Some Like It Hot
— Of course it broke the mould in 1959, but today it just seems mouldy.”
- Director: Billy Wilder
- United States, 1959
What is it with Billy Wilder movies? For me, only the unprecedented content made The Apartment stand out. Now I find that this highly esteemed comedy does very little for me either.
Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe deliver some reasonably fizzy dialogues; there are lots of lukewarm references to old gangster flicks; the finale suggests an unusually tolerant attitude towards cross-dressing. But what else, dare I ask?
Some Like It Hot is very watchable and occasionally fun. But should a movie’s reputation rest on one-liners, or an isolated memorable scene? I mean, maybe it broke the mould in 1959, but today it just seems mouldy.
See also:
Tawdry minds think alike
A bit of April fooling around on the Wikipedia homepage got me thinking about English humour.
- Originally published: 1 Apr 2011 in Humour
Hot Fuzz
Not caught by the Fuzz: this British parody of American buddy cop movies is rather tepid.
- Originally published: 25 Feb 2007 in Film
The Apartment
Daring subject matter for a comedy with an unexpectedly dark side.
- Originally published: 15 Jan 2007 in Film
Groundhog Day
Only Bill Murray could make misery, misanthropy and rejection this funny.
- Originally published: 25 Mar 2007 in Film
Blame it on the Bellboy
If there’s any proper comedy in this film, I must be Venetian blind.
- Originally published: 19 Apr 2007 in Film
Who you gonna call?
Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.
Shameless self-promotion
Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.
I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.
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