Some Like It Hot (1959) dir. Billy Wilder
#someone pointed out once that he chose his female name because he liked it#whereas the other man just picked the female version of his existing name#because it was easier and that was his main concern#lot of interesting gender stuff going on here
Oh yeah there was a lot of "Hayes Code be damned, all of us making this film are queer/friends with queers and we're going to have some fun with gender identity" in this film. That's why it still holds up. It's not a story based around getting a laugh out of dressing men up as women so they can be clowns - there's an integrity to the cross-dressing. Daphne is an identity Jerry realized he had when he put on a dress. Every time he chooses to keep his wig and outfit on and maintain his feminine mannerisms while alone with Joe, it shows his comfort in this identity, and it elicits laughter from the audience through the dialogue, ie. the audience isn't laughing at the fact that a man is in a dress, but at the characters as fleshed out characters and human beings. The laughter comes from the situations the characters are put in and their reactions to them, not from a parody of womanhood presented through a male perspective. Similarly, Osgood's classic line at the end of the film is an affirmation that he likes Jerry as he is, even if he's Daphne. It's a way of getting the audience to say, "this is fine, we're comfortable" through laughter to something socially unacceptable in its time.
Joe's masculine identity, meanwhile, is used to highlight his misogyny and force him to understand it (and the same with Jerry, but as he's less of a womanizer, there's less of a point to be made with him). In a world where men and women often had separate social circles that overlapped only when romance was on the table, putting a man like Joe in a female space where he's privy to the conversations and emotions that his actions elicit gives him a lot to contend with and understand because he can see the consequences of his actions as raw pain and secondhand, instead of as anger being spewed directly at him. Again, the joke isn't that he's a man in a dress, or that he's parodying womanhood, it's that as a selfish misogynist he's put in situations where he's forced to empathize with the experience of womanhood in order to convincingly enact it for his own safety.
There's a whole lot more to unpack in the metaphor of these two men having to pass as women because their lives are at stake if they don't.
Okay so for one of my screenwriting and film studies sections I wrote a paper comparing the language of clothing and feminism from Wilder in two of his films, The Apartment and Some Like it Hot.
Now I am not going to spew out a wall of text on the subject or anything, but I did want to point out that he did not just "sneak things by" the code, he actually deliberately REFUSED to abide by it at all for this film, he willfully refused to even apply for the certification, he knew it wouldn't pass, and he knew he wouldn't bend to let it pass.
He and the studio took a gamble that a Wilder-Curtis-Lemmon-Monroe flick would do box office and get play without the "seal of approval" from the code folks.
And he was right.
If you are interested here's the paper I wrote (my IRL name is redacted, and since I wrote it while I was in school in the UK, it has UK spelling and whatnot, and in spots where it doesn't, please keep in mind I lost a point there. LOL) It's an examination of the power exchanges as shown by lighting, costume and camera angles, and may only be interesting to other film and animation students, but I would also like to brag that I got a first on it and in the class. (brag about your accomplishments, kiddos, be proud of yourself!) It's quite a wall of text, so it's below the cut.
Billy Wilder: The Art of Gendered Power Exchange; Some Like it Hot and The Apartment
These two films show us the power differences of gender energy. Wilder does this with the use of lighting, costume, and camera angles. Wilder had a very clear goal about showing gender power in these films. For example, when discussing the dynamics of the seduction scene in Some Like It Hot,
“Wilder points out that, if Joe were the aggressor in this scene and overpowered Sugar, it would be dirty. But if she is the aggressor and seduces him because she thinks he is impotent, it is funny.” p. 227 (PHILLIPS, 2010)
Fran in The Apartment comes to terms with the realization she’d been betrayed by Jeff. Sugar is in the position of sexual power during the seduction scene in Some Like It Hot. Male sexual power makes Fran’s world darker and more grim, Feminine sexual power makes Sugar’s world brighter and happier. This essay will examine the cinematic art Billy Wilder uses to show
us these dynamics.
Lighting
In The Apartment the lighting is evenly distributed in the office scenes. The screen is about half bright and half dark for these scenes. This aids in the ‘machinery’ feel. There are glaring rectangles of overhead light with fill to illuminate the actors. The light is sharp, defined, and functional. The apartment is shown with glowing pools of light. The lighting inside this set is designed to heighten the audiences’ understanding of the purpose the apartment serves. The first woman seen in the apartment is lit to accentuate her curves. The man is dressed in sharp lines and dark clothing, this lighting shows his suit is wrinkled, clearly having spent some time off him and on the floor.
