Some Like It Hot (1959)

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Robert Thoeren (story) and
Michael Logan (story) ...

Release Date:

29 March 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Family | Music | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The movie too HOT for words!

Plot:

When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

Plot Keywords:

Band | Witness | Yacht | Musician | Massacre

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 10 wins & 8 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Nov. 27

5:45 PM

TCM

Cast

Marilyn Monroe	...	Sugar Kane Kowalczyk
Tony Curtis	...	Joe - 'Josephine' / 'Junior'
Jack Lemmon	...	Jerry - 'Daphne'
George Raft	...	Spats Colombo
Pat O'Brien	...	Det. Mulligan
Joe E. Brown	...	Osgood Fielding III
Nehemiah Persoff	...	Little Bonaparte
Joan Shawlee	...	Sweet Sue
Billy Gray	...	Sig Poliakoff
George E. Stone	...	Toothpick Charlie
Dave Barry	...	Beinstock
Mike Mazurki	...	Spats' henchman
Harry Wilson	...	Spats' henchman
Beverly Wills	...	Dolores
Barbara Drew	...	Nellie

Also Known As:

Not Tonight, Josephine! (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Mexico:A | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Singapore:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #19281) | Brazil:Livre | USA:PG-13 (DVD version) | Finland:K-16 (1959) | Finland:S (1987) | South Korea:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | France:-12 (original rating) | France:U (re-rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1989) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Coronado Beach, Coronado, California, USA

Company:

Ashton Productions

Trivia:

Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Early in the movie, Joe says, "Maybe the Dodgers will leave Brooklyn," which is of course funny because the movie came out in 1959, one year after the Dodgers moved to L.A. But the movie is set in 1929, and from 1914 to 1931 the Brooklyn baseball team was known as the Robins, not the Dodgers.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mulligan: All right, Charlie; that the joint?
Toothpick Charlie: Yes, sir.
Mulligan: Who runs it?
Toothpick Charlie: I already told you.
Mulligan: Refresh my memory.
Toothpick Charlie: Spats Columbo.
Mulligan: That's very refreshing; what's the password?
Toothpick Charlie: "I've come to Grandma's funeral." Here's your admission card.
[he gives Mulligan a mourning armband]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Nel cuore della notte (2002)

Soundtrack:

Sweet Georgia Brown

As hot as it gets

A Comedy that has it all, and lacks absolutely nothing. "Nobody's perfect" may be an inherent truism, but "Some Like it Hot" is a definite somebody in the universe of cinema, thus it IS perfect in every sense. Swing, sex and slapstick, (three words that immediately come to mind when trying to describe it) , are a mix so delicious, so fruitful in its possibilities that one cannot imagine a film which can live up to them, and yet this one does. Marilyn, her trademark, displeasingly infantile voice aside, is a bombshell of thermonuclear dimensions, whose powers of titillation will not expire so long as there are hormones and/or Viagra. The sexual content, for socio-historical reasons cannot be as explicit as we've come to expect, but there's still plenty of it, from Monroe's see-through outfit to the double entendre worthy of the Farelli Brothers ("What do I do if it's an emergency ? - Pull the emergency break!" ), including overtly gay themes that have a cult following of their own. The Lemmon/Curtis duo operates with gleeful, unrestrained vitality that can only be likened to Chaplin in his heyday. Though not a Musical, the combustive energy of this movie is so stimulating it almost makes you get up and dance.