Some Like It Hot (1959)

 "I tell ya, it's a whole different sex!"

This is only, I believe, the second film featuring the greatest Marilyn Monroe I've ever blogged, or even seen. It's also, I'm certain, my first film featuring Jack Lemmon. It may also be my first film featuring Tony Curtis. All three performers are, of course, sublime, although Marilyn mesmerises in her own unique fashion. Her charisma is in a class of its own. Also, she is somewhat sexy. Just saying, as one of her (sometimes) bespectacled and geeky gentlemen.

This, thankfully, is not my first Billy Wilder film and, although farce it is, and farce is hardly my favourite type of comedy, farce doesn't get much better than this. The cross-dressing is positively Shakespearean, but it's extraordinary to think that it contributed to a hit film in 1959, when being a gay man was illegal both here and in America and trans rights were unheard of, as they were until so very recently- and we in 2021 are so very, very primitive in that respect, including myself.

This farce is perfectly crafted. The last line is perfect. The script, performances, timing, skewering of the moronic stupidity of Prohibition- all are perfect. This is truly the finest cinematic farce I have ever seen. But what do I know? Nobody's perfect.