Day 4 (Some Like it Hot)

Today's script for 1959's Some Like It Hot comes from the capable hands of Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. It was easily the most fun I've had reading a script so far in this exercise. The dialogue is so quick witted and entertaining.

SUGAR

Yes. I come from a very musical family. My mother is a piano teacher and my father was a conductor.

JOE

Where did he conduct?

SUGAR

On the Baltimore and Ohio.

JOE

Oh.

The pacing is incredible. Every scene leads immediately into the next and none of them exists solely as exposition. I found the action scenes to be really exciting and violent for a comedy.

This was a shooting script, so it translates to the film almost word for word. I appreciated that Marilyn Monroe's character was not her typical dumb blond persona. Sure, she had a habit of drowning her sorrows, but most of the time she was as quick and intelligent as anyone else in the script.

SUGAR

(continuing)

How's the stock market?

JOE

(lackadaisically)

Up, up, up.

SUGAR

I'll bet just while we were talking, you made like a hundred thousand dollars.

JOE

Could be. Do you play the market?

SUGAR

No - the ukulele. And I sing.

I also loved the decision that Joe's millionare character would speak entirely in a Cary Grant impression. The scene on "his" yacht is masterfully written and as Joe's intentions become more and more obvious it just gets funnier and funnier.

SUGAR

Water polo - isn't that terribly dangerous?

JOE

I'll say. I had two ponies drowned under me.

Tune in tomorrow for my thoughts on Lawrence Kasdan's 3rd Draft of Body Heat.