SOME LIKE IT HOT - Top Comedy Movie At The Edge Center

For a movie that was predicted to be a bomb, SOME LIKE IT HOT really showed by how much critics can miss a gem. With a simple plot and lots of comedy talent this movie will entertain you from beginning to end. This is the last movie of the winter series shown at The Edge Center in Bigfork. The movie has lots of music, slapstick comedy, two really great male stars dressed to the hilt as ladies, and Florida sunshine to end up our Minnesota winter. By the way, you might want to just see it and try to figure out why Tony Curtis said kissing Marilyn Monroe was like kissing Hitler. It will be shown along with an informative discussion about the movie at The Edge Center Theater in Bigfork Thursday, April 12 at 6:30 FREE of charge with treats befitting this really funny movie.




Here is more about this great classic movie comedy from Jack Kachbar discussing this special event: part of the Park Theater Memorial Classic Movie Series.

“By the time SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) finished shooting in late 1958 the movie was weeks overdue, the movie was 10 percent over budget, and director Billy Wilder was a near basket case because of the shenanigans of star Marilyn Monroe. And, on top of all this, the first preview of the picture was an absolute disaster. Hollywood pundits were predicting a box office disaster. Boy, were they wrong! By the end of 1959 SOME LIKE IT HOT had become the most successful comedy made to that time, and the three stars, Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, were all in the top-ten list of box office stars. More recently, the film was named by the American Film Institute the top movie comedy ever made. Come and join Tony and Jack as they flee Chicago gangsters in 1929 and join Marilyn and the Sweet Sue’s All-Girl Band.”




And if you want to read more, here is part of the New York Times review of the movie from 1959. The critic, A. H. WEILER, seemed to both like and hate the effort.

“THERE should be no doubt this morning that the members of the happily irreverent film troupe that made "Some Like It Hot" have done something constructive about the old wheeze that begins, "Who was that lady I saw you with?" For, in fashioning this overlong, occasionally labored but often outrageously funny series of variations on an ancient gag, they have come up with a rare, rib-tickling lampoon that should keep them, the customers and the management of the newly refurbished Loew's State, which reopened yesterday, chortling with glee…"

Looking for Art

The Edge Center gallery in Bigfork is accepting entries for its upcoming eight annual juried art show happening in July of this year. There will be an art professional juror who will select the items to be exhibited from all entries and then will judge the winners. Plus there will be a people’s choice winner selected by visitors.

The purpose of this show is to exhibit diverse works of art that demonstrate mastery of technique, creativity, and presentation. The procedures are straightforward. There can be up to three entries per artist, which have been completed in 2010, 2011 or 2012 and not previously shown in the Edge Center Gallery. Images of the art are sent by e-mail or on a CD-R sent by mail. The entry fee is $20 dollars per artist for up to three entries accompanied by a description of about 50 words for the exhibit catalog. Additional information is at the end of this article and a full schedule, complete rules and entry forms can be found at www.the-edge-center.org.

Creativity is very important to the criteria for winning in this show. The juror usually does not choose a work that is technically very good but is either a copy or derivative from other work. It is important to do something different.

The juror for the 2012 Art of the Edge: 8th Annual Juried Exhibition is Laura Goliaszewski. She is the Director of the Talley Gallery at Bemidji State University. She views, evaluates and selects the artwork for the Bemidji gallery. She is also a painter who exhibits regionally. For the Edge exhibition, Laura will select the ones to be exhibited at the gallery from all entries, and, then during the opening reception, will select the winners. She is independent in these activities and The Edge Gallery committee has no input in the process. Her decisions are final.

Entry Requirements

Up to three entries per artist. Entered artwork must be original art completed in 2010, 2011 or 2012 and not previously shown in the Edge Center Gallery.

Images of your art sent by e-mail or on a CD-R sent by mail.

$20 per artist for up to three entries

Artist statement of approximately 50 words for the exhibit catalog.

Art On The Edge Calendar

Entry deadline………..Saturday, May 5

Notification……………..Saturday, June 2

Delivery of artwork…Monday, July 2, 10 am – 2 pm

Opening Reception….Friday, July 6, 5-7 pm

Pick up artwork……….Monday, July 30, 10 am – 2 pm

Awards

2-D First Place $200 Second Place $100
3-D First Place $200 Second Place $100
People’s Choice $100

Edge Gallery Policies

Work may be in any media and must be original.

Artwork entered must be completed in 2010, 2011 or 2012, not previously shown in the Edge Center Gallery.

