MovieChat Forums > Some Like It Hot (1959) Discussion > How did it got past the censors?

How did it got past the censors?

posted 9 years ago by santsa70
7 replies | jump to latest

I just rewatched this wonderful film after over a decade, and I have to wonder, how did the scene where Daphne and Osgood are discussing their date manage not to get cut? Now granted, there's no bad language, no intimate touching...but there's Jack Lemmon flirting up a storm and working some major '*beep* me eyes.' I can imagine that all the looks and come ons that Joe E Brown drops would not be an issue, but Jack Lemmon lays on the come - hither vibe so much, I would have thought that wouldn't have been acceptable for the time.

[–] lubin-freddy 9 years ago

By 1959 the Hollywood "production code" was becoming a memory. The studios were competing with television, and trying to produce more "adult" entertainment. And, Billy Wilder always knew how to get away with shït. Just watch his Kiss Me Stupid, which he made a few years later.

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."

[–] den_quixote 9 years ago

I was watching a director on TCM once and he explained that it was possible to get away with quite a lot visually as long as the script itself was not obvious about what they were trying to do or imply. As long as the direction was not in writing the enforcers were not always paying attention.

[–] dinojubz 9 years ago

Billy Wilder produced this film practically by himself, and for this reason he was able to go around the production code and have the film made without their seal of approval. It is true that the production code was dying out at that point, but when Wilder first pitched this film, no one took him seriously because of how open it was on subjects such as cross dressing and homosexuality and thus, no one initially backed him up. Ironically though, during the first full screening of the film, the head of the production code was there and after watching, decided to give Billy Wilder and "Some Like It Hot" the seal of approval

[–] bliss66 8 years ago

Homosexuality? It's a comedy of mistaken identities. There's no homosexuality in this.

[–] muzilon 8 years ago

Well, Osgood's closing line ("Nobody's perfect") suggests he doesn't mind that Jack Lemmon is a guy...

[–] BugisStreetAnnie 8 years ago

Well, Osgood's closing line ("Nobody's perfect") suggests he doesn't mind that Jack Lemmon is a guy...

Today I think they would call this pansexuality, but I doubt that was a word back then.

"He had Four-on-the-Floor and I was ready to Clutch"🌈

[–] ncgraham 8 years ago

Whatever the exact sexual orientations of the participants, comedies that center on cross-dressing have always been at least subtly queer, all the way back to Shakespeare.