Boop-boop-a-doo!
Whilst working on the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot in the summer of 1958, Tony Curtis was asked what it was like to share an on-screen smooch with his (often difficult) co-star Marilyn Monroe; a question to which he famously replied that it was like kissing Hitler.
Curtis later explained that this was meant as a humorous rather than a malicious remark. One that whilst seemingly made at Monroe's expense, was also intended to poke fun at the absurdity of the question - for how could pressing your lips against Marilyn's be anything other than pleasurable?
What really interests me, however, is the further underlying assumption that Hitler would have made an unattractive recipient of one's affection and was probably not only a monstrous human being, but also a terrible lover. This may, in fact, have been the case, although there's little real evidence to support such a belief and there's no way that Curtis would have been able to know this for sure.
What it tells us is that for a Jewish-American heterosexual male of Curtis's generation (he served with the US Navy during the Second World War), Hitler was just about the very last person one might imagine kissing ...
Note: those interested in knowing more about the Führer's love life should go to part two of this post: click here.
Making public such a cruel comment says more about Curtis than Marilyn, of course. You were on a film set, schmuck!
ReplyDeleteCurious that both Hitler and Monroe self-administered their cause of death. They both pursued world domination. . .while Marilyn sought to seduce the world through love - conquering hearts rather than homelands, Hitler pursued an lust for military supremacy. For each, it all went wrong as their charisma declined.
Perhaps neither were kissed in the right way by the right people. Maybe world peace can hinge on that??!!
Sorry. . ., should read 'a lust' !
ReplyDelete