Some Like it Hot (1959) Queer Film A+

Some Like It Hot was only the second major‑studio film (after Otto Preminger’s The Moon Is Blue in 1953) to be released without the Hays Office seal. Wilder assumed it didn’t stand a chance. Instead, released unrated through United Artists, it became an instant smash—and helped usher in the end of the Production Code

DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder
In Chicago, 1929, musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. To escape gangster Spats Colombo, they disguise themselves as women—Josephine and Daphne (Jerry refuses to answer to “Geraldine”)—and join an all‑female band heading to Florida.
On the train, they meet singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), who dreams of marrying a millionaire. Joe promptly falls for her and later impersonates a Shell Oil heir to win her heart. Jerry, as Daphne, attracts the enthusiastic attention of eccentric millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), leading to a cascade of comic complications. When the mob discovers Joe and Jerry’s disguise in Florida, chaos erupts. Meanwhile, Osgood proposes marriage to Daphne—setting up the most perfect closing line in Hollywood history.
Arguably the greatest American screen comedy, Billy Wilder’s classic (co‑written with I.A.L. Diamond) was adapted from two earlier films: the 1935 French comedy Fanfare of Love (Max Bonnet, Michael Logan, Pierre Prévert, René Pujol, and Robert Thoeren) and its 1951 German remake (Logan, Thoeren, and Heinz Pauck). Wilder’s version improves on both, delivering a gag every other minute and one of the great comic performances of all time: Jack Lemmon’s Jerry/Daphne. Lemmon takes the character somewhere no one had dared go before—Jerry doesn’t just pretend to be a woman; he begins to believe he is one. Even better, he has you believing it. Curtis, Monroe, and Joe E. Brown are all superb, but Lemmon walks away with the picture.

Monroe sings a gorgeous version of Gus Kahn’s “I’m Through with Love,” one of her loveliest screen moments.

Cinematography: Charles Lang
United Artists

STREAMING: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Apple TV

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