SCHOTT: Monroe’s comedic hit still draws laughs today

A pair of broke musicians witnesses a brutal gang murder. The gang leader had been their employer. They are found out, but they escape. So what does this saxophone- and bass-playing duo do when on the lam from the mob?
They could start by getting out of the city, putting the instruments in the closet for a few months and picking up work in a factory someplace to keep out of the public eye. The problem with this logic is simple. If they did this, they wouldn't be broke musicians anymore.

So seems to be the process of rationalization behind Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon) in Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot", one of the funniest movies ever made. Even when the speakeasy where they played is raided by police, they make sure their cherished bass and tenor sax are securely inside their cases before the two of them flee.

After they witness a brutal massacre at the hands of mob head Spats Colombo, the only option that makes sense to Joe and Jerry is to dress up in drag and hop a train with an all-girl band to Florida. The logic? Spats will be searching every male band in the country.

Singing in said band is the criminally gorgeous Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe). Hilarity has rarely ensued more.

As long as there has been comedy, there have been men in women's clothing. It's intrinsically funny. It also would have been sufficient material for a lesser filmmaker, but Wilder transforms this situational comedy into a playground of inspired dialogue and precise timing.

He had a rare gift for maintaining comedic themes in his wording. Keep track of how many times a joke is made about blood type, or how many characters speak only in metaphor. Sugar Kane, in particular, uses similes as the source of her humor.

His use of repetition and trends are in place to develop characters that are unique and, in this case, immortal. They all have different traits that both supplement the jokes and are supplemented by them. And when moments of climactic humor roll around, they don't feel like processed narrative landmarks, but like extensions of Joe and Jerry's decisions.

Marilyn Monroe, in perhaps her most famous performance (and if it isn't, then "The Seven Year Itch" is, which is also a Wilder film), has us all eating out of her palm from the moment she stumbles into the film.

"Will you look at that!" Jerry exclaims. "Look how she moves! It's like Jell-O on springs. Must have some sort of built-in motor or something. I tell you, it's a whole different sex!"

There is a fairly widespread theory regarding the source of Monroe's beauty. It is at its most transparent here. She is beautiful because she doesn't seem to have any idea how beautiful she is, like a little boy playing with a gun and every man watching wants to get shot.

Monroe was, in real life, one of the saddest figures in popular culture. She was one of those rare instances of drug abuse and dangerous promiscuity we feel sorry for. We blame it on the beauty, not her. She had such a tremendous body, and no idea how to use it.

By the time she'd started work on "Some Like it Hot," Monroe had developed a reputation as an erratic performer, forgetting her lines, showing up late, even going days without showering. Brave directors put it up with it. The reasons why are on the screen.

Nobody's perfect.

Rollan Schott is a senior English major. Reach him at rollanschott@dailynebraskan.com.