A cinematic gem... This wonderful classic is the best comedy of all time

Rating: 10/10 (10 May 2009)

Some Like it Hot (1959)
Number 1 - 1959
Top 5 - 1950s
Top 100 - All Time
Number 1 - Comedy of all time
Billy Wilder's classic screwball comedy is far ahead of its time and the benchmark for modern comedies to follow. The plot is fundamental comedy; two Chicago musicians in 1929 Prohibition America are looking for a job after police bust up the club they were playing at due to it supplying alcohol. Through wandering around the streets, they witness a gangland murder and have to hide from the Italian Mafia who do not want any witnesses to their crimes... So they take up a job as two female band players in an all female band going to a beautiful resort in Florida. While on their way they meet a host of beautiful girls and of course the iconic and intoxicating Marilyn Monroe in one of her finest roles - she succeeds in embodying her role in every dimension.
This truly outstanding comedy is far ahead of its time and is subtly and not too subtly all about sex and standard human behaviour. Greed, love, money, sex and lust. All processed in a wonderful way that would be appropriate for a 1950s comedy. What I like about 'Some Like it Hot' is the very fact that it is not crude and unnecessarily sexual comedy like the idiotic examples we get today.
Jack Lemmon provides an extraordinary performance in a role that should have won him his first Oscar (it was awarded to Charlton Heston for Ben Hur that year, due to the fact that Ben Hur was an epic production). Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe are both sublime in their roles and Billy Wilder's craft make this an undoubted masterpiece and the greatest comedy of all time.
10/10