Reasons for Attendance: The Skinny Presents Some Like It Hot

1. It’s Billy Wilder’s Best

Given that he made such a wealth of fine films throughout his career, this may prove controversial. Some people prefer his early, dark, cynical noirs (Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend), while others champion the mid-period, even darker and more cynical satires (Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole). Some even prefer his late period European productions (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Fedora). Me? I’ll take Wilder's back-to-back comic hits Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, a perfect one-two punch of farce and feeling (and, yes, cynicism). If I have to make the Sophie’s Choice, I’m going with the earlier film, a Prohibition-era screwball following two down-on-their-luck showband musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) who go on the run dressed up as dames and join Marilyn Monroe’s all-female band to escape the Chicago mob.

2. Marilyn Monroe

Her life off set was a mess, blighted by insecurity, illness and toxic relationships. On set, it wasn’t much better. "I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and my accountant,” Wilder once said of working with Monroe on Some Like It Hot, “and they tell me I am too old and too rich to go through this again." Co-star Tony Curtis was even less complimentary: of their onscreen clinch, he said “it was like kissing Hitler!” None of that matters, though. As Jack Lemmon’s Jerry says of her character, Sugar, “Look how she moves! It's like Jell-O on springs.” A great comic actor and the icon of her own time, and – thanks in part to Andy Warhol – subsequent generations, she was never more spry and vivacious. What ended up on screen is perfect. 

3. It’s Endlessly Rewatchable

Within even the most vast home movie collections, there are always a few DVD boxes that never get the opportunity to gather dust. We all have a handful of titles to which we regularly return. These choices vary from film fan to film fan – mine include Dazed and Confused, The Big Lebowski, The 39 Steps, The Lady Eve, Jackie Brown, Rushmore, Die Hard, Rio Bravo, Jaws, Something Wild and Wilder's classic. My addiction to these films doesn’t stop with my well-worn DVDs: if I accidentally come across one of these while channel hopping I have to drop everything and watch it to the end credits. Of these cinematic narcotics, however, Some Like It Hot is by far the most moreish. I don't know anyone who's seen it and been able to resist its charms. Watch it once, and it’s part of your life forever; you always come back.

4. That last line!

I won’t spoil it here, but not only is it a great punchline to one of the funniest films of all time, it’s also a nod of recognition and a moment of deep compassion. It says, whoever we fall for, be it a pneumatic chorus line girl, a phoney, Cary Grant-aping millionaire or a male session player in unconvincing drag, Wilder isn’t judging.  

5. Cinema under the stars

We Brits spend most of our lives indoors sheltering from the elements. It’s no wonder that we slip on our beachwear and fire up the barbecue as soon as the mercury rises into double figures. As the long summer nights slowly creep in, the pull to the cosy darkness of the cinema auditorium gets slightly less strong. That’s why Screenfield is such a godsend, and why you should come along to our screening on 5 June, grab a yellow deck chair and watch the sun go down with one of the greatest films of all time.