This is a thread comparing SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) with the German film FANFAREN DER LIEBE (1951) of which it’s a partial remake. I’ve always been curious about the German film and I’ve just finished watching it. (1/19)

It’s well known that Billy Wilder bought the rights to the German comedy in the 1950s and used it as the basis for his classic screenplay with IAL Diamond. But I’d always read that the two versions have little in common. Not so. Their narrative arcs are extremely close. (2/19)

However, two strokes of genius on Wilder and Diamond’s part raised their script to another level. The first was to combine their story of down-on-their-luck musicians with a plot about gangsters and the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. (3/19)

But first of all, we start with two musicians down on their luck. Dieter Borsche and Georg Thomalla are hungry; Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are cold and broke. (4/19)

They head off to a musical agency but receive little joy from the secretary there. (5/19)

So they decide to drag up and join a girl bad. In drag, Borsche bears a remarkable resemblance to Dame Hilda Bracket … (6/19)

… while Thomalla’s technique on bull fiddle is pretty close to Jack Lemmon’s. (7/19)

Then it’s off to a resort in sunny Bavaria/Florida – travelling by night train. Both pairs of musicians feel like they’re in a candy store. (8/19)

They complete the journey to their hotels by bus. (9/19)

Orchestra leader and orchestra manager (Sweet Sue and Beinstock in Some Like It Hot) are present and correct in both versions. (10/19)

Even our friend the obnoxious bellboy is on hand. (11/19)

Then it’s time for the band’s first big number. Sadly, Inge Egger is no Marilyn Monroe (though her dress is more decent) and her song is no ‘I Want to be Loved By You’. (12/19)

This is where Fanfaren der Liebe starts to fall apart. Nothing much happens in the second half. Both men slip in and out of drag to try and seduce Egger. Borsche tries first, but he doesn’t try to imitate Cary Grant. (13/19)

When Thomalla has a try, he feigns illness rather than impotence. And he’s not on a yacht. (14/19)

But Wilder and Diamond’s second stroke of genius was to invent a male suitor (Osgood Fielding III) for Jack Lemmon. And of course, to ramp up the energy in the third act with the reappearance of the gangsters. The German version has none of that. (15/19)

Borsche and Egger end up in a final clinch, as do Curtis and Monroe. (16/19)

But instead of the sublime ‘Nobody’s perfect’ gag, Fanfaren ends with … the band’s drummer falling off her stool with her legs in the air. Oh dear. (17/19)

People are always slagging off Hollywood for buying up European films and making inferior remakes. Was Some Like It Hot the exception to the rule? A triumph of American over European culture? (18/19)

Maybe … Except, remember that Billy Wilder was Austrian, and IAL Diamond was Romanian …

(ENDS)

@PaulDiamond3 @patrickkincaid