Some Like It Hot | Comedy, Marilyn Monroe, Billy Wilder | Britannica (original) (raw)

Some Like It Hot, American screwball comedy film, released in 1959, that is considered one of best in that genre. Some Like It Hot featured Marilyn Monroe as a “dumb blonde” and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as women.

Some Like It Hot(From left to center) Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959), directed by Billy Wilder.

Curtis and Lemmon played down-on-their luck musicians who are marked for death by a gangster after they accidentally witness a gangland killing, which was based on the real St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. To hide from the mob, the pair pose as members of a traveling women’s band. They quickly become infatuated with the lead singer (played by Monroe), who fails to realize that her bandmates are actually men masquerading as women.

Although director Billy Wilder reported Some Like It Hot to be one of his happiest directing experiences, Monroe’s erratic behaviour frustrated the cast and crew. Most reviewers, however, praised her comedic performance. Lemmon and Curtis also earned accolades, and the latter’s attempt to seduce Monroe’s character while imitating Cary Grant is widely considered a classic cinema scene. In 2000 Some Like It Hot was voted the funniest movie in a poll conducted by the American Film Institute.

Publicity still with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman from the motion picture film "Casablanca" (1942); directed by Michael Curtiz. (cinema, movies) Britannica Quiz Best Picture Movie Quote Quiz

Production notes and credits

Cast

Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)