Some Like It Hot

***Some Like It Hot*** is a 1959 American black-and-white romantic comedy film set in 1929, directed and produced by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. The supporting cast includes George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee, and Nehemiah Persoff. The screenplay by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan from the French film *Fanfare of Love*. The film is about two musicians who dress in drag in order to escape from mafia gangsters whom they witnessed commit a crime inspired by the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.

*Some Like It Hot* opened to critical and commercial success and is today considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was voted as the top comedy film by the American Film Institute on their list on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs poll in 2000, and was selected as the best comedy of all time in a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017. In 2005, the British Film Institute included this film on its list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

The film was produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code because it plays with the idea of homosexuality and features cross dressing. The code had been gradually weakening in its scope during the early 1950s, due to greater social tolerance for previously taboo topics in film, but it was still officially enforced until the mid-1960s. The overwhelming success of *Some Like It Hot* is considered one of the final nails in the coffin for the Hays Code.

## Plot

In February 1929 in Prohibition-era Chicago, Joe is a jazz saxophone player and an irresponsible gambler and ladies' man; his sensible friend Jerry is a jazz double bass player. They work in a speakeasy (disguised as a funeral home) owned by gangster "Spats" Colombo. Tipped off by informant "Toothpick" Charlie, the police, led by treasury agent Mulligan, raid the joint. Joe and Jerry flee, only to accidentally witness Spats and his henchmen exacting revenge on "Toothpick" and his own gang (inspired by the real-life Saint Valentine's Day Massacre). Broke and desperate to get out of town, Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women named Josephine and Daphne so they can join Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed to Miami. They board a train with the band and its male manager, Bienstock. Joe and Jerry notice Sugar Kane, the band's vocalist and ukulele player.

Joe and Jerry become enamored of Sugar and compete for her affection while maintaining their disguises. Sugar confides to Joe that she has sworn off male saxophone players, who have stolen her heart in the past and left her with "the fuzzy end of the lollipop". She has set her sights on finding a sweet, bespectacled millionaire in Florida. During the forbidden drinking and partying on the train, Josephine and Daphne become intimate friends with Sugar, and must struggle to remember that they are supposed to be girls and cannot make passes at her.

Once in Miami, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as millionaire Junior, the heir to Shell Oil, while feigning indifference to her. An actual millionaire, the much-married aging mama's-boy Osgood Fielding III, tries repeatedly to pick up Daphne, who rebuffs him. Osgood invites Daphne for a champagne supper on his yacht, *New Caledonia*. Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood occupied onshore so that Junior can take Sugar to Osgood's yacht, passing it off as his. Once on the yacht, Junior explains to Sugar that psychological trauma has left him impotent and frigid, but that he would marry anyone who could change that. Sugar tries to arouse sexual response in Junior, and begins to succeed. Meanwhile, Daphne and Osgood dance the tango ("La Cumparsita") till dawn. When Joe and Jerry get back to the hotel, Jerry announces that Osgood has proposed marriage to Daphne and that he, as Daphne, has accepted, anticipating an instant divorce and huge cash settlement when his ruse is revealed. Joe convinces Jerry that he cannot actually marry Osgood.

The hotel hosts a conference for "Friends of Italian Opera", which is in fact a major meeting of the national crime syndicate, presided over by "Little Bonaparte". Spats and his gang from Chicago recognize Joe and Jerry as the witnesses to the Valentine's Day murders. Joe and Jerry, fearing for their lives, realize they must quit the band and leave the hotel. Joe breaks Sugar's heart by telling her that he, Junior, must marry a woman of his father's choosing and move to Venezuela. Joe and Jerry evade Spats' men by hiding under a table at the syndicate banquet. "Little Bonaparte" has Spats and his men killed at the banquet; again, Joe and Jerry are witnesses and they flee through the hotel. Joe, dressed as Josephine, sees Sugar onstage singing that she will never love again. He kisses her before he leaves, and Sugar realizes that Joe is both Josephine and Junior.

Jerry persuades Osgood to take "Daphne" and "Josephine" away on his yacht. Sugar runs from the stage at the end of her performance and jumps aboard Osgood's launch just as it is leaving the dock with Joe, Jerry, and Osgood. Joe tells Sugar that he is not good enough for her, that she would be getting the "fuzzy end of the lollipop" yet again, but Sugar wants him anyway. Meanwhile, Jerry lists reasons why "Daphne" and Osgood cannot marry, ranging from a smoking habit to infertility. Osgood dismisses them all; he loves Daphne and is determined to go through with the marriage. Exasperated, Jerry removes his wig and shouts, "I'm a man!" Osgood, unfazed, simply responds: "Well, nobody's perfect", to Jerry's dismay.

