"I Wanna Be Loved By You" by Marilyn Monroe

The final line of the 1959 film Some Like It Hot has Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) asserting to the ersatz Daphne (Jack Lemmon)* that 'Nobody's perfect.' While that may be true for people, in the case of this film it's not only a damn lie but potentially libelous!**

Part of the reason for the film's cinematic attainment of perfection may be the able direction of Billy Wilder, Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan's clever story (from which Wilder and longtime writing partner I. A. L. Diamond were able to polish a diamond-like screenplay), the celluloid reverie of cinematographer Charles Lang, or the whip-smart instincts of its top-notch cast...

A lion's share of the credit, though, must go to the unique magic possessed by the film's female lead, birthday gal Marilyn Monroe, whose sultry rendition of the Herbert Stothart-Harry Ruby-Bert Kalmar classic I Wanna Be Loved By You shown above reminds listeners of Helen Kane and Betty Boop *** yet is entirely distinct from either.

*Who's just revealed that she's not a she but a he!
**Clearly the American Film Institute agrees with me...  In June 2000 it listed Some Like It Hot as the greatest American comedy film of all time.
***Who each helped to make it famous in the 1920s.

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