Artists are responsible for their own insurance.

Edge Gallery reserves the right to reproduce works for publicity purposes.

Any work submitted for judging must be available for showing during the entire exhibit.

Edge Gallery charges a 30% commission fee on all sales.

Two Options for Entering: Due no Later than May 5, 2012

1. E-mail to jacknac@bigfork.net

Complete entry label from e-mail, or on the website and copy to your e-mail

Charge $20 at www.the-edge-center.org under Online Donations. When asked for "Fund Name", be sure to choose Juried Art Show Entry Fees (entry fee is non-refundable)

Submit a 50-word artist’s statement for the exhibit catalogue

E-mail jpeg photos of up to 3 entries with identification of each photo. 3-D work may have 2 views of each piece.

Expect notification by e-mail

OR

2. Mail to Edge Center Gallery, 102 Second Avenue, Box 304, Bigfork MN 56628
Completed entry label

$20 check payable to the Edge Center Gallery (entry fee is non-refundable)

Self addressed stamped business envelope for notification of results by mail, or ask for e-mail notification

50 word artist’s statement for the exhibit catalogue

CD-R, jpeg format only, with photos of up to three entries, with attached entry label. 3-D work may have two views of each piece

Self addressed stamped envelope with sufficient postage if you want the CD to be returned

OR combine the two options! Just have everything clearly marked

QUESTIONS?

Contact: Lynn Nachbar 218-743-6018 or jacknac@bigfork.net

Francis "Two Gun" Crowley, Ma Barker’s Son and the “Gold Special” Train Robbers

These “tough guys” were all possible inspirations for one of James Cagney’s most notorious villains. Francis Crowly ended up in a 5-hour shoot-out with police at a New York Police station when he was 19 years old. Aurther Barker was the son of Ma Barker of 1930s crime fame, and the robbery of Southern Pacific’s "Gold Special" by the D'Autremont brothers in 1923 probably inspired the railroad robbery sequence in the movie WHITE HEAT. Roll all of these together and you have just part of the mean and angry Cody Jarrett portrayed by Cagney in that movie. It is said to be one of the best gangster movies ever. WHITE HEAT will be shown Thursday, March 8 at 6:30 at the Edge Center Theater in Bigfork FREE and everyone is invited.





The movie is presented by the CLASSIC MOVIE SERIES with a cartoon from the same year and a background presentation by Jack Nachbar. Here are his thoughts about the film.

“The public loved Jimmy Cagney on the screen because he was energetic, tightly wound, and. most of all, tough, real tough. By 1949, however, it had been ten years since he had played a screen gangster . His return to his signature gangster role in our March Classic Movie, WHITE HEAT (1949), made up for lost time. As Cody Jerrett, Cagney nearly burns up the screen. He is driven, violent and ruthless, exactly what moviegoers longed to see. "Watching Cagney is like watching the lit fuse of a firecracker," is the way one critic put it. WHITE HEAT also features Virginia Mayo and Edmond O'Brien and is ably directed by the fine director Raoul Walsh. But it is Cagney's unforgettable performance that makes WHITE HEAT a movie classic. "Scripted like a Greek tragedy on speed," says TV GUIDE , "one of the toughest and most brilliant crime films ever made."

This movie is not recommended for children or people who do not like violent movies.




If you want to read more, here is some of the New York Times Movie Review by Bosley Crowther from 1949.

Published: September 3, 1949

“Warner Brothers weren't kidding when they put the title "White Heat" on the new James Cagney picture, which came to the Strand yesterday. They might have gone several points higher in the verbal caloric scale and still have understated the thermal intensity of this film. For the simple fact is that Mr. Cagney has made his return to a gangster role in one of the most explosive pictures that he or anyone has ever played…”

“For there is no blinking the obvious: the Warners have pulled all the stops in making this picture the acme of the gangster-prison film. They have crammed it with criminal complications—some of them old, some of them glittering new—pictured to technical perfection in a crisp documentary style. And Mr. Cagney has played it in a brilliantly graphic way, matching the pictorial vigor of his famous "Public Enemy" job.
Indeed, as the ruthless gang-leader in this furious and frightening account of train-robbery, prison-break, gang war and gun fighting with the police, Mr. Cagney achieves the fascination of a brilliant bull-fighter at work, deftly engaged in the business of doing violence with economy and grace. His movements are supple and electric, his words are as swift and sharp as swords …”

The following is a movie poster from the period.