I had seen a few films about Marilyn Monroe, such as "Blonde", but I hadn't seen any with her. And until now, it was a bit unclear to me why she was such a big star—after all, all these movies highlight all the problems in her life. But after watching "Some Like It Hot," I finally know why Monroe became such an icon—she really is fantastic from her first scene. Her pin-up look is also extremely different from most other actresses of her time, so there was something unique about her.

The movie itself is also great, and most importantly, the humor is timeless. It's a sort of campy black comedy with slapstick touches, and its simplicity means it's still funny today. And fortunately, there are also not many elements that would make you grit your teeth with a modern look: unlike many other films of the time, "Some Like It Hot" definitely doesn't need a content warning these days. I doubt I'll have seen this movie for the last time, if only because it's an extremely well-rounded viewing experience, from the beginning to the last line of dialogue. You can't go wrong starting with this one if you want to catch up on older films.

[8.3/10] To call *Some Like It Hot* absurd is an understatement of yacht-like proportions. The movie requires you to believe that Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis could plausibly pass as women in 1920s society. It insists you accept that Sugar, the dippy singer who becomes fast friends with the duo, would buy Curtis’s character’s dopey faux-millionaire routine without ever catching on. It asks you to take on faith that Osgood Fielding III, a smitten man of money himself, could tango with Lemmon for hours and never get wise to his secret.

If you can accept that absurdity though, what you’ll get in return is one of cinema’s all-time funniest farces. The film has the spirit of one of Shakespeare’s comedies. (*As You Like It* comes to mind, naturally.) Characters take on hidden identities to escape trouble or find love. Ridiculous scenarios follow when their new personas clash with their old ones. True love abides in silly terms. And it ends with a wedding, more or less.

That approach helps the medicine go down. I don’t want to damn *Some Like It Hot* by calling it classically-inspired, but you can find that same Bard-like energy in its constant wordplay and escalating goofiness. Writer-director Billy Wilder and his team practically wink at the audience through all of this, acknowledging the outsized irreverence of the setup, but the movie just has too much fun to care about trifles like plausibility.

Nobody, however, is having more fun than Jack Lemmon. As Jerry/Daphne, he’s a wind-up toy who’s always just been wound up. He mugs. He flounces. He laughs like a hyena at his own smart remarks. He squirms. He tangos. He flees like a cat who just heard the vacuum cleaner. He grins. He slaps. And he keeps his comical motor running at all times, as Jerry begins plainly having a blast in his feminine getup, to the point where you wonder if he’s steadily learning something big about himself through this whole escapade. Through all of it, Lemmon is an absolute shining star, threatening to go supernova at all times.

His likable, over-the-top energy helps sustain the film through its loopy set pieces, which is a good thing, since this release is a surprising thing for the 1950s -- a sex comedy. The premise of two chaps posing as dames to avoid a mob hit doesn’t necessarily portend that tack, but Wilder and company find their way there anyway. Lemmon’s “Daphne” and Curtis’s “Josephine” aren’t just angling to avoid being rubbed out like the squealer targeted by Chicago crime boss “Spats” Colombo. They’re trying to evade the advances of wealthy admirers and presumptuous bellhops, not to mention rub elbows (and other body parts) with their breathy, buxom bandmate, Sugar.

Make no mistake, while pretty tame by modern standards, the film wastes no opportunity to get risque with Marilyn Monroe. The costuming team puts her in as many barely-there outfits as possible. She croons about love while offering as many wiggles as shimmies as one can reasonably cram into a given stanza. And she giggles and coos with every jibe and surreptitious come-on. For as much great, outsized comedy is packed into every frame of *Some Like It Hot*, it’s not hard to divine what Wilder was hoping to sell the movie on.

Despite that mercenary/objectifying bent, Monroe does well in the role. There’s more life and joie de vivre in her performance here than in lesser outings like her turn in *How to Marry a Millionaire*. As much as the film turns Monroe into an attraction, it also lets her be a character: resigned to her rotten luck in love, a little bit bad, and apt to form a genuine friendship with her drag-wearing counterparts. Maybe this is all just a fig leaf to excuse invoking Monroe for her more superficial attributes, but she makes the most of the persona.

As much as a marketing boon as it is to feature Marylin Monroe in a sex comedy, *Some Like It Hot* may be more properly categorized as a sexual harassment comedy. While that term didn’t exist in 1959, Josephine and Daphne are on both the giving and receiving ends of questionable “romantic” pursuit. The two of them are pinched, patted, and cornered, despite their less-than-convincing disguises. They use their feminine getups to sneak peaks at their bandmates in their bed-clothes. And Joe even manages to seduce Sugar under the falsest of false pretenses, not long after a failed attempt by Jerry to do the same. The phrase, “This couldn’t get made today” is thrown around a lot lately, but it rings true for Wilder’s less-than-sensitive romp.

And yet, it’s a strangely progressive, or at least open-minded, film, especially judged for its era. As much as it makes Joe and Jerry transgressors themselves, Wilder and co-writer I. A. L. Diamond add in subtle realizations from the twosome that it’s not as fun to be on the receiving end of those unwanted advances. The gender politics of *Some Like It Hot* aren’t great, as you might imagine, but there’s quiet acknowledgement that being a woman in this world creates challenges men don’t have to face, something even “Daphne” and “Josephine” are forced to acknowledge.

