All Time Best Pictures--#9

As we look at the all-time best screenplays, according to the WGA, #9 is a comedy—one of only two comedies in the top ten—Some Like it Hot [1959] Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond; based on Fanfare of Love, a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan.

The film tells the story of two out of work musicians who have no money and no job prospects. When they happen to witness a mob hit in Chicago, they’re observed by the mobsters but manage to get away. However, with the whole mob of Chicago looking for them, they know they have to get out of town. Problem is, they don’t have a car or money for a train… they’re toast.

Earlier in the day, they’d heard their manager taking a call about an all-girl band needing a sax and bass player by tonight as they head down to Florida by train. So the two dress up like women, practice talking like women, and head for the train station.

Take a look at the trailer that was remastered for a recent re-release of the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57yS594gICo

It’s interesting to see how fast-moving the trailer is because the original trailer moves much more slowly, includes unnecessary narration… it’s amazing how much more slow-moving both films and trailers were back in the 50s!

The German film that inspired the idea had no gangsters in it—just the men dressing up like women. And when Wilder was trying to sell the idea, he pitched it to producer David O. Selznick, who said 'You can't make this work, Billy. Blood and jokes do not mix!” Wilder called Some Like It Hot 'a combination of Scarface and Charley's Aunt [the 1892 stage farce about cross-dressing].'

You can see Selznick’s point—such a combination had never worked in the past and it was just too out there for Selznick to believe it could work. But Wilder was tenacious and the film got made—with a screenplay that’s now considered a classic.

And audiences loved it. It smashed two genres together and made them work—it colored outside the lines, if you will.

As for plot, well, you can probably guess it even if you haven’t seen the film—our two lovable guys both fall for the same girl in the band, and the third act has us wondering who she’ll end up with…

Wilder has some advice for writers when it comes to that often difficult third act: “The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then ... That's it. Don't hang around.”

So think about that as you work on your screenplay… let that third act, whatever the genre, build, build and build, and then stop… preferably on a memorable line, just like Wilder and Diamond did in Some Like It Hot.

Copyright © Diane Lake

08Mar20

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com