Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Have I Seen it Before: Yes. Do people still take in movies for the first time on Turner Classic Movies? Do I still have TCM in my cable package? These are all depressing questions I’m not prepared to wrestle with yet.
Did I Like It: A modern audience who hasn’t seen this film might not have any patience for it. A litany of comedies have followed it with nearly identical structures. Some number of benign charlatans run afoul of truly bad characters, go into a an unusual situation* (there will often be costumes—although a nun’s habit seems to be a recurring trend), try to extend the scheme to comedic results, to only then re-run afoul of the badniks, after which all of the misunderstandings are aired. One of minimum experience might be forgiven for being unimpressed.
None of those subsequent movies has Marilyn Monroe in them, however. Beautiful, certainly, and a gifted enough comedian (although the real laughs in the movie come from Lemmon, a little bit Curtis, and most consistently the guileless Joe E. Brown) but how many people are drawn to the film after all these years without the draw of Monroe.
And if the Monroe’s legend was one of a perpetually troubled, ultimately tragic icon, would we be that drawn to the film? Had Monroe lived longer and indeed possibly live long enough to survive her most potent fame, would the film be as iconic? Is Monroe the only thing that keeps the film relevant?
Here’s the thing: during the entire runtime of the film, I didn’t at all dwell on the sadness that inevitably comes with Monroe’s magnetism. The film just works, and she’s good enough to surpass her own legend. If that’s not a recommendation, I don’t know what is.
*Positively Campbellian, when one thinks about it. No wonder so many screenwriters without any other ideas keep going back to the well.