Some Like It Hot (1959)

Genres

Comedy, Romance

Director

Billy Wilder

Country

USA

Cast

Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Nehemiah Persoff, Joan Shawlee, Dave Barry, Billy Gray, Barbara Drew, George E. Stone, Mike Mazurki, Harry Wilson, Edward G. Robinson Jr., Beverly Wills, Al Breneman, Tito Vuolo, Tom Kennedy

Storyline

After witnessing a Mafia murder, two musicians from Chicago, Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), join an all-female band disguised as women. But things get a little more complicated when one of the two falls for Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), another member of the band.

Opinion

If a week ago, someone had told I would love a romantic comedy I would have thought he/she was messing with me. But it wouldn't have been such a farfetched idea because I loved Some Like It Hot, a real romantic comedy as it has both a romance and tons of humour. Today's filmmakers have a lot to learn from this.

The story is very intriguing, it develops very well, it has a wonderful pacing, and it's told with such a vitality that keeps you engaged from the start to the very end. It is so well-paced and thought that there isn't a single dull moment in the entire film. And how about the ending? Priceless, and probably one of the best endings ever.

The characters aren't anything special - they are pretty clichéed, to be honest, and they might come across as offensive -, but they are fun and memorable thank to a fantastic leading due, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon who both fit to perfection their double characters, Joe and Josephine the first, Jerry and Daphne the latter. These two are clearly having lots of fun and they make this film alive. Equality memorable is Marylin Monroe's character, Sugar, a materialistic and naive young woman. And just like Curtin and Lemmon, she fits the part of the beautiful and sweet woman perfectly.

The humour is fantastic and it works better than it did in a more recent yet similar movie I love, Tootsie. In Some Like It Hot, the problems one of the characters, a man pretending to be a woman who falls for a woman, encounters are handled in a more playful, mocking way so the comedy works a lot better. Also, this film deals with sexual identity from start to finish without becoming preachy. It's just a lot fun.