Home theater: Our critic offers his favorite feel-good flicks
鈥淭here is no Frigate like a Book,鈥� wrote Emily Dickinson, but that was before movies were invented. Movies can transport you just about anywhere, and these days, more than ever, we all crave a safe harbor. I can鈥檛 think of many better ways to boost the spirits than by watching wonderful movies that make us feel good all over. I鈥檒l kick things off with three of my favorites, all readily accessible for home viewing, in what I hope will become an ongoing column of pandemic picker-uppers.
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鈥淪ome Like It Hot鈥�
Why We Wrote This
In times of uncertainty, we value a good laugh. Film critic Peter Rainer recommends a selection of his favorite feel-good choices to help. 鈥淢ovies can transport you just about anywhere,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd these days, more than ever, we all crave a safe harbor.鈥�
Let鈥檚 start with 鈥淪ome Like It Hot鈥� the classic 1959 Billy Wilder comedy, co-written with his frequent collaborator I.A.L. Diamond, and starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in top comedic form. They play Joe and Jerry, low-rent Chicago jazz musicians who witness a gangland shootout and, fearing mob retaliation, flee, in drag, to Miami with an all-girl band. Gender confusions abound. 鈥淒aphne鈥� (Lemmon), despite her rebuffs, is wooed by millionaire playboy Osgood Fielding III (the great Joe E. Brown, with his mile-wide smile). 鈥淛osephine鈥� (Curtis), adopting a second disguise as 鈥淛unior,鈥� the Shell Oil heir, falls for Marilyn Monroe鈥檚 Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, the band鈥檚 singer and ukulele player. The plot thickens when the mob boss who engineered the Chicago massacre, George Raft鈥檚 鈥淪pats鈥� Colombo, checks into the same Miami hotel for a gangland summit.
If you鈥檝e never seen this movie before, I truly envy you. It鈥檚 one of the funniest films ever made 鈥� maybe THE funniest. And if you鈥檝e seen it more than a dozen times, as I have, rest assured it remains as hilarious as it was the first time. That鈥檚 partly because, knowing what鈥檚 coming, we can savor the best moments when they arrive on schedule. As Junior, Curtis sports a note-perfect Cary Grant accent. Lemmon, one of the rare actors who could play high comedy and serious drama with equal conviction, has never been more giddy than in the scene where he dances the tango with Osgood聽until dawn.聽Soon after, he announces to a stunned Joe that he and Osgood are engaged.
Monroe is also at her dreamy comedic peak here. Whatever diva difficulties Wilder may reportedly have had directing her on set (which was actually the famed beachside Hotel del Coronado near San Diego), nothing of that shows up in the film.
As seen through the eyes of Joe and Jerry, 鈥淪ome Like It Hot鈥� really plays up the ways in which men can be flabbergasted by women, with how they look and talk and move. The plot, especially for 1959, may be risqu茅 but the tone throughout is heedlessly innocent. And, of course, with the possible exception of 鈥淐asablanca,鈥� it boasts the best closing line in all of movies. I鈥檒l resist 鈥� just barely 鈥� the impulse to give it away. (Rated PG)
鈥淪teamboat Bill, Jr.鈥�
If you, or any children you know, have never experienced the great Buster Keaton, there is no better place to start than 鈥淪teamboat Bill, Jr.,鈥� the 1928 film he co-directed with Charles Reisner. Keaton, whose trademark deadpan was actually quite expressive 鈥� look closely! 鈥� plays the citified college graduate son of a tough-as-nails Mississippi steamboat owner (hulking Ernest Torrence). Dad disapproves of his son鈥檚 foppish ways, but Junior proves himself the better man in an astonishing whirlwind storm sequence at the end. Its most famous gag, shot without a stunt double, has the fa莽ade of a house falling over Keaton, framing him in the rectangle of a window. Don鈥檛 try this at home 鈥� or anywhere else. If this film gives you a hearty appetite for more Keaton, try 鈥淭he General,鈥� 鈥淭he Navigator,鈥� 鈥淪herlock Jr.,鈥� and 鈥淪even Chances.鈥� All masterpieces. (Unrated)
鈥凌辞虫补苍苍别鈥�
The actor who learned the most from Keaton about physical comedy was Steve Martin. He is at his peak in Fred Schepisi鈥檚 1987 鈥淩oxanne,鈥� the 鈥淐yrano de Bergerac鈥� update that he also wrote. He plays C.D. Bales, the long-nosed fire chief in a Washington off-season ski resort town who pines for Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), a starry-eyed astronomy student. When the film was first released, I wrote that it was one of the most elating romantic comedies ever made in this country. I still feel that way. It makes you feel unreasonably happy, as if you were watching colors being added to a sunset. (Rated PG)聽
I wish you all happy viewing.
These films are available for rent from Amazon鈥檚 Prime Video, YouTube, and Google Play. 鈥淪ome Like It Hot鈥� also airs on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) network on March 25, and is leaving Prime on March 31.聽