In the same vein, you would hardly hold up this movie as a bastion of trans representation. It feeds into problematic stereotypes about trans women having something to hide or otherwise “trick” others. But it also lands on a strangely heartening “love is love” finish. You’re uncomfortable, to say the least, when Curtis’s Josephine tries to make good and gets the girl despite his multiple, reprehensible deceptions. At the same time though, the message is one that attraction and attachment persists, and is more important than whatever presentation two partners take on in a given moment.

Beyond that, the movie features a quasi-lesbian kiss (or at least what the on-screen audience perceives as one), and depicts Lemmon’s Daphne and his moneyed suitor Osgood genuinely caring for one another, even when Daphne’s biology is revealed. Some of this is played for laughs of the “Could you even imagine?” variety, but there’s also a sort of transgressive 1950s brand of acceptance beneath it all.

While the movie’s take on gender and romance is a mixed bag sags, and although it sags in places (mostly during Joe’s millionaire seduction scheme and the latter mob interludes), the sheer raucous silliness of the thing sustains it throughout. *Some Like It Hot* is not a place to go in search of realism of down-to-earth observations. Instead, it’s a launchpad for uproarious snappy dialogue, rib-splitting facial expressions, and more delightful lunacy than even most cartoons can muster. The premise of this one is out there, but there’s no shortage of entertaining, energetic absurdity, expertly crafted to flip the audience’s wig.

**One of Curtis' best films... and an effective and enjoyable comedy.**

For many, this movie is simply one of the greatest comedies of all time. However, I have serious doubts about that. In my personal opinion, it's a good comedy, it entertains its audience very well, and there's no doubt about its status as a movie classic. Starting from this reasonable basis and placing the film at the heights as the best or one of the best already seems unreasonable and exaggerated. But that's just what I think.

The script is set during the Prohibition, a time when speakeasies were one of the biggest sources of financial income for mobsters. The script starts from this context and creates an interesting and reasonably well-written story, where two jazz musicians end up becoming witnesses to a massacre, in which a group of mobsters kills a rival group in Chicago. This, of course, was inspired by a true, very famous incident, the Valentine's Day Massacre. Persecuted and in life danger, they decide to dress up as two women and hide, like members of a female jazz orchestra that takes a train to the coast, to perform in a hotel. Of course, then the funniest part of the movie begins, with the characters trying to keep the cover-up amid the romantic shenanigans that unfold.

In addition to a good script and good dialogue, the film has very good performances by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, the two great male protagonists. For me, this is one of the most interesting films of both their careers, and it's great to see the way they both played together. I also liked the works of George Raft and Joe E. Brown, which gives soul and grace to the end, very famous and funny. Pat O'Brien also does a good job, even if he doesn't follow his peers closely. But the film was probably better known to audiences thanks to the female star, Marilyn Monroe. But I don't like her work here. She was an extraordinary singer, and her best scenes are the ones where she sings... but I never thought of her as a good and talented actress (she couldn't even memorize what she had to say, and the director practically swore that would never work with her again): and, really, her performance in the film is irritating, turning the character into a sly young woman and something of an idiot.

The film doesn't make a big bet on the technical aspects, but it offers us high quality sets and costumes, good effects and an effective soundtrack. From the beginning, it takes on a pleasant rhythm that allows the two hours of duration to pass without us noticing. It also features good cinematography, with a regular filming job that makes the best use of selected filming locations.

I really don't get the comedy here.
Curtis and Lemmon dress up as showgirls to avoid the mob.
That's good for a five minute sketch, but not a full length movie.
And that's the problem. It is stretched out to be an ordeal. For some reason, some guy likes Lemmon as a woman, and Lemmon avoids him. And for some reason, Curtis likes a relatively plain showgirl (Marilyn Monroe was always a "woman's woman", not in the league with the beauties of Hollywood, which was her appeal, being the "girl next door" instead of "the girl you wanted next door" Dawn Welles or Raquel Welch.
But who is lucky enough to get Dawn Welles next door to him? Which is why we get the more down to earth looks of Marilyn to be popular in movies.
The "comedy" was "dated" even in the sixties. I'm not sure it was even funny in 1959, but it appears to have a designated target audience of people who like super dry humor disguised as slapstick, or whatever you call this vain attempt to be funny.
It isn't a "terrible movie", and it isn't depressing, but it is quite dull. Not good news for a comedy.

Ridiculous plot, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

'Some Like It Hot' is good, unserious fun. Tony Curtis (Joe) and Jack Lemmon (Jerry) are the stars of the show, with amusing performances from start-to-finish. Marilyn Monroe is pleasant too, this is actually the first film of Monroe's I've seen. A good'un!

The pacing isn't perfect but that doesn't hamper things at all really. It's a bonkers 122 minutes, filled with entertaining shenanigans - the ending is particularly wacky. Don't think I would've liked it as well without Curtis & Lemmon, admittedly.

Worth watching, without question.