Some Like It Hot (1959)

Billy Wilder’s supreme gender-bending comedy has Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as female-posing musicians on the lam, and many knickers in a twist.

Billy Wilder’s zany cross-dressing comedy begins with a massacre – resembling the gangland St Valentine’s Day killings of 1929 – and ends with one of the most celebrated last lines in cinema history. Written in cahoots with the director’s new collaborator I.A.L. Diamond, Some Like It Hot ascends to inspired heights of silliness in-between, with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon both on career-best form as dragged-up musicians hiding out with Sugar Kane’s girl band.

Both the gangster story and the screwball antics hark back to Hollywood films of the 1930s, but Wilder’s outrageous and subversive play with gender was truly boundary pushing and helped lead to a loosening of censorship after United Arists released the film without certification.

“Sensationally funny, one of the best scripts ever, Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her incandescence, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon beyond brilliant in drag and some great songs. How can anyone not love this?” Alan Jones

“I was about to write about the richly coded and deceptively generous queerness of Billy Wilder’s immortal cross-dressing comedy, but I also shouldn’t overcomplicate things: it’s here because it has always made me laugh like nothing else, and still does.” Guy Lodge

“Nobody’s perfect. Nobody but Billy Wilder.” Fabio Troncarelli

“Comedies are always underrated in this poll. This is a masterpiece of its genre, one of the funniest films ever made. Wonderful actors, wonderful tempo, wonderful dialogue.” Barbara Schweizerhof

1959 USA
Directed by
Billy Wilder
Produced by
Billy Wilder
Written by
Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Featuring
Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
Running time
120 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Some Like It Hot

Critics

Nirit Anderman
Israel
Rebecca Barden
UK
Tom Beasley
UK
Phillip Bergson
UK
Maria Bonsanti
Italy
Stephen Bourne
UK
Xan Brooks
UK
Nae Caranfil
Romania
Jane Crowther
UK
Alex Davidson
UK
Mar Diestro-Dópido
UK
Valerie Ettenhofer
USA
Elsa Fernández-Santos
Spain
Charles Gant
UK
Charlotte Garson
France
Hannah Hamad
UK
Patrick Heidmann
Germany
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
UK
Isabel Ivars
Spain/Germany
Alan Jones
UK
Ivan Kozlenko
Ukraine
Anke Leweke
Germany
Guy Lodge
UK/South Africa
Emanuela Martini
Italy
Emily Maskell
UK
Wendy Mitchell
UK
Khalid Mohamed
India
Raya Morag
Israel
Bogdan Movileanu
Romania
Darcy Paquet
USA
Milan Pavlovic
Germany
Maria Assunta Pimpinelli
Italy
Andrei Plakhov
Russia
Edward Porter
UK
Caspar Salmon
UK
AJ Schnack
USA
Barbara Schweizerhof
Germany
Anna Smith
UK
Damon Smith
UK
Kate Stables
UK
Matthew Sweet
UK
Kristina Tarasova
UK
Richard Taylor
UK
Teet Teinemaa
Estonia
Fabio Troncarelli
Italy
Susan Vahabzadeh
Germany
Andrea Virginás
Hungary/Romania
Grant Watson
Australia
Paul Wells
UK
Melanie Williams
UK
Michael Wood
USA
Rowan Woods
UK
Ab Zagt
Netherlands

Directors

Richard Eyre
UK
Andrew Haigh
UK
Ahmed Jamal
UK
Bart Layton
UK
Mike Leigh
UK
Helen Petts
UK
Lone Scherfig
Denmark
Emma Seligman
USA
Chris Shepherd
United Kingdom
Peter Tscherkassky
Austria
Claudia Weill
USA

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