Thursday, January 15, 2009

a visit with Daphne and Josephine

Just before I went to bed last night, I decided to see what QVC was selling. (I never purchase a thing from QVC, but I like to see what they are showing and if something interests me, I will look for it somewhere else at a less expensive price.)

On my way to QVC, I passed TCM, which was showing Some Like It Hot. I have not seen this classic femulator film in many years, so I decided to watch it for a few minutes before turning in.

I came in just after the boys had decided to become girls and I watched it to the end of the scene in which Marilyn Monroe joins Jack Lemmon for some girl talk in his upper berth.

Basically, I watched the film to see how well Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis femulated. Here is my critique:

I loved their 1920's flapper era outfits.

I always thought that Jack Lemmon's wig was awful and I still think it was a poor choice.

In some scenes, the boys passed and in other scenes, they looked like guys in dresses.

Tony Curtis made a better-looking woman than Jack Lemmon, although with a better wig, Daphne might have given Josephine a run for her money.

I was very impressed with Tony Curtis' femme voice. It was right on the money. I wish I could speak en femme like he did in that film.

(End of my critique)

Amazingly, I do not have this film in my DVD collection and I must add it as soon as I can.

By the way, one of the better femulations I have ever seen on television was pulled off by Jack Lemmon's son, Chris. He was a regular on a late 1980's situation comedy called Open House, which chronicled the hilarity of a real estate office!

In one episode, Lemmon and the woman who played his wife on the show disguised themselves as showgirls to avoid someone somewhere about something. He looked fabulous in showgirl drag. In fact, he looked so hot that his wife got very excited about his appearance, started making out with him/her, and suggested that he dress as a woman more often!

7 comments:

  1. When we stayed at the Del Coronado hotel in San Diego in 2001, we discovered one channel on the TV system that ran "Some Like It Hot" 24/7. A new DVD had just been released with a clean print of the film made for the transfer.

    Don't beat up on the film too much. Its a classic with one of the best final lines ever written IMHO. Heed the words of the MST3k theme song:

    If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
    and other science facts (la la la),
    Then repeat to yourself, "It's just a show,
    I should really just relax

    :)

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  2. Roscoe --- Actually, I love the film. My critique only concerned the effectiveness of the femulation in the film.

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  3. My guess is that if the boys looked too good, Marilyn would have pitched a fit.

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  4. Roscoe,--- I read Tony Curtis' autoboigraphy some years ago, and he said that one of the dresses Marilyn wore in the movie was supposed to have been for him. The costumes person ran around the set shouting, "That b*tch stole your dress!" I guess Marilyn was a diva.

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  5. I LOVE this movie and have it on vhs, it's one of my favourites. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon look like absolute cards dressing up as girls!

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  6. Hi-
    Surprised nobody's mentioned it before now. Curtis had difficulty with the femme voice, and his "girl" dialogue was dubbed by Paul Frees- the same actor who did the voice of Boris Badenov and the original voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy!

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  7. Anonymous --- Thank you for the heads-up! So, I guess I am very impressed with Paul Frees' femme voice (and not Tony Curtis' femme voice).

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