Customer Reviews

Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion

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Truly one of the best film companion books ever published. This book goes past the worn-out stories and rumors and the general trivia that's been published for years, to give a rich picture of this classic film. Written with unequaled authority by Laurence Maslon, this well-researched and amazing book looks back to the origins of the story for the film, and from there tells aspect of the making of it, dispels the myths and presents the facts, and goes on to show how Some Like it Hot lived on, even in a failed tv show. Maslon also gives amazing sidebars in order to paint a picture of the timeframe in which the film is set, as well as bios of everyone involved.

And then there are the images! Glorious images, many of them in color, and most of them never before seen, go behind the scenes and on the sets. Seeing Curtis and Lemmon in those getups, in color, is absolutely amazing. To use a well-worn phrase, this book is a stunning visual feast.

This wonderful book is pitch-perfect, and the best gift you could give any classic film buff, Marilyn Monroe lover, or Hollywood fanatic.

I hate to invoke cliches but I couldn't put this book down. An elegantly written, thoroughly absorbing, behind-the-scenes look at a beloved film that also opens an illuminating window on two fascinating chapters in American history: the Chicago of Al Capone and Hollywood in the late '50's.

This is a real feast of book: delectably overstuffed with fascinating anecdotes, infused with genuine scholarship, spiced by scintilating wit, laced with revealing insights, and served up in nimble and entertaining prose. For anyone interested in movies -- and the real stories behind their making -- this book is a must. Of course, Mr. Maslon is blessed to be working with an irresistible cast (headlined by Monroe, Lemmon, Wilder, Curtis, I.A.L. Diamond, George Raft, and Joe E.Brown), but the cast and film are equally fortunate to have found a writer capable of doing them full justice. This great classic -- always named in every Top Ten list -- could not have wished for a better chronicle. Enthusiastically recommended. (And it'd make a wonderful Christmas gift.)

Some real nice photos of this comedy classic, most of them from behind the scenes. Good profiles of the principals & director Billy Wilder. Only complaint: virtually nothing about such supporting cast members as Pat O'Brien, Nehimiah Persoff, & others. Despite this, a good read.

Some like it Hot is one of my favorite movies. This book makes a great companion to anyone who is really devoted to the film. It has some good background on the actors and others involved in the movie, not to mention some great photos. I can't recommend it highly enough.

The movie is so fresh, so vigorous, so full of pep and life force -- and so sly -- that it's hard to believe "Some Like It Hot" is now 50 years old.

But it is, and Laurence Maslon, an associate professor at the Tisch School of the Arts and author of several books about American musicals, comedies, and specifically "The Sound of Music" and "South Pacific," has offered a pleasing coffee-table tribute to this one.

When a movie has become so familiar and venerable, it may be difficult to recall what a risk Mirisch and his brothers Harold and Marvin were taking with their brand-new production company's first project, whose dramatic hook, early in the story, is a fairly straightforward recreation of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. According to Wilder's interview with [Cameron] Crowe, Selznick responded, "Oh my God, you're not doing a comedy with murder? They're going to crucify you. They're going to walk out in droves! It's just going to be embarrassing."

Maslon's book is simply divided into chapters about the writing, casting, shooting at the MGM lot, location work at the Del Coronado hotel in San Diego (standing in for a luxury Miami resort), further shooting at Goldwyn Studios, post-production, and "Legacy." That last includes an abortive 1961 TV series, with a prologue in which Lemmon and Curtis graciously cameo'd and pretended to get plastic surgery to continue their escape from the gangsters, and thus paved the way for replacement actors Dick Patterson and Vic Damone as Jerry and Joe; and the 1972 stage musical, Sugar, starring Tony Roberts and Robert Morse (and 1974 and 1992 revivals -- the last with Tommy Steele, and Tony Curtis taking Joe E. Brown's old role of puckish millionaire Osgood Fielding III).

Along the way, however, Maslon inserts two- to four-page commentaries on topics of tangential interest: Fanfare d'amour and Fanfaren der Liebe, the 1935 French and 1951 German cross-dressing films that inspired Some Like It Hot; the 1929 Chicago gang setting; Orry-Kelly, the dress designer on the film (who won an Oscar for his work); a brief history of men-in-drag plots in film and TV; Florida in the Roaring Twenties; the Del Coronado; Chicago jazz; film scorer Matty Malneck; and the ingenuities of the script.

There's plenty about Monroe, of course -- her perpetual lateness to the set, her entourage (especially acting coach Paula Strasberg's hovering and kibitzing), nervous visits from hubby Arthur Miller because of her pregnancy with a child that would miscarry, and so on. She overdosed on sleeping pills the first week of shooting. And apparently she could be very inconsistent about nailing her lines. She did the upper-berth scene with Lemmon in a single take, and most of the beach scenes with Curtis with the same dispatch.

But other times: "[Lemmon and Curtis] would wager on how many takes it would require before Monroe could produce something usable. For example, Curtis might say, 'I smell a thirty-take coming on' and Lemmon would wager that she would come in at fifteen. He'd lose his five dollars, and then raise the number to twenty--and lose another five dollars to Curtis. And so on."

Producer Walter Mirisch reports, "Jack Lemmon once told me ... `I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat, and I've dreamt that we are on take fifty-five and Marilyn has gotten her lines right and I blew it."

There's a temptation to assume that Maslon's book could never measure up to the book about "Some Like It Hot" edited by Alison Castle, with interviews by Dan Auiler, and published by Taschen in 2001. It's a big one: 384 pages, with covers that measure 10-1/4 by 16 inches, and weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of nine and a half pounds.

Surprisingly, there's not that much overlap. Maslon quotes from the Taschen book, clearly, but his volume has a more analytical approach. There are some identical stills, but not a few are different images (say, of Lemmon and Curtis getting their feminine makeup applied) from what are obviously the same sessions. The Taschen volume expends a good part of its bulk on the first draft and shooting script, with scads of black-and-white stills from the film (it also has many pages of memorabilia, such as posters from foreign screenings), while Maslon's book has more publicity stills, off-camera shots, and background material.

So they don't compete or clash as much as you'd expect. If you love the movie, you'll love this book.

Anyone who loves the Golden Age of the Silver Screen will love this book. It makes a great gift and coffee table Book.

Laurence Maslon has done it again. This brilliant author on all things show business has written a wonderfully entertaining book about Billy Wilder's masterpiece. Wrapped in hilarious anecdotes and accompanied by beautiful illustrations from many sources are profound, never before known insights into the origins of Some Like It Hot. Maslon masterfully weaves together the many strands that went into the making of the movie. He provides rich information about the German film that inspired it; gangsters; bootlegging; Jazz. It all adds immeasurably to one's enjoyment of the movie. This book is a must for all movie buffs, quite particularly lovers of intelligent, stylish comedy. It is a funny book about a masterpiece of wit.

This is a real fun history of the making of the film 'Some Like It Hot'. A lot of the information is already known, but it's great to have it all in one source. Great pictures throughout & some are in color although the film was made in black & white. 'Some Like It Hot' is a classic film, & for anyone who loves it, this is a great book to have.