## Cast

 File:Monroe and Curtis in Some Like it Hot.JPG
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## General information

### Genre

Soundtrack
Jazz

The soundtrack features four songs performed by Marilyn Monroe for the movie, nine songs composed by Adolph Deutsch, as well as 2 songs performed by jazz artist Matty Malneck.

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## Production

### Pre-production

Billy Wilder wrote the script for the film with writer I.A.L. Diamond. The plot is based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan from the 1935 French film *Fanfare of Love*. However, the original script for *Fanfare of Love* was untraceable, so Walter Mirisch found a copy of the 1951 German remake *Fanfares of Love*. He bought the rights to the script and Wilder worked with this to produce a new story. *Some Like It Hot* is partly a remake of *Fanfare of Love*, as both films follow the story of two musicians in search of work, but Wilder created the gangster subplot which keeps the musicians on the run.

The studio hired female impersonator Barbette to coach Lemmon and Curtis on gender illusion for the film. Monroe worked for 10-percent of the gross in excess of $4 million, Curtis for 5-percent of the gross over $2 million, and Wilder for 17.5-percent of the first million after break-even and 20-percent thereafter.

### Casting

Tony Curtis was spotted by Billy Wilder while he was making the film *Houdini* (1953), as he thought Curtis would be perfect for the role of Joe. "I was sure Tony was right for it," explained Wilder, "because he was quite handsome, and when he tells Marilyn that he is one of the Shell Oil family, she has to be able to believe it". Wilder's first idea for the role of Jerry was Frank Sinatra, but he never came to the audition. Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye were also considered for the role of Jerry. Finally, Wilder saw Jack Lemmon in the comedy *Operation Mad Ball* and selected him for the role of Jerry. Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon made numerous films together until 1981, among them *The Apartment* and several films with Walter Matthau.

According to York Film Notes, Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond didn't expect such a big star as Marilyn Monroe to take the part of Sugar in fact, Wilder said, "Mitzi Gaynor was who we had in mind. The word came that Marilyn wanted the part and then we *had* to have Marilyn." Wilder and Monroe had already made the film *The Seven Year Itch* together in 1955.

### Filming

 File:Coronado del Hotel from the beach.jpg
The film was made in California during the summer and autumn of 1958. Many scenes were shot at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California which appeared as the "Seminole Ritz Hotel" in Miami in the film, as it fit into the era of the 1920s and was near Hollywood.

There were many problems with Marilyn Monroe, who lacked concentration and suffered from an addiction to pills. She was constantly late to set, and could not memorize many of her lines, averaging 35–40 takes for a single line according to Tony Curtis. The line "It's me, Sugar" took 47 takes to get correct because Monroe kept getting the word order wrong, saying either "Sugar, it's me" or "It's Sugar, me". Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon made bets during the filming on how many takes she would need to get it right. Three days were scheduled for shooting the scene with Shell Jr. and Sugar at the beach, as Monroe had many complicated lines, but the scene was finished in only 20 minutes. Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg and Monroe's husband Arthur Miller both tried to influence the production, which Wilder and other crew members found annoying.

Billy Wilder spoke in 1959 about filming another movie with Monroe: "I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and they tell me I'm too old and too rich to go through this again." But Wilder also admitted: "My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?" He also stated that Monroe played her part wonderfully.

The film's iconic closing line "Nobody's perfect" is ranked 78th on *The Hollywood Reporter* list of Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movie Lines, but it was never supposed to be in the final cut. Diamond and Wilder put it in the script as a "placeholder" until they could come up with something better, but they never did.

### Style

With regards to sound design, there is a "strong musical element" in the film, with the soundtrack created by Adolph Deutsch. It has an authentic 1920s jazz feel using sharp, brassy strings to create tension in certain moments, for example whenever Spats' gangsters appear. In terms of cinematography and aesthetics, Billy Wilder chose to shoot the film in black and white as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in full drag costume and make-up looked "unacceptably grotesque" in early color tests. Despite Monroe's contract requiring the film to be in color, she agreed to it being filmed in black and white after seeing that Curtis and Lemmon's makeup gave them a "ghoulish" appearance on color film. Orry-Kelly who was in charge of costume design created the costumes for both Marilyn Monroe as well as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, after the stock costumes the studio provided for the male leads fit poorly.

## Reception

*Some Like It Hot* received widespread acclaim from critics, and is considered among the best films of all time. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 9.02/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "*Some Like It Hot*: A spry, quick-witted farce that never drags." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 97 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert wrote about the movie, "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft." John McCarten of *The New Yorker* referred to the film as "a jolly, carefree enterprise". Richard Roud, writing for *The Guardian* in 1967, said with this film Wilder comes "close to perfection".

