Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The supporting cast includes George Raft, Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien and Nehemiah Persoff. The film was adapted by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond from the story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan. Logan had already written the story – but without the gangsters – for a German film, Fanfaren der Liebe (directed by Kurt Hoffmann, 1951), so that Wilder's film is considered by some as a remake.
During 1981, after the worldwide success of the French comedy La Cage aux Folles, United Artists re-released Some Like It Hot to theatres. In 2000, the American Film Institute listed Some Like It Hot as the greatest American comedy film of all time.
Plot
Two penurious musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), witness what looks like the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. When the Chicago gangsters, directed by 'Spats' Columbo, (George Raft) see them, the duo flee for their lives. They escape and decide to leave town, only to find the sole out-of-town jobs available are in an all-girl musical band headed to Florida. The two disguise themselves as women, calling themselves Josephine and Geraldine (later Jerry changes his pseudonym to Daphne), join the band and board a train. Joe and Jerry both become enamored of "Sugar Kane" (Marilyn Monroe), the band's vocalist and ukulele player, and struggle for her affection while maintaining their disguises.
In Florida, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as a millionaire named "Junior", the heir to Shell Oil, while mimicking Cary Grant's voice. An actual millionaire, Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), becomes enamored of Jerry in his Daphne guise. One night Osgood asks Daphne out to his yacht. Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood ashore while he goes on the yacht with Sugar. That night Osgood proposes to Daphne who, in a state of excitement, accepts, believing he can finagle a large settlement from Osgood immediately following their wedding ceremony.
When the mobsters arrive at the same hotel for a conference honoring "Friends of Italian Opera", Spats and his gang see Joe and Jerry. After several humorous chases (and witnessing yet another mob murder), Jerry, Joe, Sugar, and Osgood escape to the millionaire's yacht. Enroute, Sugar tells Joe that she's in love with him and not with "Junior". Jerry, for his part, tries to explain to Osgood that he cannot marry him, but Osgood is oblivious to all of Jerry's objections and remains determined—to the very end—to go through with the marriage; finally, Jerry removes the wig and yells, "I'm a man!", prompting Osgood to utter the film's memorable last line "Well, nobody's perfect."
Cast
Production
The film was planned originally to be filmed in full color, but after several screen tests, it had to be changed to black and white because of a very obvious 'green tint' around the heavy make-up required by Curtis and Lemmon when portraying Josephine and Daphne. The Florida segment was filmed at the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, California.
Some Like It Hot received a "C" (Condemned) rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency. The film, along with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and several other films, contributed to the end of the Production Code in the mid-1960s. It was released by United Artists without the MPAA logo in the credits or title sequence, since the film did not receive Production Code approval.
Tony Curtis is quoted frequently as saying that kissing Marilyn Monroe was like "kissing Hitler." During a 2001 interview with Leonard Maltin, Curtis stated that he never made this claim. In his 2008 autobiography, Curtis notes that he did make the statement to the film crew, but it was meant in a joking manner.[1]. During his appearance in Jules Verne Festival in FRANCE (2008), Curtis revealed on the set of Laurent Ruquier's TV French Show that he and Marilyn were lovers.
The film's title is a line in the nursery rhyme "Pease Porridge Hot." It also occurs as dialogue in the film when Joe, as "Junior", tells Sugar he prefers classical music over hot jazz. The film's working title was "Not Tonight, Josephine".
The movie is not to be confused with the 1939 comedy Some Like It Hot starring Bob Hope, which it doesn't resemble except for the title.
Awards and honors
The film was awarded an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Orry-Kelly) and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Lemmon), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Ted Haworth, Edward G. Boyle), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.[2]
It won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy. Marilyn Monroe won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in Musical or Comedy, and Jack Lemmon for Best Actor in Musical or Comedy.
The film has been acclaimed worldwide as one of the greatest film comedies ever made. During 1989, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," going in on the first year of voting.
In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the eighth greatest comedy film of all time. In 2002, Channel 4 ranked Some Like It Hot as the fifth greatest film ever made in their 100 Greatest Films Poll.
American Film Institute recognition
Soundtrack
- "I'm Through With Love", by Gus Kahn, Matty Malneck, Jay Livingston. Performed by Marilyn Monroe.
- "I Wanna Be Loved By You", by Bert Kalmar, Herbert Stothart, Harry Ruby. Sung by Monroe.
- "Some Like It Hot", by Matty Malneck and I.A.L. Diamond. Performed by Monroe
- "Runnin' Wild", by A.H. Gibbs, Joe Grey, Leo Wood. Sung by Monroe.
- "Down Among the Sheltering Palms", by Olmar-Brockman.
- "Sugar Blues", by Williams-Fletcher.
- "By the Beautiful Sea", by Harry Carroll, Harold Atteridge.
- "Sweet Georgia Brown", by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard, Kenneth Casey.
- "La Cumparsita", written by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez.
- "Stairway to the Stars", music by Matt Malneck and Frank Signorelli.
Adaptations
During 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 production of this show in London featured Tommy Steele and retained the original title. In 2002, Tony Curtis performed in a stage production of the film. He portrayed the character originally played by Joe E. Brown.
See also
Notes
External links
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