Sneak preview
Exclusive interviews with Billy Wilder, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and others
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Jack Lemmon: The scene when we're on the train, I think it's fairly early on in the sequence, and I'm up in my bunk and she suddenly pops up into my bunk and jumps in bed with me-which is driving me crazy but I'm a girl and I'm not supposed to say anything and I'm going crazy and everything-it's about two pages or so. Billy shot it in one for the master, she did it in the first take and I was always ready because you have to be ready. So we did the whole thing in one and Billy said, 'The camera okay?' Camera said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'That's it, no protection, nothing, that's it, print it, next scene.' And Marilyn said, 'Oh boy,' and I said, 'Are you kidding? Everything was okay?' He says, 'Yes, you were wonderful and everything was terrific.' It was just one of those days she got it. It was the first thing in the morning and boom, she was on time, feeling good and she had it. But that was rare... but she was getting sick too, and we didn't know that.
Going public
Jack Lemmon: The first time I saw the film was at the first preview and it unequivocally was the worst preview of any film I have ever been in, it is amazing but true. It was at the Bay Theatre, as it was called, in the Palisades. They put it with some kids' picture or something and it was a terrible mistake. Parents and children were being hauled out of there in the first thirty minutes as soon as we started wearing drag and everything, muttering, 'Now this is disgusting, what the hell is this?' A few people were roaring, but very, very few, and afterwards the Mirisches got Billy out in the lobby and started telling him what he had to do, cut this and cut that, cut this, cut that and show more of Marilyn and you know all of that bullshit that heads of studios try to tell directors and they also, I remember one of the lines I overheard while I was eavesdropping was, you cannot have a farce or a comedy that's running two hours or close to it, it can't be done, you can't go more than an hour and thirty-five minutes. Billy says, 'Right, okay fine, well tomorrow Iz and I will start working on it.' He called me up about two days later and said, 'Friday night in Westwood. I made the cut'-and he said cut, not cuts. And I said, 'You made a... what?' And he said, 'The one scene where you crawl up into Tony's bunk, that was the last scene on the train, it's no longer in.' Where I divulged that I'm a boy thinking he's Marilyn and then he turns over and looks at me and I say, 'You wouldn't hit a girl would you?' and I'm putting the wig back on. It was just gilding the lily, it was one scene too many, that is the only cut he made in the entire film. He left it precisely as it was at that disastrous preview and the audience was screaming, and it was a much more sophisticated and general audience-a lot of college kids, older people, young people, everything. And it was an enormous success at that preview.
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Jack Lemmon: The scene when we're on the train, I think it's fairly early on in the sequence, and I'm up in my bunk and she suddenly pops up into my bunk and jumps in bed with me-which is driving me crazy but I'm a girl and I'm not supposed to say anything and I'm going crazy and everything-it's about two pages or so. Billy shot it in one for the master, she did it in the first take and I was always ready because you have to be ready. So we did the whole thing in one and Billy said, 'The camera okay?' Camera said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'That's it, no protection, nothing, that's it, print it, next scene.' And Marilyn said, 'Oh boy,' and I said, 'Are you kidding? Everything was okay?' He says, 'Yes, you were wonderful and everything was terrific.' It was just one of those days she got it. It was the first thing in the morning and boom, she was on time, feeling good and she had it. But that was rare... but she was getting sick too, and we didn't know that.
Going public
Jack Lemmon: The first time I saw the film was at the first preview and it unequivocally was the worst preview of any film I have ever been in, it is amazing but true. It was at the Bay Theatre, as it was called, in the Palisades. They put it with some kids' picture or something and it was a terrible mistake. Parents and children were being hauled out of there in the first thirty minutes as soon as we started wearing drag and everything, muttering, 'Now this is disgusting, what the hell is this?' A few people were roaring, but very, very few, and afterwards the Mirisches got Billy out in the lobby and started telling him what he had to do, cut this and cut that, cut this, cut that and show more of Marilyn and you know all of that bullshit that heads of studios try to tell directors and they also, I remember one of the lines I overheard while I was eavesdropping was, you cannot have a farce or a comedy that's running two hours or close to it, it can't be done, you can't go more than an hour and thirty-five minutes. Billy says, 'Right, okay fine, well tomorrow Iz and I will start working on it.' He called me up about two days later and said, 'Friday night in Westwood. I made the cut'-and he said cut, not cuts. And I said, 'You made a... what?' And he said, 'The one scene where you crawl up into Tony's bunk, that was the last scene on the train, it's no longer in.' Where I divulged that I'm a boy thinking he's Marilyn and then he turns over and looks at me and I say, 'You wouldn't hit a girl would you?' and I'm putting the wig back on. It was just gilding the lily, it was one scene too many, that is the only cut he made in the entire film. He left it precisely as it was at that disastrous preview and the audience was screaming, and it was a much more sophisticated and general audience-a lot of college kids, older people, young people, everything. And it was an enormous success at that preview.
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Billy Wilder demonstrates to Marilyn how to strut her stuff (United Artists - Courtesy of MoMa)