Daily Dialogue — November 10, 2011
Jerry: Osgood, I’m gonna level with you. We can’t get married at all.
Osgood: Why not?
Jerry: Well, in the first place, I’m not a natural blonde.
Osgood: Doesn’t matter.
Jerry: I smoke! I smoke all the time!
Osgood: I don’t care.
Jerry: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I’ve been living with a saxophone player.
Osgood: I forgive you.
Jerry: [Tragically] I can never have children!
Osgood: We can adopt some.
Jerry: But you don’t understand, Osgood!
[Finally gives up and pulls off his wig]
Jerry: Ohh… I’m a man!
— Jerry (Jack Lemmon), Osgood (Joe E. Brown), Some Like It Hot (1959), screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond, story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is telling the truth, suggested by Teddy Pasternak who also suggested Some Like It Hot.
Trivia: When Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon first put on the female make-up and costumes, they walked around the Goldwyn Studios lot to see if they could “pass” as women. Then they tried using mirrors in public ladies rooms to fix their makeup, and when none of the women using it complained, they knew they could be convincing as women. There is a scene on the train recreating this moment.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Much of the humor in this scene is that Jerry knows — and we know — he is a man, while Osgood does not. That is the hook for each of Jerry’s lines.
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