Comedy, Romance, Cross-Dressing, and Mafia in Miami

One of the my favorite romantic comedies about music, love, cross-dressing, and the mafia definitely has to be Billy Wilder's 1959 film Some Like It Hot. With the stellar cast of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, it is easy to see why this steamy film is on top of so many film lists and continues to delight and entertain nearly fifty years after it was made.

After being witness to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, saxophonist Joe (Curtis) and bass violin player Jerry (Lemmon) try to hide from the mob by disguising themselves as Josephine and Daphne and joining an all-girl band headed by vocalist and ukulele player Sugar Kane (Monroe) headed for a rich resort in Miami filled with millionaires. Joe falls in love with Sugar and pretends to be a rich millionaire (when he's not in drag as Josephine). Meanwhile "Daphne" is being chased around by real millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown), who's yacht Joe conveniently uses to keep up his charade with Sugar. When the mob comes for a convention in Miami to deal with the two missing witnesses from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a whole new dimension of comedy ensues.

For a more detailed synopsis and review, you can click here, thanks to filmsite.org. Legendary costume designer Orry-Kelly designed the dresses worn not only by Monroe but also by Curtis and Lemmon when they were dressed up as their female alter-egos. The cast in this film is not the original cast Wilder and the studio intended at all. Danny Kaye and Bob Hope were considered for the roles that went to Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Mitizi Gaynor was wanted for Monroe's role of Sugar Kane and director Billy Wilder originally wanted Frank Sinatra as Jerry/Daphne. Of course, the roles being assigned as they were have made the film that much more memorable.

In fact, this film is #81 on IMDB's list of 250 Greatest Movies, made Time's list of 100 Greatest Movies, and AFI voted it #14 on its list of top movies and #1 on it's list of top comedies. Premiere Magazine also voted it as the #1 comedy on its list of 50 Greatest Comedies of All time and Entertainment Weekly voted it 9th on its list of Greatest Comedies of All Time. For more info and reviews on the film, you can check out this article at Frank's Movie Log. For a more in depth look at the filmography, you can check out this site, thanks to film.u-net.com. Screensavour.net has this site, which focuses on both the history and the humor of the film. Finally, a brief overview can be found here, thanks to 1001flicks blogspot. As a special treat, here is the original trailer for the film: