there's every reason to like "Some Like It Hot"

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2005)

Back in the days when certain things were taboo in movies, there were always directors who were looking for ways to push the limits. Billy Wilder did this in "Some Like It Hot", the movie that may very well have been the best movie that he, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon ever did.
Curtis and Lemmon play Joe and Jerry, two musicians in 1929 Chicago who have to flee a speakeasy before a police raid. Now unemployed, they get a job to play at an out of town joint. While they are getting the car, they witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, when one group of mobsters murdered another group. Desperate to hide, they dress up as women and get jobs in an all-female band, using the pseudonyms Josephine and Daphne. In this band, they meet Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe), the sexiest singer imaginable. When the band arrives in Florida is when the real nuttiness begins. "Daphne" gets seduced by millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), while "Josephine" pretends to be a millionaire named Junior, who seduces Sugar Kane. But then, the mobsters who were behind the massacre arrive.
What is so great about this movie is how they push the limits. Before calling the all-female band, Joe tells Jerry that they're going to shave their legs. You must realize that back then, talking about legs was like talking about genitals. And just the idea of men dressing as women might be interpreted as saying that they're gay (Joe and Jerry are not gay). Finally, the last line in the movie is all about acceptance, no matter who someone is. But all in all, "Some Like It Hot" gets eleven out of ten stars in my book, as it is so damn hilarious and has some really good values. Splendid.