What I love about the final scene of the 1959 classic Some Like It Hot—apart from how funny it is—is how it’s one of the greatest cinematic portrayals of a man trapped in a sunk cost fallacy of his own creation.
The man in question is Osgood Fielding III, a rich and eccentric bachelor who owns a speedboat upon which the main characters, Joe and Jerry, make a daring escape after disguising themselves as women to avoid capture by members of the Chicago mob. Osgood is besotted with Jerry’s lady alter ego, Daphne, and has big plans to marry her; he’s already called his mother to give her the good news. Jerry, still in drag, is trying to convince Osgood to call off their engagement with a series of increasingly frantic confessions.
“I’m not a natural blonde!” he says. “I smoke! I can never have children!” But Osgood just keeps grinning, blithely dismissing each objection, until Jerry whips off his wig.
“I’m a man!” he shouts.
Osgood doesn’t miss a beat.
“Well,” he says, “nobody’s perfect!”
