness the killing of the informant who ratted on crime boss “Spats” Colombo (George Raft) so they have to go on the lam to avoid their own untimely deaths.

As such, they don feminine garb and transform themselves into “Josephine” and “Daphne” to join an all-girl band for a nice gig in Florida. Inevitably the crooks catch up with them, but not until after they’ve run into many other complications. Both Joe and Jerry fall for sexy singing star Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), and Joe actually takes on another persona as a rich oil tycoon to nab the babe. Jerry hits his own snag when an older millionaire named Osgood (Joe E. Brown) decides to make Daphne his eighth or ninth wife.

When a film prominently features actors in drag, it tends to be of the madcap comedy variety, and Hot remains the grandpa - or grandma - of them all. Since I’m much better acquainted with more recent flicks of this ilk such as 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire and 1982’s Tootsie, it was something of a revelation to check out this seminal movie. All subsequent drag-oriented pictures owe some debt to Hot, but Tootsie really seems heavily inspired. As played by Jessica Lange, that film’s Julie really is nothing more than the daughter of Sugar. From Lange’s breathy delivery to the characters’ shared penchant for booze, the parts seemed awfully similar.

I also saw a number of scenes in Tootsie that had close cousins in Hot. For example, a segment in the latter which shows Daphne and Sugar in bed appeared very much like a bed piece in the former. I don’t mean to accuse Tootsie of blatantly ripping off Hot; both films clearly have their own identities, and the former is not just a cheap imitation. However, I really was surprised to see how much of the older movie showed up in Tootsie. I didn’t expect so many strong similarities.

Of course, one main difference stems from the fact that Hot offers two guys in drag as opposed to the single cross-dresser in Tootsie. Curtis and Lemmon take rather different approaches to their roles, and they didn’t follow the methods I thought they would. Early in the film, Lemmon’s Jerry is somewhat uptight and nerdy. He worries incessantly about money and comes across as a bit of a fuss-budget. Joe, on the other hand, is a smooth ladies’ man who doesn’t seem to worry about much. He figures he can always sweet-talk a living for the two.

However, when the dresses go on, the personalities change somewhat. As Daphne, Jerry remains concerned with money. In fact, he appears fairly obsessed with finances. However, he becomes much looser in his new personality. They’re earning a steady living, and “girls” just wanna have fun!

While Jerry’s the businessman of the pair, Joe possesses the street smarts, so he remains more practical during their spree as women. He knows that the hoods from Chicago will still be after them, so he becomes the practical one. Joe sees dressing in drag as a means to an end, while Jerry… well, he seems to enjoy it just a little too much.

Actually, those elements of the film were a pleasant surprise. No, Lemmon isn’t shown to get off due to the feel of his ladies’ garb, but he becomes rather wrapped up in his role. He appears to forget his initial sexual interest in Sugar when he finds a rich “prospect” in Osgood. Lemmon really lets himself go in the part, as he unselfconsciously dives into the part. He could seem a bit caustic and forced at times, but I still thought he provided a perverse glee to Jerry/Daphne that I didn’t expect.

Even more surprising was the solid turn from Curtis. To be honest, I haven’t seen a lot of his work, but I’ve not been impressed with the bits I have witnessed. I thought his performance in Spartacus was one of that flick’s weakest points. However, he appears wonderfully loose and lively here as he takes on three different personalities and acts convincingly in all of them. Most impressive was the dead-on Cary Grant impression he adopts as the oil tycoon, an element that added more wit to the piece.

As for Marilyn, many people feel that this was one of her top performances. Frankly I don’t see this as an outstanding piece of work. It just seemed like Marilyn played Marilyn. I didn’t discern much variation on the theme, especially since the movie doesn’t provide a great deal of character development. If I had to pick one real flaw in Hot, that would be it. I thought the different participants largely seemed one-dimensional and lacked much depth.

Still, the film worked well even without well-defined characters, especially because of the folks in the supporting parts. A lot of the movie’s entertainment came from the antics of some supporting players. Brown is dryly hilarious as Osgood, and the cocky bellhop - whose name I can’t discover - really enlivened his brief stints on the screen. The film features a solid crew who all offer strong work.

As for the movie’s vaunted humor, I do have to agree that it’s a funny piece. The funniest movie ever? Definitely not, but much of the movie’s lines and gags hold up extremely well. The film boasts a bright and sassy script filled with memorable jokes, and it manages to keep them coming at a fast and furious pace. I can’t say that Some Like It Hot will ever become one of my favorite comedies, but I definitely enjoyed it and I look forward to future viewings of this witty and endearing classic.

