One of Hollywood's most loved and adored movies with one of Hollywood's most loved and adored stars and helmed by one of Hollywood's most loved and adored directors. How could it possibly go wrong? It doesn't.
Some Like it Hot is comedy gold. Ranked and voted as one of the greatest comedies ever made. Of all Marilyn Monroe's movies this is the best and should be the one you are seeking if interested in seeing her in action for the first time.
The pairing of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon is inspired, Lemmon's role was reserved for Jerry Lewis but thankfully he turned it down. As a result we have a comedy double act to die for, Tony Curtis mostly plays it straight to Lemmon's almost crazy exuberance.
The script is clever and sharp with great one liners, especially in the films best scene when Curtis shares a night with Monroe on a yacht anchored off shore, "How silly of me, on Thursdays they always serve me in the small salon" priceless.
Don't be put off by the films age or Black and White presentation, what was hilarious back then is still hilarious now, plus you have one of Hollywood's biggest ever icons in her best ever movie and boy is she ever HOT!!!
Tremendous.
The Transfer......................
MGM have granted this feature with an MPEG-4 AVC encoded, 1:66.1 framed, 1080p transfer onto a 50GB Blu-ray disc of great quality.
In 2006 this was remastered for a collectors DVD edition and I suspect this was the same master used for this transfer. Damage wise this is in pretty good shape with what is for the majority a very clean image with just the occasional moment of white speckles and debris but this is very infrequent.
The first thing you will notice is the vast improvement in both clarity and sharpness from previous DVD releases. The contrast is another notable improvement with strong inky blacks and surprisingly good shadow detail.
Film grain is ultra fine and gives us a wonderfully natural looking image with very good detail. Outlines and objects appear very well defined and strong, the increased sharpness means that we can now clearly pick up on even the slightest facial expression which only adds to the humour.
We do have the occasional scene or shot which appears softer than normal which I would attribute to a lens when filming rather than the transfer or master.
This disc is free of any digital enhancements with no visible compression issues.
I imagine most people will be wondering whether an upgrade from DVD is worth it, we'll it most certainly is. This is the best it has ever looked and is hard to imagine how it could look much better.
This is framed in the same aspect ratio as when it was filmed 1:66.1 so the slim black bars either side of the screen are completely normal.
Film 5/5 Transfer 4/5