(header music)
Is it possible to make a comedy based on a gangster plot
in the midst of Prohibition, including the St. Valentine’s Day massacre?
Sure.
For that, it is enough to be called Billy Wilder if you are the director,
feature Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis as male leads
and with Marilyn Monroe in the female lead role.
Remake of the 1935 French film “Fanfare d’Amour”,
“They are us”
which in turn had a German remake in 1951,
“With Skirts and Boobies”, titled in Spanish,
was the adaptation made by Wilder himself
and his inseparable screenwriter IAL Diamond.
I haven’t read, in all these years,
and I’ve been in this crazy business for decades,
I’ve never read a comedy script
it’s not just better, but remotely similar.
– Bye Charlie. -Not “Boots”, no!
Among the musicians: Joe, Tony Curtis, saxophonist
and Jerry, Jack Lemon, double bass,
they are reluctant witnesses to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
-I think I’m going to pass out… -Hey guys, get out of there!
For what matters their life, from this moment, rather little,
when Spats Colombo, George Raft puts them on target.
They are both musicians.
but as different as day and night.
Joe is a rake and Jerry a shy man.
– I think they hit me! – The double bass has been hit.
– Is there blood?
-If they catch us, of course there will be, from group zero! Let’s go.
To survive, they have no choice but to disguise themselves as women.
and join the tour of Sweet Sue and her band.
An all-female jazz band.
– Hey, Mr. Poliakoff?
I think you’re looking for two girls for an orchestra…
Joe and Jerry are now Josephine and Daphne,
two delicate beardless ladies with strained voices
to whom, however, the hormones play tricks.
From the same platform where they go to take the train that takes them on tour.
But there are things that can with almost everything.
(Song)
This glorious appearance of Sugar, Marilyn Monroe, on this platform,
entered the history of cinema.
As well as shooting problems with the star.
Billy Wilder and Tony Curtis came to hate her for her quirks.
-She had to come on foot, knock on a door
and say “I am Sugar”.
But he would come and say, where’s that bourbon?
So again and again.
He had a mental block and couldn’t say that sentence.
Mistakes give a lot of play because Joe and Jerry,
Now Josephine and Daphne, they’re losing their minds about Sugar.
Joe even invents an alter ego to seduce her.
Everything to conquer such a sweet girl.
Didn’t we meet somewhere? -I don’t think it’s likely.
– Do you live at the hotel? -No Madam.
What Daphne didn’t count on, formerly shy Jerry,
is that she was going to find a suitor, Osgood,
that it was going to make him lose his mind, anyway.
(Tango)
-I promised myself! (SINGS) – Congratulations! And who is she?
– She is me.
Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director,
screenplay and actor, only won best costume design.
However, he won three Golden Globes:
Best Musical, Best Actress for Marilyn Monroe
and Best Actor for Jack Lemon.
“With skirts and boobies” probably
one of the most glorious and well-known endings in the history of cinema.
Although the “spoiler syndrome”
saves us from closing this introduction
with something just a click away on the internet.
-I wonder how I did it and how could I do it again?
I do not know.
As Osgood would say “no one is perfect”.
– You and I can’t get married! -Why not?
