I was watching bit of the 1959 black and white movie "Some Like it Hot" last weekend. The movie, for those unfamiliar, stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two musicians who witnessed a mob massacre and are on the run. To conceal their identities, the take up with an all female band dressed as women themselves. It's there that they meet Marilyn Monroe (her character's name is Sugar Kane Kowalczyk) who plays ukulele and sings for the band.
Now, I love watching old movies (when I'm in the right mood) for several reasons, but two main ones: firstly, it's interesting to see the history of cinema, what they were able to accomplish and the technological restraints they had to work around and secondly, I enjoy laughing at what people used to look like and how they used to act. Let's face it: the past is hilarious if you're looking at it through the right lens.
This movie is no exception in that regard, but it also holds up as a comedy. It was hilarious when it came out and it's hilarious now for most of the same reasons (not even in an ironic hipster way). That's rare for an old movie to hold up that well. However, as great as everything in this movie is, the main thing I wanted to talk about was Monroe.
Every time I watch this movie (or parts of it, as it shows up on TV not infrequently), I am struck by how big Marilyn Monroe looks compared to modern leading ladies. We've become so conditioned to see waif model actresses as normal, when it comes to watching them on-screen to the point that they even play action heroes, punching people to death with arms that couldn't open a pickle jar. Seeing Monroe in this movie is jarring for that reason, but also for another: her character is dumber than a box of hair.
Now, it isn't as though we don't have dumb characters today, but usually, the movie goes out of it's way to make sure we know that we are supposed to see them as dumb. In the case of Sugar Kane, . . . I don't know. I stared at this for a long time before I wrote anything else down. I'm not sure how to word the impression of her that comes across. I guess she's not dumb in a funny over the top way, but more dumb in a tragic way. Now, it's not as though things don't work out for her in the end, but I just felt more sorry for her than I think I should have had to, and not because of bad things that happened to her in the movie, but more the was you feel bad when a pet or a baby is sick: they don't know what's going on and are innocent for the most part (though some babies, I'm not so sure). That's what it feels like with Sugar. She doesn't seem to have a grasp of what's happening, which allows the plot to happen of course, but also leaves you (or at least me) feeling pretty bad for her, no matter the outcome.
Anyway, this is a classic. Check it out if you haven't already. If you have, watch it again!
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