"I don't care how rich he is, as long as he has a yacht, his own private railroad car, and his own toothpaste."

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2007)

If films directors could be characterised as different types of beverages, then Billy Wilder would surely be the glass of sparkling champagne. To date, I've seen three of his films {the other two being 'Double Indemnity (1944)' and 'Sunset Blvd. (1950)'}, and every single one absolutely brims with class, a triumph of witty writing and procificient direction. Even though 'Some Like It Hot (1959)' was voted #1 in the American Film Institute's '100 Years 100 Laughs,' I didn't initially consider it the sort of film that I would enjoy. After all, who wants to watch a movie about men dressing up as women? Needless to say, I had completely underestimated the talent of both Wilder and his terrific cast, and 'Some Like It Hot' revealed itself to be a very funny film, indeed. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon star as two jazz musicians who witness the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929 and are forced to flee Chicago posing as two members of an all-girls band. Comedic sparks fly when both men fall for sexy blonde vocalist "Sugar Kane" Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe) and, maintaining their female disguises, begin to fight for her affection.
The most astonishing thing about 'Some Like It Hot' is that it never goes to where you expect it. The script, co-written by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond {from a story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan}, is basically a romantic screwball comedy, but with flourishes of the film-noir and gangster genres, most noticeable in the scenes featuring hardened mob-boss Spats Colombo (George Raft). Not many comedies open the proceedings with the brutal, cold-blooded murder of seven men, but Wilder's film does, and it's executed in such a way that, somehow, the unexpected scenes of violence never seem out of place. At the very least, these sinister events provide the perfect incentive for Curtis and Lemmon to throw on a dress, a wig and some make-up, their facade wholly believable in the face of such an unpleasant alternative. Wilder filmed 'Some Like It Hot' in black-and-white, not only to evoke the appopriate time-period, but, more importantly, to obscure the unavoidable imperfections in the men's make-up. Though the end result isn't very convincing at all  as a male, I certainly wouldn't make the mistake of approaching either Josephine or Daphne  it requires a suspension of disbelief that we're more-than-willing to make.
The comedic duo of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon works extremely well. Curtis tends to appear rather self-conscious posing as a woman, finding more comfort as the multi-millionaire heir to Shell Oil, as whom to poses to win over Sugar Kane. On the other hand, Lemmon is entirely uninhibited as Daphne, exploding into feverish episodes of feminine behaviour that lead us to believe that perhaps his performance as a woman has convinced even himself. While Curtis' Joe (a.k.a. Josephine) spends his time attempting to woo Marilyn Monroe (whose character, self-described as being not particularly bright, absolutely oozes sexuality), Lemmon's Jerry (a.k.a. Daphne) finds that he has larger problems, as an obsessed old millionaire, Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), falls in love with him. Keeping the entertainment level as high as possible at all times, Wilder thankfully denies us the seemingly-inevitable, clichéd moral lesson that usually arises once the supporting characters discover the true identity of their girlfriends. Most legendary of all is the reaction of Osgood Fielding, in the film's final line, as Jerry admits that he is merely a man posing as a woman: "Well, nobody's perfect."