The Guide to...
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
The movie too HOT for words!
What’s It About?
One of the funniest films ever made (the American Film Institute went all out and named it
the funniest), this brought a sense of humour about gender back to the Hollywood movie.
A glorious mix of physical and verbal comedy, it has unemployed musicians Gerry (Tony
Curtis) and Joe (Jack Lemmon) witness a St Valentine’s Day Massacre, forcing them to go
on the run from mobster Spats Colombo. Disguised as women, they join the all-girl band
fronted by ditsy singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe). A landmark in screen comedy, this
also began a matchless actor/director partnership for Lemmon and Billy Wilder.
Who Made It?
Billy Wilder (director/co-writer) was born Samuel Wilder in Galicia, now part of Poland, in
1906. He began working in the German film industry in 1929, but emigrated when Hitler
came to power in 1933. The winner of six Oscars, Wilder wrote and directed his last film in
1981 and died in 2002.
Jack Lemmon (Jerry/Daphne) was one of the great American screen actors of the postwar era. Born in 1925, he made his film debut in 1954 and received his first Oscar the next
year. He continued to act until the year before his death in 2001.
Tony Curtis (Joe/Josephine) was born Bernard Schwartz, in New York in 1925. His early life
was marred by extreme poverty and to escape he joined the marines. He made his film
debut in 1949.
Marilyn Monroe (Sugar Kane) is still one of the most recognisable women in the world.
Born Norma Jean Mortensen in Los Angeles in 1926, she made her movie debut in 1947
and died, of an overdose, in 1962.
Backstory
Wilder received his first Oscar nomination in 1940, and by the 1950s had made one hit
after another. He handpicked Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis for the film, but the studio
wanted a guaranteed box-office name, and Frank Sinatra expressed an interest in Lemmon’s role. Luckily, Marilyn Monroe (who Wilder directed in 1955’s box-office smash The
Seven Year Itch) wanted the role of Sugar Kane and her star power was enough – Lemmon was saved and the film went ahead as Wilder wanted it.
The production
Apart from switching from colour to black and white (Lemmon and Curtis’s make-up was
so heavy, it showed up green on film), the production suffered only one major setback:
Marilyn Monroe. Beautiful and gifted, she was also psychologically troubled, habitually
late and couldn’t remember her lines, even a short one like “Where’s the bourbon?”,
which took 59 takes to get right.
The reviews
“Directed in masterly style by Billy Wilder, [this] is probably the funniest picture of recent
memory. It’s a whacky, clever, farcical comedy that starts off like a firecracker and keeps
on throwing off lively sparks till the very end”. Variety, Feb 25 1959
“A milestone of film comedy which keeps its central situation alive with constant and fresh
invention; its wit, combined with a sense of danger has rarely been duplicated and never
equalled”. Halliwell’s Film Guide
Look out for...
The absolute joy of this film is that it’s at once innocent and genuinely subversive, skirting
all sorts of taboos with consummate skill. Bass-fiddle player Jerry gets a little too in touch
with his feminine side when he – in disguise – is pursued by a lecherous millionaire. After
a night of drinking and dancing, he accepts his beau’s proposal. Stunned, Joe asks his
friend: “Why would a guy want to marry a guy?”. The answer is brilliantly off-kilter, and the
scene made the preview audience laugh so hard it had to be reshot with added pauses
so the dialogue wasn’t lost.
What happened next?
The film was a smash hit, not only one of the biggest films of the year but the highest grossing screen comedy to date. And without it, there would be no The Apartment, no Irma
La Douce… By bringing Lemmon and Wilder together it earns an additional place in film
history. As Wilder once said: “Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon”.
Talking points
• Do you think the boys make convincing enough girls for the film to work?
• How do you think Joe and Jerry are changed by their experiences as “women”?
• Would the film work set against the criminal underworld of today?
Review starter
Named the funniest film ever made, this riotous blend of wit, sauce and slapstick see two
musicians disguise themselves as women…
What we think
Film history was made with this near-perfect blend of wit, sauce and slapstick that is still a
hilarious treat today.