This is a wonderfully entertaining film that has to have one of the best final scenes in movie history--seeing Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon in this scene is truly delightful. However, I do wonder if perhaps, maybe, the film is a tiny bit overrated--especially since it is now ranked relatively high on IMDb's Top 250 list. It's an exceptional film...I just don't see it as quite THAT exceptional.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon stumble upon a mob hit. And, since mobsters really DON'T like witnesses, they know they'd better hide--and quick. So they hit upon the idea of hiding in an all-ladies' band, as they, too, are musicians. There, Tony falls in love with Marilyn Monroe--and it's hard for him to balance his female persona with the bookish guy he also pretends to be to impress her. As for Jack, he becomes the focus of a rich older man's attentions (Joe E. Brown). So how do they both balance these relationships with a strong desire NOT to be killed by the mob? The film has some nice supporting acting by George Raft and Pat O'Brien-and it's nice to see them return to films. As for the acting, it's generally very good, though I think Curtis' acting is a bit broad at times--but oddly charming as well.

Overall, there's a lot to enjoy and it's fun throughout.

Some Like it Hot is a truly delightful and hilarious comedy, complete with brilliant performances and great writing. This is the sort of comedy that has the desire of sex as part of the plot, and while there have been films that have ignored this, this film embraces it to stellar effect. The plot is brilliant in construction and almost elaborate, about two men escape after witnessing a mob fight, and join an all female band disguised as women, and this is where the film gets complicated. The direction from Billy Wilder is spot on, the cinematography is beautiful and the music is gorgeous. Other than the performances, the real treasure comes in the script, a mother load of classically delicious lines that are not only funny but intelligent as well. The performances are note perfect, while Tony Curtis and Jack Curtis give truly wonderful performances, it is the beautiful Marilyn Monroe in a deliciously seductive and sly performance who steals the acting honours. All in all, a truly wonderful comedy, right up there with comedies like Duck Soup and Night At the Opera as one of the best comedies of all time. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Billy Wilder being as daring as he could with Code still firmly in place decides to stretch all the gender boundaries he could with this comedy in drag. The results some say resulted in the funniest film ever made.

Some Like It Hot concerns a couple of jazz age musicians in 1929 witnessing the murder of informant George E. Stone. Of course the head doer George Raft spots our intrepid duo and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are forced to flee Chicago.

The getaway plan. Take a gig with an all woman orchestra going south to Florida. The orchestra has Marilyn Monroe as a singer so the trip will have its pleasant diversity.

After the trouble Wilder had with Monroe on The Seven Year Itch he swore he wouldn't do another film with her. But United Artists wanted a big name for box office guarantee before he could get the financing and Curtis and Lemmon weren't big enough. So Monroe was signed and by all accounts the picture was another trial to make for all concerned.

Tony Curtis's feelings were well known about Monroe, he didn't like her. Yet his scenes with her were very funny indeed both with him in drag and doing a spoof of his idol, Cary Grant.

Jack Lemmon was far more philosophical. I saw him in an interview once simply say that Marilyn was a girl with a whole lot of problems and unrealized talent when she died. That's what you would expect from Lemmon, one of the nicest people ever in the film industry.

Jack Lemmon also got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. But Some Like It Hot ran into the year of Ben-Hur sweeping all the Oscars that year. It wasn't even nominated for Best Picture. Billy Wilder lost for Best Director. The only Oscar it did win was for Orry-Kelly for costume design for those recreations from the Twenties and the special costumes that Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis wore.

Billy Wilder sprinkled his cast with a lot of people identified with the gangster genre. Who more than George Raft who really lived the part in real life. And others like George E. Stone, Mike Mazurki, and Nehemiah Persoff. Pat O'Brien plays the federal man on the trail of the mobsters and in his memoirs O'Brien thanked Billy Wilder profusely for giving him a part in a classic film when his career hit the skids in the Fifties.

Of course the real daring here was Joe E. Brown as the dissolute playboy and his infatuation with Jack Lemmon in drag. Today Brown's character would be really a gay guy who's into drag queens and Lemmon after some initial misgivings might just decide that gay for pay pays a lot better than playing the bull fiddle. But the Code while not broken was stretched a might in Some Like It Hot.

A film that didn't get into the top five in 1959 is now considered the funniest comedy of all time. You won't get any argument from me over that one.