2h 1min | Comedy, Romance | 19 March 1959 | b/w, ws
Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Nehemiah Persoff, Joan Shawlee.
Jack Cole ... choreographer (uncredited)
This feels like a musical, but it's not tagged as such. Documenting the songs shows it's a grey zone: only 4 songs actually performed onscreen by cast principals. So I won't attempt to add either Music or Musical. But when I think of this film, I think of MM singing, which happens 3 times. I think the score makes it seem more like a musical than not, since the songs performed are echoed during non-musical scenes. And of course almost all the non-gangster roles are musicians.
Songs performed (28 chapters, menu doesn't highlight songs):
- ch3. Sweet Georgia Brown, Performed in the back room of the funeral parlor, with chorus girls
- ch7. Runnin' Wild, Played by the girls on the train and Performed by Marilyn Monroe
- ch10. Down Among the Sheltering Palms, Performed by Society Syncopators, unseen
- ch12. By the Beautiful Sea, Performed by Society Syncopators, unseen
- ch13. Runnin' Wild, Performed also a capella by Tony Curtis
- ch14. I Wanna Be Loved by You, Performed by Marilyn Monroe
- ch26. I'm Thru with Love, Performed by Marilyn Monroe
- ch?. Sugar Blues, Performed by Matty Malneck & His Orchestra
- ch?. Some Like It Hot, Performed by Matty Malneck & His Orchestra
- ch?. Sugar Blues - Runnin' Wild, Performed by Matty Malneck & His Orchestra
This is not just successful because of MM. It might be an 8 even with a very weak performance from a different Sugar. JL & TC are incredible. Joe E. Brown adds a lot, even before the final line. The gangsters are excellent, including the henchmen that I didn't list in the cast above; they all played gangsters often in prior decades. Even JS & the band manager add a lot to the mix.
Disc 2 is all featurettes, pleasant stuff.
Ashton Prod, The Mirisch Corp., distr. UA, dir. Wilder; 9
