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In its time this movie must have been a mind-blowing experience. It's still worth seeing for its overall bravura and the performances of Michael Gothard and (in a lesser role) Mona Hammond. But in 2022 it has little we haven't seen many times over. The experimental style, the critique of capitalist exploitation, the existential dread, the failures of history...you know the drill. It's all as true as it ever was, of course, but there are subtler and less pretentious ways of telling the story now. The film is also frighteningly sexist, in a way that was acceptable in the late 1960s but no longer. And dare I say it, the protagonist's emotional story arc was hackneyed even then. I'll admit, though, that the ending was a genuine surprise, the most thoughtful part of the film for me.

What can you say about the magnificent Ray Dennis Steckler? He was one of the all-time schlockmeisters, producing visionary work on ridiculously low budgets, making you stare in disbelief yet hunger for more. He doesn't really have free rein in this one (compare "Incredibly Strange Creatures..."), but still produces some dazzling moments. The sequence going from Arch Hall, Jr. singing "Vicky" with Carolyn Brandt's totally unconnected dancing, to Nancy Czar's rushing through the streets, to the ice-skating scene, is one of the greatest bits of simultaneous camp and surrealism I've ever seen. And it ends on a surprisingly sweet but still unsentimental moment. Then there's the let-it-out final scene, with Arch, Nancy, and the dancers on the beach with the motorcycle, a perfect set of icons for the period. And then, of course, there's Steckler's acting. Here he's the perfect foil to ultra-innocent Arch Hall, Jr., mugging and sneering as the evil psycho henchman.

Although this may be his best film as an actor, it's probably not his best as a director. As noted, he's pretty much under wraps, and a lot of the conventional scenes are ordinary, partly because Arch Hall Jr. is such a bland presence. But see it anyway, and see all the rest of his films, too. You'll never be the same.

I'm almost 50 years old, and I've been hearing about this film for the better part of my life, but never got around to seeing it until recently. I figured it had to be overrated--I mean, two guys in drag, once you've done the standard jokes, what else is there?--but it's a wonderful movie, well worth its reputation. The early Chicago scenes are fairly ordinary (and in fact the gangster bits never really catch fire), but once the boys get into their outfits the film never lets up. Tony Curtis got a lot of ridicule early in his career, but he was a very good comic actor, and his Cary Grant fake millionaire is simply hilarious. Marilyn Monroe is luminous as always, and perfectly cast as the archetypal sweet dumb amorous blonde. Jack Lemmon's acting has always been a bit too mannered for my taste, but once he cuts loose in the second half he's great. The real star of the show, though, is the script, which brings the laugh lines tumbling fast and furious, and gets more out of the old premise than you could ever expect. Add Wilder's relentless farce pacing, and you have a true classic. Don't wait most of your life to see it.