Some Like It Hot appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a decent image but not a great one.

Sharpness appeared inconsistent. Parts of the film provided nice clarity and delineation, but other shots could be somewhat soft and mushy. The good parts dominated but I thought we got a bit too many somewhat ill-defined elements. No examples of moiré effects and jagged edges showed up during the movie, and only a smidgen of edge enhancement occurred.

Black levels seemed good. I thought Hot portrayed solid contrast with dark tones that looked deep and rich. Shadow detail was appropriately heavy but not excessively thick. I thought the low-light sequences seemed easily visible but not overly bright.

Source flaws created some concerns. The main distraction came from white specks, and those appeared mostly during the movie’s first act. Once the characters got to Florida, the specks became less prominent; they still occurred, but not as frequently. Overall, the movie looked pretty decent, but between the softness and the source flaws, I thought this was a “C+”; a movie with the reputation of Hot deserved a stronger transfer.

The Blu-ray of Some Like It Hot provided a modern DTS-HD MA 5.1 remix. Although the audio definitely displayed the limitations of the source material, I thought it generally provided a decent listening experience.

Despite the modern 5.1 reorientation, the soundfield remained fairly heavily anchored to the center channel. The side speakers added modest breadth to the imaging at times, mainly via the musical numbers heard throughout the film. Stereo separation didn’t seem especially strong, but the tunes and score spread adequately from the center.

Effects also showed moderate extension to the right and left. This mostly provided ambient audio, but some decent panning occurred at times, such as when vehicles moved from one side to the other; scenes on the train easily showed the best dimensionality to the mix. Surround usage seemed limited largely to minor reinforcement, though the rears kicked in with fairly positive activity during some musical numbers. As a whole, the soundfield broadened the original track but stayed true to its roots, which was fine with me.

Audio quality seemed erratic but generally acceptable for a film of this era. Dialogue displayed some edgy qualities and could appear somewhat brittle, but I found that speech remained acceptably distinct and were always easily intelligible. Apparently many of Tony Curtis’ lines were dubbed because he had trouble with a convincing female voice, but I thought the looping was integrated in a generally seamless manner. As I watched the movie, I debated whether or not the voice I heard was Curtis’, but not because the words didn’t fit in well with the action. I just thought it didn’t sound much like Curtis, but I felt the lines meshed neatly with the presentation.

Effects also displayed periodic signs of distortion. Louder noises such as gunshots had the most problems, but a few other elements showed minor concerns as well. Nonetheless, most of the effects were acceptably clear and realistic for an older movie. These pieces seemed somewhat thin and bland, but they still were adequate.

Probably the best parts of the soundtrack related to the music. These parts also could lack dynamics, but they generally were fairly crisp and bright, and the score and songs actually displayed some relatively decent low-end at times. Bass response seemed loose but was deep for the era. I very much liked the effect heard when the camera first approached Curtis and Lemmon. As it nears Jack, the thump of his bass playing got louder. Ultimately, the soundtrack to Some Like It Hot had problems and it didn’t compare to something more modern, but I felt it was a consistently listenable and satisfactory mix for its period.

How did the picture and sound of this Blu-Ray compare with those of the 2006 Collector’s Edition DVD? Audio was pretty similar; I don’t think the lossless track managed to improve on the DVD’s remixed predecessor. (In a disappointing move, the Blu-ray drops the film’s original monaural mix even though it includes scads of other tracks and the mono audio appeared on the last DVD.)

Visuals showed improvements, though not as much as I’d like. Actually, this was one of those cases where the limitations of DVD hid some of the image’s flaws; I suspect the softness was there as well but the higher resolution of Blu-ray made the lack of definition more obvious. The Blu-ray did seem tighter and better resolved, but it wasn’t a slam-dunk.

The Blu-ray duplicates most of the extras from the earlier Collector’s Edition. We get an audio commentary with actors Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, writer’s son Paul Diamond, and the screenwriting team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Diamond, Ganz and Mandel sit together for a running, screen-specific piece. The track edits in remarks from Curtis and Lemmon as it goes. Curtis’s notes come from a modern interview, while Lemmon was taped in 1984.

I have no problem with this method, but the content is lackluster. Curtis and Lemmon offer the best bits. They give us their impressions of the film and the shoot along with thoughts about various scenes and their coworkers. Lemmon pops up infrequently, but Curtis tells us a fair amount and is pretty blunt. For instance, he compares Marilyn Monroe’s figure to the shape of a battleship! Curtis gives us a reasonable amount of good material.

