Me, Marilyn and the Movie. (Virgin Books, R215.00)
When “Some Like it Hot” was released 1959, it was far more than just a superb comedy. Poised on the cusp of “the Swinging Sixties” the film’s daring, outrageous plot was about two men in drag; the film ends on a note of sexual ambivalence, never before heard in Hollywood; and it took a court case to decide whether Marilyn Monroe’s costumes were obscene. The film became what Hollywood calls “a game-changer”. Actor Tony Curtis lifts the lid on its secrets in Me, Marilyn and the Movie. (Virgin Books, R215.00)
According to most sources, actor Tony Curtis is 85 years old and, at this late stage, he still makes the occasional film or TV drama. Now he has written an irresistible book called “Some Like It Hot: Me, Marilyn and the Movie” and any movie buff who picks it up will not be able to put it down. It’s not this actor’s first biography. He produced “Tony Curtis: The Autobiography” (1963) on which he collaborated with Barry Paris and “American Prince: A Memoir” (2006) written with Peter Golenbock. This new volume focuses solely on the making of “Some Like It Hot” and as Tony Curtis explains, it describes a major shift in his career, and also that of Jack Lemmon. Curtis had already found fame as a sultry, muscular pin-up boy who was making good money, but his films were mostly about his looks, and little else. In this daring comedy he spends most of his screen time dressed as a woman, but he had to remain interesting and likeable as the farcical plot spins into chaos. The same was true for Jack Lemmon. He had found fame as a goofy clown, but this film allowed him to show a richer and more varied set of skills. This film elevated both men into Hollywood’s A-list and “Some Like It Hot” itself became a world-wide blockbuster, and it remains an all-time classic.
Tony Curtis
The perceived star of the film was Marilyn Monroe. She had been a screen legend for almost a decade, but a series of bad marriages, miscarriages and her own chronic instability had undermined her talent and her reputation. Her insecurity and her “illnesses” as she called them, caused huge, costly delays on the production process, and she was making herself unusable as an actress. Her next two films failed at the box-office, and three years after making “Some Like It Hot”, she died in what continues to be described as “unexplained circumstances”. For Curtis and Lemmon, however, the film was a launch pad into the next stage of their careers, but for Marilyn, it was her last genuine box-office success. Now 50 years after the film started production Tony Curtis has written “Some Like It Hot: Me, Marilyn and the Movie”, an account of how the film came to be made; why he and Jack Lemmon agreed to wear glamorous frocks, wigs and high-heeled shoes; and how hard it was to work with one of the most beautiful and gifted actresses in the world.
Jack Lemmon
One is obliged to mention that Tony Curtis is virtually the sole survivor of the film. Everyone else was dead, from director Billy Wilder and screenwriter I. A. L. Diamond; to the producers at the now defunct Mirisch company that produced the film, and almost all the actors, most notably Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, as well as Arthur Miller, Marilyn’s last husband. In other words, there is no-one left to nit-pick, protest or object to anything Tony Curtis writes, and at 85, what does he have to lose by telling the unvarnished truth? There’s degree of unbuttoned candour about this book that was not there in the previous biographies. Curtis talks about his misgivings about playing most of his role in drag. He expresses his anxiety about Jack Lemmon, a skilled comedian who could easily have upstaged Curtis who had, with the exception of “The Sweet Smell of Success”, never played any role more taxing than a hero who relied on his bare torso and his looks. Curtis also weighs in on the unbearable pressure of Marilyn’s tantrums and anxieties which meant that the cast and crew would sit, on a hot set, dressed in heavy uncomfortable costumes, for anything between six to ten hours, waiting for her to arrive.
Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag
None of this information is new, of course. Marilyn’s lateness is part of her legacy, but Curtis talks about how it affected the other actors and the crew, and how her absence forced everyone, from the director to the lighting guys, to find new angles and ideas for shooting the film. Her lateness forced the rest of the cast to create a vivacity and edge to the film that might not have been there, had Marilyn been on time and had stuck to the schedule. Everyone else in the cast, got a unique opportunity to shine, whereas Marilyn’s scenes, after a long wait and hours of fluffed dialogue, were often merely acceptable but no-one dared to ask her for another take. Curtis details the way her inner circle, the New York “method – acting” coaches who had become part of Marilyn’s entourage, constantly placed obstacles in the way of the film. He also speaks of the resentful and defensive attitude of Arthur Miller, who was Marilyn’s husband at the time. He was a complex, jealous man who had little time for Hollywood frippery, and suspected that Tony Curtis and Marilyn had previously been lovers, a suspicion that turned out to be accurate.
Marilyn Monroe
Neurosis, jealousy and the natural drive of any actor to do produce is or her best work, kept the emotional tension on set keyed up. Even allowing a degree of leeway for Tony Curtis’s self-regarding ego, the story he tells has the ring of truth. It makes for fascinating reading, not just for the dramatic, soap-opera aspects of the emotional turmoil, but in the sense of how these professionals dealt with the tantrums and the upheavals, and still managed to make a film that infuriated the censors, almost bankrupted the company, and became one of the most popular and profitable comedies in Hollywood history. “Some Like It Hot: Me, Marilyn and the Movie” is an unusually detailed and sharply etched snapshot of the risks, egos, rewards and artistry that goes into the making of a film.
