To evade gangsters, two men (Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon) don skirts and makeup and join an all-girl band with... (Learn more)
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon (View All)
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Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
The launching pad for Billy Wilder's comedy classic was a rusty old German farce, Fanfares of Love, whose two main characters were male musicians so desperate to get a job that they disguise themselves as women and play with an all-girl band in gangster-dominated 1929 Chicago. In this version, musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) lose their jobs when a speakeasy owned by mob boss Spats Columbo (George Raft) is raided by prohibition agent Mulligan (Pat O'Brien). Several weeks later, on February 14th, Joe and Jerry get a job perfroming in Urbana and end up witnessing a gangland massacre in a parking garage. Fearing that they will be next on the mobsters' hit lists, Joe devises an ingenious plan for disguising their identities. Soon they are all dolled up and performing as Josephine and Daphne in Sweet Sue's all-girl orchestra. En route to Florida by train with Sweet Sue's band, the boys (girls?) make the acquaintance of Sue's lead singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe, in what may be her best performance). Joe and Jerry immediately fall in love, though of course their new feminine identities prevent them from acting on their desires. Still, they are determined to woo her, and they enact an elaborate series of gender-bending ruses complicated by the fact that flirtatious millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown) has fallen in love with "Daphne." The plot gets even thicker when Spats Columbo and his boys show up in Florida. Nominated for several Oscars, Some Like It Hot ended up the biggest moneymaking comedy up to 1959. Full of hilarious set pieces and movie in-jokes, it has not tarnished with time and in fact seems to get better with each passing year, as its cross-dressing humor keeps it only more and more up-to-date. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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US Release Date
2/28/59
MPAA Rating
Not Rated
Running Time
120 mins.
Locations
- Goldwyn Studios, Hollywood, California, USA
- Hotel del Coronado, San Diego, California, USA
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- San Diego, California, USA
Language
- English
Awards
- Winner of the Best Picture - Comedy award at the 1959 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Foreign Actor award at the 1959 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical award at the 1959 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or award at the 1959 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the 100 Greatest American Movies award at the 1998 American Film Institute [Festival/Awar Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1959 Directors Guild of America [Festival/A Awards.
- Winner of the U.S. National Film Registry award at the 1988 Library of Congress [Festival/Award] Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Director award at the 1959 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best British Film award at the 1959 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Black and White Art Direction award at the 1959 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Black and White Cinematography award at the 1959 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Black and White Costume Design award at the 1959 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Actor award at the 1959 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1959 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay award at the 1959 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
Distributor
- MGM Distribution Company
- MGM Home Entertainment
- United Artists Films
