Hello all!
Tonight is another movie night here at Milwood Branch Library and I hope to see you there! My semester of grad school at UT (Information Sciences) has started up and the weather has just barely started to cool down, so it really has started to feel like the beginning of the end of the summer.
What better movie to close out the summer with than Some Like It Hot (1959)? It’s beachy, light, bubbly and fun! But that doesn’t mean it’s not an intelligent film- no, quite the opposite. The script is co-written by Billy Wilder, the director, and I. A. L. Diamond (the two also paired up to write The Apartment (1960), along with several other films), and it is extremely witty and sharp.
On top of that, this film is a significant landmark in the erosion of the Hays Code system of self-censorship in Hollywood that disallowed any depictions of pre-marital sex, interracial relationships, sympathy towards criminals (think of post Hays Code films such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) or Cool Hand Luke (1967) where audience sympathy lies with the outlaws/criminals), and homosexuality.
Here is an excerpt from a piece from NPR situating the film within the landscape of censorship at the time:
By 1959, the man charged with enforcing the rules conceded that if a "moral conflict" provided "the proper frame of reference," a Code-approved film could deal with pretty much any topic but homosexuality.
Famous last words. What came up that year? Some Like It Hot, with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, in drag, fending off male suitors. The film's plot was a veritable catalog of once-forbidden topics — gambling and racketeering to get the plot going, a booze-swilling Marilyn Monroe to keep it going.
When Monroe's Sugar Kane Kowalczyk climbed into a train berth with Jack Lemmon's "Daphne," there was no longer a hanging blanket to separate them — and when Sugar's breathless, dingbat recollections of bedtime games with her sister inspired a strangled, hormonal snort from Lemmon — the code was dead, whether Hollywood admitted it or not. And judging from attendance at the nation's theaters, it was not much missed.
A year after Some Like It Hot was released, the head of the MPA began suggesting that some sort of classification system might work better than a censorship system that no one was paying attention to. In 1968, his organization finally shifted from restricting filmmakers to alerting audiences, using the film-ratings system we know today.
So not only is this film highly entertaining, but it is a historically significant one. Isn’t it great when those two happen to line up!?
Coming up next month to celebrate Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month is a two part series on the prolific career of Anthony Quinn, the first Mexican actor to win an Academy Award in 1952 for his supporting role in Viva Zapata!.
I am really excited for this series because for the screening on Thursday September 12th I will be teaming up with the Texas Archive of the Moving Image to show a one hour documentary prominently featuring Quinn (with a short appearance from Rita Moreno) called Voice of La Raza (1971), which was added to their collection from the El Paso Public Library Border Heritage Center. This film really embodies the pride Quinn had in his Mexican identity, and the interest he had in the quality of life and rights of Latino community more broadly.
Quinn rarely got to play Mexicans or Mexican Americans in the 150+ films he acted in throughout his 60 year career; he was cast as almost any ethnicity that wasn’t Anglo-Saxon. One of the few films in which he played a Mexican American character was as Mountain Rivera, the tender-hearted ex-boxer in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), which also marked a divergence from the villainous or passionate and masculine characters he had become known for, which came easily to him due to his stature and booming, deep voice. But Quinn is astonishing as he transforms and subverts audience expectations by constructing a distinctive raspy voice and more sensitive, innocent and child-like persona for this role.
We will also be watching Across 110th Street (1971), which is an extremely powerful but intense movie about racial tensions and crime born out of desperation in New York City. This is not a flattering role for Quinn who plays a bitter, deeply cynical and largely unsympathetic cop. But Quinn, who was the executive producer, originally wanted John Wayne, Kirk Douglas or Burt Lancaster for the role, and only stepped in when they all passed.
I think this demonstrates his belief in the film as a painful plea to recognize the systemic conditions that drive marginalized people to get caught up in cycles of violence and to treat everyone with the humanity they deserve. I think it also shows how Quinn cared more about thoughtful, complex films than he did about coming across as the hero or star of a film. Ultimately it is more a gritty portrait of NYC than a vehicle for any one actor to shine, though everyone, including a young Yaphet Kotto, gives a very strong performance. As much as Quinn had the natural charisma to dominate the scenes of many films he was in with other talented actors, he could also be a team player who is ready to prioritize serving the film and ensemble rather than himself.
***I do want to warn everyone that Across 110th Street contains some graphically violent images that may be upsetting to some viewers.
It is hard to say if this was to demonstrate the dire nature of racism and violence in NYC, or to provide audiences with shocking action sequences similar to Blaxploitation films of the era (like Shaft or Superfly), or to sneak the former more nuanced and thoughtful message into the latter more commercial seeming genre film to get the script greenlit producers (like a Trojan Horse of sorts). Perhaps it was some combination of all of those reasons. I am inclined to believe it is included with some intentionality or industry pressure rather than just cheap thrills, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up in case you want to avoid this potentially upsetting content.
If you would like to know more about the Texas Archive ing Imagof the Move, here is the brief description from their website:
Incorporated in 2003, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working to discover, preserve, provide access to, and educate the community about Texas’ film heritage. TAMI partners with the Office of the Governor’s Texas Film Commission to administer the Texas Film Round-Up program, which provides free digitization for Texas-related films and videotapes, online access to a selection of the contributed materials, and statewide public programming, as well as creates educator resources using these newly digitized Texas media in the classroom.
I did an internship there this summer so I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about it to the best of my ability, or help you get in contact with someone who might better be able to answer them.
Anyways, hope to see you tonight for Some Like It Hot!
-Becca