The lighting is telling us all of this as it finds the edges of their clothing; here are a man and a woman, and here is what they did. The lighting in the first apartment interior scene also picks up the sharp element of the phonograph. Again, we have the highlight of a machine element. The other element picked out by the lighting in this scene is the bottle of alcohol and evidence of a meal. Again, we have rounded shapes picked out. The comfort items; the bottle the food, the woman, are all lit to accentuate roundness and warmth. The powerful items; the phonograph, the man, the fireplace, all lit for sharp edges and darker mass.
Early in the film, once we see Baxter in his apartment, the room is lit brighter. He holds no power in his own home, no masculine energy according to the lighting. When he is once again leaving his apartment to allow its use by another couple, the lighting dims. An exchange of power dynamic evidenced by the lighting. Fran’s first lighting arrangement is even toned, shades of grey with very little contrast. Her first scene is in the elevator she operates, she is metaphorically a part of the actual machinery of the building; the lighting reflects that.
One great ambient lighting example is the lighting in the hallway as Baxter escorts Mrs. MacDougal to his apartment, the hallway is on the bright side of neutral tones for the most part, except there is one ominous wedge of dark slanting over the door, and one behind them over the staircase. These slices of shadow loom around them like a scissor. The audience already knows Fran has OD’d. Will Baxter find her corpse in his room or be able to save her just in time?
In the final scene of the film, the frame is fully lit. Their future is bright. The shadows are gone.
Some Like It Hot starts out dark, just enough light is used to define the elements and highlight faces. Since the film begins steeped in funeral imagery and gun fire, this seems fitting. The darkness in the opening scenes underscores the seriousness. They are broke, desperate and in danger. Wilder chose to use a true to life crime to spur their run to Florida, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,
"Before long we have edged into the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a scene of straight- faced brio and cold carnage capped by the immaculately shod "Spats" Colombo (Raft) kicking a toothpick from the mouth of a well-ventilated corpse. The psychotic intensity of the backdrop throws the boisterous vulgarity of the blue humour into a kind of limbo between innocence and depravity." p.5 (McBride, 1970)
The trade into lightness in both lumens and tone are more marked because of this. The first burst of light comes at the train station, in the form of the light that catches Monroe’s face as she approaches the train car. Our powerful feminine energy has arrived, and now we are traveling away from the dark masculine power structures of the Chicago scenes. As the train approaches the destination, we get more light on the scene. Once we arrive in Florida the screen is bursting with light and sunshine, even the night scenes are brighter than anything filmed in Chicago.
‘We have arrived,’ the lighting tells us, ‘at the fun part.’
Costume
In The Apartment, costuming denotes varying degrees of armour and defence.
MacLaine’s gloves are an example of emotional protection. She is covered as much as possible, removing only the armour on her hands when she must. We never see her hair long, but through dialogue we quickly learn she’s recently cut it. This is another example of protecting herself from touching, Jeff liked her hair, probably touched it, removing it is an effective way to remove his touch. As Fran and Jeff leave the bar, she has a moment of struggle with her glove, she is fumbling to replace her armour as he convinces her to come back to the apartment with him.
The men in The Apartment wear dark suits, with sharp angles. This indicates a powerful male. Their costuming is standard for workplace films of this era. The most important costuming is Fran’s,
“During preproduction Wilder also conferred with the wardrobe department. He said that he did not want MacLaine outfitted in elegant costumes suitable for a movie star. Rather, she was to wear the inexpensive attire that her role as a working girl called for” p.235 (PHILLIPS, 2010)
She has no power in her situation, she is wearing the armour she can afford on an elevator girl’s salary. Fran (MacLaine) is shown covered up completely in plain, simple cuts, modest neck and hemlines, until the build up to the suicide attempt.
The moment she realizes Jeff cares nothing about her heart, the thing she is most desperate to protect with her armour, she takes off her gloves and starts to remove her coat. When she is found, she has only the protection of her dress and necklace. Her armour is reduced, she is vulnerable. Once Fran is resting, Baxter’s actions show that Fran is now without any of her armour. He hangs up her dress. She is now protected only by Baxter’s bedclothes.
It is also significant that her necklace is shown on the nightstand. While not explicit, contemporary audiences would have assumed this necklace was a gift from Jeff, it’s removal would have symbolized her release from Jeff. Jewellery gifts were a common gender power move; marking her as owned.
Converse to the theme of ownership, she is shown wrapped in Baxter’s robe once she is awake. This is an acceptance of Baxter’s protection. She wraps herself in his comfort, rather than putting her dress back on. She is no longer hiding behind her clothing, she is accepting someone’s care by wearing that robe. It is significant that she does not remove that robe until she must, when her brother in law arrives to remove her from the apartment. We do see the necklace once more, on New Year’s Eve. She toys with it as Jeff assumes they are starting their first New Year together. In the final scene she removes the last of her armour, by taking off her coat and revealing a pale gown in a wispy texture with no sleeves or gloves. She has returned to Baxter showing, through costume, a willingness to be open to him.
