Watching SOME LIKE IT HOT for the First Time

Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American crime comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder. It stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, with George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff in supporting roles. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan from the 1935 French film Fanfare of Love. The film is about two musicians who disguise themselves by dressing as women to escape from mafia gangsters whom they witnessed committing a crime.
Some Like It Hot opened to critical and commercial success and is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning for Best Costume Design. In 1989, the Library of Congress selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The film was produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) because it features cross-dressing. The code had been gradually weakening in its scope since the early 1950s, owing to greater social tolerance for taboo topics in film, but it was enforced until the mid-1960s. The overwhelming success of Some Like It Hot is considered one of the reasons behind the retirement of the Hays Code.
Cast
Tony Curtis as "Shell Oil Junior" and Marilyn Monroe as Sugar
Marilyn Monroe as Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk, a ukulele player and singer
Tony Curtis as Joe/"Josephine"/"Shell Oil Junior", a saxophone player
Jack Lemmon as Jerry/"Jerraldine" and later "Daphne", a double bass player
Joe E. Brown as Osgood Fielding III
George Raft as "Spats" Colombo, a mobster from Chicago
Pat O'Brien as Agent Mulligan
Nehemiah Persoff as "Little Bonaparte", a mobster and leader of the "Friends of Italian Opera Society"
Joan Shawlee as Sweet Sue, the bandleader of "Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopators"
Dave Barry as Mister Bienstock, the band manager for "Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopators"
Billy Gray as Sig Poliakoff, Joe and Jerry's agent in Chicago
Barbara Drew as Nellie Weinmeyer, Poliakoff's secretary
Grace Lee Whitney as Rosella (Fiddle)[citation needed]
George E. Stone as "Toothpick" Charlie, a gangster who is killed by "Spats" Colombo
Mike Mazurki as Spats's henchman
Harry Wilson as Spats's henchman
Edward G. Robinson Jr. as Johnny Paradise, a gangster who kills "Spats" Colombo
Beverly Wills as Dolores, a trombone player, and Sugar's apartment friend
Al Breneman as the bellboy (uncredited)
Critical response
Some Like It Hot received widespread acclaim from critics and is considered among the best films of all time. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 70 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Some Like It Hot: A spry, quick-witted farce that never drags." According to Metacritic, another review aggregator which calculated a weighted average score of 98 out of 100 based on 19 critics, the film received "universal acclaim". Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert wrote, "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft." Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and included it in his Great Movies list. John McCarten of The New Yorker referred to the film as "a jolly, carefree enterprise". Richard Roud, writing for The Guardian in 1967, said with this film Wilder comes "close to perfection".
In 1989, the film became one of the first 25 inducted into the United States National Film Registry.
Some Like It Hot was voted as the top comedy film by the American Film Institute on their list on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs poll in 2000, and was selected as the best comedy of all time in a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017. In 2005, the British Film Institute included this film on its list of "Top fifty films for children up to the age of 14". The 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll ranked it as the 38th greatest film of all time, tied with Rear Window and a bout de souffle. The 2022 Sight & Sound directors' poll ranked it 62nd, tied with nine other films. In the earlier 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 42nd-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll and 37th in the directors' poll. The 2002 Sight & Sound polls the film ranked 37th among critics and 24th among directors. In 2010, The Guardian considered it the third-best comedy film of all time. In 2015, the film ranked 30th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world. It was included in The New York Times's "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" list in 2002. In 2005, it was included on Time's All-Time 100 best movies list.

[@shwicaz]

That ending line is still hilarious. Marilyn was also fun in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Hot to Marry a Millionaire.

[@josephpaul4548]

Tony Curtis is doing a Cary Grant impression.

[@righterreeder]

lol, so true!

[@calme-dx2dp]

You mean Josephine is doing a Cary Grant impression😏

[@vincentsaia6545]

The guy with the popping out of the cake with the machine gun was Edward G. Robinson, Jr. His father was offered Little Bonaparte but he and George Raft ("Spats Columbo") got into a real-life fist fight working on a movie years earlier and Robinson vowed never to work with Raft again.

[@jurajvivana]

Hahahahha you HAVE to react to her another movies like Seven Year Itch (the one where her dress goes up) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes😍

[@melenatorr]

He is talking like Cary Grant as the millionaire, and that's the joke behind Jack Lemmon snapping that "nobody talks like that!"

[@hambiyt183]

Pls do more marilyn monroe movies i just subscribed you are great reactors!

[@Dej24601]

This film is on the list of American Film Institute list of funniest films at #1 and likewise on a poll done by the BBC. The screenplay and direction are by the incomparable Billy Wilder. Rewatching it and paying close attention to every line of dialogue, every look and gesture, every staging of scenes will increase appreciation and enjoyment of this film. Wilder was meticulous about his scripts and only one line of improvisation on this film was accepted - when Jack Lemmon says “Now, you’re talking- now you are talking.” near the beginning when they discuss appearing as women. So many bits add to the humor and depth- the guy tossing a coin when they enter the room for the Friends of Italian Opera is doing a move that George Raft (playing Spats) made famous in the original “Scarface” and the actor doing the coin flip is the son of actor Edward G Robinson, also famous for his gangster roles. Another “nod” to gangster films is grapefruit scene with Spats, which echoes the Jimmy Cagney scene in “Public Enemy.” Wilder liked to include repeating jokes in his films; an example in this film was the references to Blood Type O. The final line of the film is often on lists of film’s greatest closing lines. Billy Wilder’s gravestone is simple and says “I’m a writer, but then, nobody’s perfect.” Orry-Kelly won the Oscar for Costume Design, partly for the white and the black dresses which Marilyn wears for her 2 musical performances which more or less required her to be sewn into them. The film was selected by the National Film Preservation Board in 1989. Originally intended to be shot in color, the change was made to black & white because the makeup worn by the guys to cover their beards showed up as green on screen. The switch to B&W was congruent with the time period, and Marilyn’s costumes focused more on bodily design than on color. The Florida scenes were all done at the famous Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Wilder didn’t intend this film to be taken seriously, there was no explicit intention of making a political statement about gay rights; it was a comedy and Wilder loved tweaking the noses of censors, and liked to disrupt the “Code” guidelines and did have trouble with the League of Decency, etc because of this, but overall, he liked making people laugh and enjoy silly situations and characters getting into complicated messes. A few years earlier he made “The Seven-Year Itch” also with Marilyn, and it also is goofy, funny and a comical look at people and situations.

