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		Points of View Joe Kirkish February 14, 2002 Guest Column © 2002 Joe Kirkish Published with Permission

Club Indigo to present Some Like it Hot

HOUGHTON -- There's a joke going around the Calumet Theatre. Seems the two films selected for the winter months Club Indigo programs are ironically titled. January's film, Alice's Restaurant, was foodless; and now the February film, coming during the coldest month of the year, is entitled Some Like It Hot. It will be presented by the MBY music fraternity at the historic Calumet Theatre on Friday, February 15, at 7:15 p.m.

Some Like It Hot has been ranked high on the list of Great American Comedies and has become a classic, with good reason. It is a farce ahead of its time. In the most innocent late 50s manner, it dares to include situations involving cross dressing, confused sexual identities, impending murder and faked impotence; and it concludes with what has become the most memorable last line in any movie yet made -- all this within a modest PG-13 rating.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play a pair of musicians who accidentally witness the Prohibition Era's St. Valentine's Day massacre, then hide out from the mobsters by disguising themselves as women and join an all-girl's traveling band. There they meet and fall for Marilyn Monroe, using every ruse in the books to win her over -- either as feminine pals or, alternately, along general lines in men's clothing. To complicate matters further, Joe E. Brown enters the scene as a wealthy bachelor on the prowl for a wife, who focuses his attention on the boys in disguise.

The confusion reaches high pitch as the mobsters enter the picture once again; bedlam erupts, leading to the final getaway, at which time the mixing and matching results in an explosively funny, unexpected ending.

Needless to say, it was an instant hit. Critics hailed it as an outrageous, satirical spoof on Prohibition while audiences flocked in droves to see it. And since it is a film with the sort of comedy that never fades, it continues to win new audiences over and over. With its broad humor, tangle of identities and period costumes of the era, Some Like It Hot is reminiscent of the Marx Brothers' and Woody Allen's early films and even to some extent of earlier Max Sennett comedies.

Some Like it Hot will be shown (once again without a buffet) at 7:15 p.m. for $3.50 -- discounted for children. It has been made possible by Tercha and Daavettila, attorneys, in Houghton. Reservations for this event will not be necessary.

The regular Club Indigo season returns on Friday, March 29, with Gene Kelly in An American in Paris, accompanied by an all-French buffet catered by Chef Chris from the Northern Lights Restaurant in Houghton. For more information, call the Calumet Theatre box office: 337-2610.

Learn more about the author of this guest column, Joe Kirkish.

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