The dark into light theme with costuming for Some Like It Hot is like the lighting design.
Chicago is dark; dark suits and dark dresses for the most part. Joe’s overcoat being one exception, possibly to indicate his refusal to take anything seriously.
Monroe’s costumes, in direct opposition to MacLaine’s, show her as in charge of her gender and sexuality. Monroe holds the power, and she knows it. Her costumes are flirty and clinging. She has no need to wrap herself in armour. No man can hurt her. She is not presented as vulnerable via her wardrobe.
Orry-Kelly dressed her, and he won the only Oscar for the entire production for his talents. The costume that exemplifies Sugar’s position of power is the gown she is wearing while singing I Wanna Be Loved by You. She is presented in complete control of what she is doing and showing. She is in command of the male gaze and she knows it. She is also wearing and using the spotlight to her advantage and power.
For their alter egos, Josephine and Daphne, Orry-Kelly also provides Joe and Jerry with some interesting choices, but he plays to the themes at hand there,
"Joe exploits women's dress to heterosexual advantage, but Jerry camps up his role, giggling and shrieking like a slapstick drag queen" p.5 (McBride, 1970)
Daphne’s dresses are a little more flamboyant, Josephine is stylish, but modest.
Josephine’s goal is to gain a position of trust with Sugar, to exploit this trust and woo her. Daphne’s goal is to escape reality. Costuming reflects this in Josephine’s matronly styles and Daphne’s youthful looks. Osgood is dressed to match Daphne, they are both campy characters. Osgood’s suits are flamboyant compared to the other rich men at the resort. He is dressed and presented as Daphne’s perfect mate. This helps sell the audience on the relationship being viable. Without that grain of truth, the punchline at the end won’t work.
The costuming, both the empowered sex of Sugar, and the cross dressing of Josephine and Daphne helped to underscore another goal for Wilder,
“…by setting the film in the time of pre-Code Hollywood, Wilder pays homage to a period of filmmaking that enjoyed considerably more leeway in its portrayal of sexual relationships, while itself contributing to the noticeable erosion of the Production Code in the late 1950s.” p.103 (Gemünden, 2008)
The costuming, in effect saying,
‘We used to be able to do this sort of thing all the time, so why can’t we now?’
Camera Position
The Apartment uses camera angles to show who holds the power in a scene. Baxter is shown at his desk with the camera angling up. This highlights what he holds power over, his desk, his part small part of the machine. The squares of ceiling are oppressive from this angle, giving a juxtaposition to the power Baxter has from the camera angle. He has this much power, and no more.
Baxter and Sheldrake’s first scene shows a shift. Jeff is shot at angle to give him all the power, looking up at him; down onto Baxter. As the scene progresses, Sheldrake’s motivations become clear, the shot levels out. Towards the end of the scene there is a shift when the camera rises above them, they have both lost something in the exchange. Sheldrake has lost some integrity. Baxter has lost a night to nurse his head cold.
Consistently, Jeff is shown through camera angles and blocking to be in the power position over Fran. Baxter and Fran are almost always shot at eye level. This is the camera angle telling you to root for these two, they are evenly matched. The exception to this is when they try to revive Fran. Dreyfuss and Fran are shot from above; Baxter is shot from below. This gives the audience a feeling of being in the room, helping to revive Fran. The audience are now part of the rescue.
Angles in Some Like it Hot do not make as many shifts away from eye level as in The Apartment. This also shows a distribution of power. Everyone is lying a little bit, has some power over their situations, and each other.
There are interesting power shifts via camera movement and positioning during Sugar’s seduction of Junior. Once they are in the “Small Salon” dropping below eye level slightly; this shows off more of Sugar, underscoring her power in the situation. Once Junior is prone, the camera shifts a little more; ‘Sugar is in charge’ becomes a firm concept. Without the shifts in position, that she is being manipulated becomes uncomfortable for the viewer. Keeping her in the superior position and framing is important.
Conclusion
Wilder was a master at showing the exchanges of power that happen between male and female roles. Most of his films have a gender power exchange in some form or another, and these two are the best examples of that. Fran is terrified to hold her own sexual power; she needs and is given a less toxic ally in Baxter. Sugar does not fear her sexual power, and gets exactly what she wants, a man who does not fear her power either. The visual support Wilder gives through lighting, costuming, and angles, eases the audience through these exchanges that might, otherwise not work or come off as too shocking.
Works Cited
Gemünden, G., 2008. A Foreign Affair: Billy Wilder's American films. First ed. New York(New York): Berghahn Books Inc..
McBride, J. a. M. W., 1970. The Private Life of Billy Wilder. Film Quarterly, 23(4), p. pp. 2–9. PHILLIPS, G. D., 2010. Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder.
Lexington(Kentucky): University Press of Kentucky.