[@mervinmannas7671]

Pleae god dont ever let ANYONE try and do a remke of this film its to perfect. George Raft who plays Spat's was originally a song and dance vaudeville entertainer. He taught Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown how to tango and coreographed the dance seqence between them.

[@joycegibbs5267]

too much talking and you're missing the hilarious dialogue !!

[@Dej24601]

Yes! Billy and his co-writer worked for over a year on the script and wanted the audience to enjoy every word.

[@josephpaul4548]

Funny how some "reactors" think their commentary is worth more than the scriptwriters' product. It NEVER comes close - and they'll never know.

[@melenatorr]

The movie with the dress is "The Seven Year Itch". There is a lot more to Monroe than that, and I hope you noticed her comic timing and her interplay with especially Curtis, but also the way she and Lemmon are able to play in sync with each other. You should also appreciate the easy energy of comic Joe E. Brown, who played Osgood and who supplied the ultimate movie punchline at the end of this. He was a veteran comic actor, famous for odd, yowling moans with a Doppler effect that would issue from his very wide mouth in times of stress during a movie. He also plays up well alongside Lemmon. Spats was played by George Raft, well known for playing gangsters at the Warners' Studio during the 1930s. The coin tossing seen in the hotel is a little in joke, as it was a trait he gave a number of his characters. He turned down a number of roles which went instead to Humphrey Bogart, and you could say that Bogart owed part of his stardom to Raft's rejections of great movies. But the two actors played brothers in an interesting movie about truckers, "They Drive By Night".

[@danhurl1349]

to be fair, she one hundred percent lied to him as well. she told him she was a society girl, that basically she had rich upperclass parents. That's why they work, they lied their asses off and only properly got together when they both knew they'd lied their asses off

[@danhurl1349]

A GODS MUST BE CRAZY REFERENCE IN THE WILD??? I have never seen or heard a reference to that movie that I haven't searched for literally ever. This is wild.

[@Kaznil46]

Tony Curtis was going for a cheesy Cary Grant. During the war his unit only had one film, and it starred Grant. They would turn off the volume and Tony would add the humorous new Dialogue in this fake accent.

[@darrenhoskins8382]

Talking over the dialogue?!? Of a Billy Wilder film?!?!

[@jeffbassin630]

Loved your reactions to this classic movie!

[@vincentsaia6545]

I can't believe Jerry: Why would anybody want to honeymoon in Niagra Falls when they could go to the Riviera?

[@im-gi2pg]

Guaranteed laughs with this movie! So funny and well done by a top cast and director Billy Wilder. Other movies for laughs when you really need them are: Legally Blonde Planes, Trains and Automobiles The Jerk Bridget Jones Diary Clueless Great reactions guys!!! 🎉😂💐🥰

[@Lensmaster1]

Billy Wilder didn't like the last line of the movie and he planned to write something he thought would be better to replace it. Fortunately for us, he was too busy and didn't get around to doing that. If youu don't like movies where people manipulate and lie themselves into a corner or a misunderstanding then don't watch comedies made before the 1970s. The majority of romantic comedies before then revolved in some way around the battle of the sexes. That doesn't excuse it. It's just the way it was.

[@stevenspringer1599]

more Marilyn: "The Asphalt Jungle" 1950

[@josephdonato8154]

They talk over the dialogue…..missing out on some brilliant lines.

[@agenttheater5]

Just a year or so ago it got turned into a musical - won best Tony. Some changes to the story but this movie is so iconic that if they didn't make any changes it would be seen as just a pale cardboard imitation. Soundtrack's a lot of fun.

[@vincentsaia6545]

Brynmore was Kathryn Hepburn's alma matre.

[@hennakettunen8755]

Bryn Mawr

[@CharlieGroh]

It's a fact: you can't talk and understand dialogue at the same time. You guys miss alot...I only stayed for three minutes.

[@steveneardley7541]

Stupid comments from people who are barely even watching.

[@dantean]

Somehow these two find their OWN dialogue cleverer than that of screenwriters Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. They're mistaken. In future, I'd freeze the film every time for any (significant) commentary, thus making it appear as if the two of you are really catching everything that's going on, on screen and not missing half the jokes.

[@christiandivine3807]

The "gay" humor was not common at this time since the film treats it as if it normal when it was basically illegal. Billy Wilder was decades ahead of his time.

[@catherinelw9365]

Too much talking over dialogue, missed a lot of funny moments.

[@НатальяЛарина-с9ъ]

Стилист полина вахитова в своем блоге обсуждает похожую на монро девушку

[@glen1ster]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States