Photo by Jeffrey Allison
Some Like It Hot will “run wild” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this Friday at 6:30PM and in glorious black & white. If you are searching for the perfect summer entertainment — and who is not? — this part gangster picture and mostly hilarious comedy is the movie to see.
Follow two hapless Chicago musicians who change their identities — to put it mildly — while on the lamb from mob bootleggers in 1929 wintery Chicago who end up in sunny Miami playing with an all-girl band. Whether it is your first time or the twentieth, this one never runs out of steam. Some Like It Hot will deliver the wit, cleverness, and belly laughs you so richly deserve.
It is a thoroughly quality production with director, Billy Wilder, coming off big hits such as Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., and Seven Year Itch. Tony Curtis was a hot property after The Sweet Smell of Success. Oscar winner Jack Lemmon was rising to great heights of acting repute in drama as well as comedy.
And, last but not least, Hollywood’s most sensational and unpredictable leading lady, Marilyn Monroe tops off the bill. She was the supreme movie star of movie stars, the authentic blonde bombshell, who was too often imitated but never duplicated. In 1959 this sizzling picture was adults only! Do come into our modern air conditioned Leslie Cheek Theater and cool off with Some Like It Hot. See you there!
– H. Hobart Cornell, Critic-at-large