Unit 3/Packet 2 American Film History Mr. Lueth – Washington High School The Comedy Film Some Like it Hot

Background Production Information Producer: Billy Wilder Director: Billy Wilder Screenwriter: Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond Released by United Artists in 1959

Principal Cast Joe/Josephine - Tony Curtis Jerry/Daphne - Jack Lemmon Sugar Kane - Marilyn Monroe Osgood Fielding III - Joe E. Brown Spats Columbo - Joe Raft

Suggested/Alternate Films The Seven-Year Itch (1955) The Apartment (1960) Tootsie (1982) Academy Awards Oscar Awards: Black-and-White Costume Design - Orry-Kelly. Oscar Nominations: Actor - Jack Lemmon. Director - Billy Wilder. Screenplay - Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. Black-and-White Cinematography - Charles Lang, Jr. Black-and-White Art Direction - Ted Haworth and Edward G. Boyle. Summary and Commentary Joe and Jerry are two Chicago musicians who accidentally witness the St. Valentine’s Day massacre and are forced to flee to Miami disguised as Josephine and Daphne, members of an all-girl orchestra whose featured vocalist is the luscious Sugar Kane. To pursue her, Joe sneaks out of drag and adopts the persona of an impotent millionaire. This also involves secretly borrowing a yacht owned by Osgood Fielding III, and to that end, Jerry/Daphne is enlisted to court Fielding to keep him ashore during Joe’s date with Sugar. Meanwhile, the gangsters, led by Spats Columbo, have also shown up. Hilarious mockery thanks to endearing performances by Lemmon and Brown, Curtis’s highspirited Joe, and Monroe’s breath-taking luminosity.

Historical Connection Prohibition The crusade against “the demon rum” began with the humanitarian awakening and the reform movement of the 1840’s and 1850’s. By the time of the Civil War, most northern states had enacted restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages. They also drastically increased the taxes on distilled liquor, a move that cut its consumption almost by half. After the war, however, most states repealed their restrictions, and saloons once again multiplied. At that point many women took up the temperance cause. They saw excessive drinking as a masculine vice that threatened home and family by wasting family resources and causing family quarrels. The wartime experience of women, as government clerks, factory workers, and battlefield nurses, had given them a new sense of their own worth and ability to affect their environment. After the war, they formed clubs and other organizations devoted to the improvement of society. Alcohol was a natural target because it seemed to be the root of all evil. In 1874 the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded, and it quickly became the largest women’s organization in the country, boasting 160,000 members by 1890. By educating Americans about the evils of alcohol, the WCTU hoped to eliminate a variety of social problems- among them drunkenness and political corruption.

The WCTU had little impact on the liquor trade until the end of the 1800’s. Then in the early 1900’s, scientists began to demonstrate that alcohol was a dangerous substance. Laboratory studies proved that alcohol was not a stimulant, as had been previously supposed, but a depressant, which did varying amounts of damage to the brain, liver and heart. Life insurance companies, which had begun keeping mortality statistics, discovered that over seven percent of adult deaths were attributable to liquor. After 1900, Progressive reformers joined the crusade, contending that liquor contributed to crime, poverty, and political corruption. The middle class also became involved as the number of immigrants flowing into the country increased. While largely a racist assumption, many middle-class Americans reasoned that without access to liquor, the immigrant masses would be less inclined to crime and disorder and more easily assimilated into American society. Thus, scientific data and middle-class anxieties combined to make temperance a Progressive cause. The movement to outlaw alcohol began in earnest with the formation of the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) in 1893. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches gave the ASL financial backing and provided local bases of operation. The ASL’s most active members were women. At first, the league concentrated on local regulations. Not until 1913, when half the counties in the nation were “dry,” did it start a national Prohibition campaign. Nationwide Prohibition required a constitutional amendment, prohibiting the manufacture or sale of beverages containing more than one-half of one-percent of alcohol—a level that made even beer and wine illegal. The extremity of the act contributed to its downfall. Many Americans were not prepared to go that far. Without substantial popular support, the act proved virtually unenforceable. In 1933, Congress proposed the Twenty-First Amendment. This amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, thereby abandoning the experiment of nationwide prohibition. One of the reasons the states ratified the amendment so quickly was that they hoped the manufacture of alcohol would help eliminate grain surpluses.

Film Concept Costume Designer/Costumer The costume designer is the person who conceives and draws designs for costumes to be worn by performers in films. The sketches are usually done in color after careful study of the scrip, pending the approval of the producer, the director, and the art director. Probably the best-known costume designer in Hollywood history is Edith Head, winner of many Academy Awards. The costumer, on the other hand, is the man or women responsible for the acquisition of clothes and their maintenance throughout a film’s production. They are usually assigned to a major film several weeks before the start of production. After studying the script, they begin gathering items of apparel from available sources such as the studio wardrobe or rental establishments. They supervise the fittings of secondary players and extras. They also assist the stars in dressing before every shooting session. According to the union rules, their responsibility covers “anything that is worn.”

Viewing Questions 1. How does the director establish the 1920’s time period in the opening moments of the film before the date is displayed on the screen?

2. What job do Joe and Jerry briefly consider accepting?

3. What prompts Jerry and Joe to actually accept the Florida job?

4. What job does Sugar Kane do for the band?

5. How does Sugar almost get into big trouble with the band manager? Who saves her? Why?

6. What is ironic about Joe and Jerry’s reactions to the other girls getting ready for bed?

7. How are Jerry’s plans with Sugar on the train ruined?

8. What does Sugar say that gets Joe interested in her?

9. What are Sugar’s plans?

10. Why does Jerry pull the emergency brake on the train?

11. What complication arises when Jerry arrives at the Seminole-Ritz Hotel?

12. What plan does Joe come up with to attract Sugar?

13. Whose voice is Joe impersonating when he poses as the millionaire? What film of his did we recently study in class?

14. Why does Joe set up the date between Jerry and Osgood Fielding III?

15. Monroe’s performance of “I Wanna Be Loved by You” is typical of her singing style. What are some of the characteristics of her style?

16. How does Joe play on Sugar’s sympathies and make her the aggressor on the yacht?

17. How does the director transition between Joe’s and Jerry’s “dates”?

18. What happens to Jerry as he tangos with Osgood?

19. What news does Jerry have for Joe when they return from their dates?

20. What convention comes to the Seminole-Ritz Hotel? What is it really? Why is this a problem?

21. What detail tips Spat off to the true identity of Joe and Jerry?

22. How do Joe and Jerry plan to escape from the gangsters?

23. Osgood has what is now considered one of the all-time classic closing lines in all film. What is it?