Though sometimes said to have been "condemned" by the Roman Catholic Church's Legion of Decency, that body gave the film its less critical rating as "morally objectionable".

The film opened in the week ended March 24, 1959 in several cities in the United States; the highest grossing of which were in Chicago, where it grossed $45,000 at the United Artists Theatre with Monroe making an appearance, and in Washington D.C. where it grossed $40,000 at the Capitol Theatre. With results from just 6 key cities, *Variety* listed it as the third highest-grossing film in the United States for the week.

The film then expanded to 100 theatres around the country for the Easter holidays including at the newly renovated State Theatre in New York City on Sunday, March 29, 1959 and the film became number one in the country and remained there for three weeks before being knocked off the top by *Imitation of Life*. *Imitation of Life* was top for two weeks before being replaced again by *Some Like It Hot*, which remained there for another four weeks before being replaced by *Pork Chop Hill*.

By 1962, the film had grossed $14 million in the US.

In 1989, this film became one of the first 25 inducted into the United States National Film Registry.

In July 2018, it was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.

## Awards and honors

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

* 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #14
* 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #1
* 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
	+ Osgood Fielding III: "Well, nobody's perfect." – #48
* 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #22

## Adaptations

An unsold television pilot was filmed by Mirisch Productions in 1961 featuring Vic Damone and Tina Louise. As a favor to the production company, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis agreed to film cameo appearances, returning as their original characters, Daphne and Josephine, at the beginning of the pilot. Their appearance sees them in a hospital where Jerry (Lemmon) is being treated for his impacted back tooth and Joe (Curtis) is the same O blood type.

In 1972, a musical play based on the screenplay of the film, entitled *Sugar*, opened on Broadway starring Elaine Joyce, Robert Morse, Tony Roberts and Cyril Ritchard, with book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and (all-new) music by Jule Styne. A 1991 stage production of this show in London featured Tommy Steele and retained the film's title. Tony Curtis, then in his late-70s, performed in a 2002 stage production of the film, this time cast as Osgood Fielding III, the character originally played by Joe E. Brown.

On 5 January 2019, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman in an interview with Graham Norton on BBC Radio 2 confirmed a new updated version is being written with themselves writing the music. The version is aimed for a broadway release in 2020.

## See also

* List of American films of 1959
* Cross-dressing in film and television
* List of films considered the best
* *Rafoo Chakkar*, 1975 Bollywood remake