Unfortunately, he also doesn’t show up very often, and that leaves us with Diamond, Mandel and Ganz most of the time. Diamond provides a smattering of historical and biographical notes along with a few memories of his childhood experiences on the set, but he really doesn’t do much in either regard. Mandel and Ganz talk about how Hot influenced them and mention references to it in their films. However, they mostly just tell us how much they love the flick and they quote it. The commentary never becomes truly dull, but it doesn’t include a consistent level of good information. I wish MGM had involved a real film historian to discuss it, as that would’ve been infinitely more useful.

The Making of Some Like It Hot goes for 25 minutes and 44 seconds. It presents a mix of movie clips, archival elements, and interviews. We hear from Curtis, Lemmon, writer/producer/director Billy Wilder, co-writer/associate producer IAL Diamond, Diamond’s wife Barbara, and production company head Walter Mirisch. The show looks at the movie’s genesis and development, casting, the decision to film in black and white and the transformation of the guys into girls, location shooting and problems with Marilyn Monroe, performance notes and other concerns, the creation of the movie’s famous final line, a deleted scene, and the film’s reception.

“Making” doesn’t act as a terrific overall look at the film, but it gives us some nice anecdotes. A few of the elements repeat from elsewhere, so expect a bit of repetition. Nonetheless, the program gives us a good snapshot of the production and entertains as it informs.

For the next piece, we find The Legacy of Some Like It Hot. This 20-minute and 21-second show includes comments from Curtis, Wilder, Lemmon, IAL Diamond and wife Barbara, Mirisch, publisher Hugh Hefner, UCLA cinema professor Howard Suber, and filmmaker Curtis Hanson. We get a short tour of the current spot that used to be the studio lot and also hear about Wilder’s personality and work. We learn about complaints from the National Legion of Decency and controversies about the film’s sex-related content. The program continues with notes about working with Monroe and the movie’s reception and longevity.

“Legacy” acts as a companion to “Making”. It gets into general issues but doesn’t provide a strong sense of purpose. The show moves along with a collection of fairly interesting insights, though we’ve already heard some of them elsewhere. “Legacy” ends up as a decent little program.

After this comes a Nostalgic Look Back with Tony Curtis. This 31-minute and 13-second program is a recent interview with Curtis conducted by film critic Leonard Maltin. Recorded at the Formosa Café - a Hollywood landmark near the studio at which Hot was filmed - Curtis provides a nicely frank and entertaining remembrance of his days on the movie. In recent years, Curtis has seemed like a rather odd man during interviews, but he manages to keep himself largely in check here, and he adds a lot of fun and informative notes throughout this piece. He doesn’t dish any real dirt, but he does relate some idea of how difficult it could be to work with Marilyn, and he gives a solid overview of his experiences. Ultimately, I enjoyed this show and thought it added to my appreciation of the film.

In the same vein is Memories From the Sweet Sues, a 12-minute and four-second program in which we hear from some of the members of the movie’s all-girl band. Here we find actresses Marian Collier, Laurie Mitchell, Sandra Warner, and Joan Nicholas, all of whom were recorded together for this piece. Their remembrances lack the insight heard during Curtis’ interview, and the parts during which they watch film clips and gush about the greatness of the flick get a little old, but the ladies still give a nice perspective on the experience.

Best of the bunch are two Marilyn-related tidbits. In one we learn how director Billy Wilder lured Monroe out of her dressing room when she has refused to come onto the set, and in the other we find out whose body appears in the film’s publicity shots. Ultimately, “Memories” was generally fun and compelling.

The Virtual Hall of Memories essentially functions as a running montage. When you enter the “hall”, you move through five different areas: Monroe, Curtis, Lemmon, Wilder, and “Behind the Scenes”. In each of these departments, you’ll see a mix of production stills, publicity shots, and film clips, all of which were filmed and backed with audio from the movie. As a whole, the piece runs for 21 minutes and three seconds. I could have done without the film snippets - after all, we already own the movie on its own - but the photos were quite good to see.

As a movie, Some Like It Hot has endured quite well over the years. While I can’t endorse the AFI’s decision that it’s the funniest film ever made, I still thought it was witty and well-made as a whole. The Blu-ray offers acceptable but erratic picture and audio along with a nice mix of supplements. The Blu-ray gives us the flick’s best home video reputation, but it could use a new transfer – and the return of the prior DVD’s monaural soundtrack.

To rate this film visit the Collector's Edition review of SOME LIKE IT HOT