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The 100 greatest comedies of all time (2017-08-22).
2. ↑ Remembering Hollywood's Hays Code, 40 Years On. *NPR.org* (8 August 2008). Retrieved on March 14, 2016.
3. ↑ Some Like It Hot [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Original Soundtrack – Songs, Reviews, Credits – AllMusic]. Retrieved on August 10, 2018.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Rolston, Lorraine, Some like it Hot (York Film Notes). Longman; 1 edition, 2000 p.7-57
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Curtis, T. and Vieira, M. (2009). *Some Like It Hot*. London: Virgin Books, p.13
6. ↑ Some Like It Hot (1959). Turner Classic Movies, Inc.. Retrieved on March 11, 2017.
7. ↑ Balio, Tino (8 April 2009). *United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry*. University of Wisconsin Press, page 170. ISBN 978-0299230135.
8. ↑ rich-826 (2 July 1953). Houdini (1953). *IMDb*. Retrieved on March 14, 2016.
9. ↑ Golenbock, Peter, American Prince: A Memoir, 2008, Publishing Group
10. ↑ Alison Castle (Hrsg.): Billy Wilder’s Some like it hot. Taschen, 2001, p. 24.
11. ↑ Alison Castle (Hrsg.): Billy Wilder’s Some like it hot. Taschen, 2001, S. 238.
12. ↑ Crowe, Cameron (1999). *Conversations with Wilder*, Reprint, Alfred A. Knopf, page 161.
13. ↑ Castle, Alison(Hrsg.): *Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot*. Taschen, 2001, p. 24.
14. ↑ Template:Cite video
15. ↑ Jack Lemmon in: *Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot*. Taschen, 2001, Template:ISBN. p. 277
16. ↑ Schlöndorff, Volker: Billy Wilder in *Billy Wilder speaks*. *Some Like It Hot*. DVD, October 2006.
17. ↑ Walter Mirisch in: *Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot*. Taschen, 2001, Template:ISBN
18. ↑ Tony Curtis in: *Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot*, Taschen 2001 (2010), S. 286
19. ↑ Curtis, Tony (September 17, 2009). *The Making of Some Like It Hot:My Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the Classic American Movie*. Wiley. ISBN 978-0470561195. Retrieved on 24 February 2019.
20. ↑ Young, David (1 December 2011). *Great Funny Quotes: Sweeten Your Life with Laughter*. Round Rock, Texas: Wind Runner Press, page 194. ISBN 978-1936179015. Retrieved on 24 February 2019.
21. ↑ Alison Castle (Hrsg.): Billy Wilder’s Some like it hot. Taschen, 2001, S. 287.
22. ↑ "Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movie Quotes", 24 February 2016. Retrieved on 24 February 2019.
23. ↑ Nixon, Rob. Behind the Camera on Some Like It Hot. Retrieved on January 23, 2018.
24. ↑ Some Like it Hot | Orry-Kelly | V&A Search the Collections (en) (2019-08-07).
25. ↑ Orry-Kelly on costume, celebrity and stars | ACMI (en).
26. ↑ Some Like it Hot | ACMI (en).
27. ↑ Some Like It Hot (1959). Retrieved on July 15, 2019.
28. ↑ Some Like It Hot. Retrieved on February 12, 2019.
29. ↑ Ebert, Roger (9 January 2000). Some Like It Hot. Retrieved on March 14, 2016.
30. ↑ Mccarten, John. "The Current Cinema", 4 April 1959.
31. ↑ Roud, Richard. "Review", 1967.
32. ↑ Phillips, Gene (1 July 2010). *Some Like it Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder*. University of Kentucky Press, page 223. ISBN 978-0813139517.
33. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
34. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
35. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
36. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
37. ↑ *Some Like It Hot* at the American Film Institute Catalog**Script error: No such module "EditAtWikidata".**
38. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
39. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
40. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
41. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
42. ↑ Madsen, Axel, Billy Wilder, Martin Secker & Warburg Limited, 1968
43. ↑ "25 Films Chosen for the National Registry", September 20, 1989. Retrieved on 20 January 2018.
44. ↑ The Restored Vilms of Venezia Classici. Retrieved on February 24, 2019.
45. ↑ Venice Film Festival: Awards for 1959. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
46. ↑ Directors Guild of America, USA: Awards for 1960. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
47. ↑ 1959 Award Winners. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
48. ↑ National Board of Review, USA: Awards for 1959. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
49. ↑ 12th Annual DGA Awards: Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement For 1959. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
50. ↑ BAFTA Awards Search: 1960. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
51. ↑ The Envelope: Past Winners Database – 1959 17th Golden Globe Awards. Archived from the original on May 17, 2007. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
52. ↑ The 17th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1960). Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
53. ↑ The 32nd Academy Awards – 1960: Winners & Nominees. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
54. ↑ Writers Guild of America, USA: Awards for 1960. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
55. ↑ 1960 Awards Winners. Archived from the original on February 24, 2015. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 Laurel Awards: Awards for 1960. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
57. ↑ The BAMBI award goes to…: A selection of international BAMBI award winners since 1948. Retrieved on November 23, 2014.
58. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (2005). Retrieved on August 27, 2016.
59. ↑ AFI's 100 Funniest American Movies Of All Time (June 13, 2000). Retrieved on March 14, 2016.
60. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs (2003). Retrieved on August 27, 2016.
61. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes (2005). Retrieved on August 27, 2016.
62. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) (2007). Retrieved on August 27, 2016.
63. ↑ Some Like It Hot [Tv Pilot (1961)]. Retrieved on March 14, 2016.
64. ↑ "SUGAR: The Girls in the Band", April 24, 1972.
65. ↑ Some Like It Hot (29 January 2018).
66. ↑ Tour information (2003). Retrieved on February 24, 2019.
67. ↑ Perry, Claudia (April 2002). "Some Like It Hot". *Aisle Say Philadelphia*. http://www.aislesay.com/PA-SOME.html.
68. ↑ Huston, Caitlin (2018-05-14). Musical adaptation of 'Some Like it Hot' slated for Broadway in 2020 (en-US).

## Further reading

* Curtis, Tony. *The Making of Some Like It Hot*, Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2009. Template:ISBN.
* Maslon, Laurence. *Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion*, New York, HarperCollins, 2009. Template:ISBN.

## External links

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* Template:Britannica
* *Some Like It Hot* at the Internet Movie Database
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* Template:Rotten Tomatoes
* Roger Ebert's review of *Some Like It Hot*
* Roger Hall's review of Adolph Deutsch's film score for *Some Like It Hot*
* Literature
* *Some Like It Hot: How to Have Fun* an essay by Sam Wasson at the Criterion Collection

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