Part of Weekend Classics
One of the most beloved films of all time, this sizzling masterpiece by Billy Wilder set a new standard for Hollywood comedy. After witnessing a mob hit, Chicago musicians Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, in landmark performances) skip town by donning drag and joining an all-female band en route to Miami. The charm of the group’s singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe, at the height of her bombshell powers) leads them ever further into extravagant lies, as Joe assumes the persona of a millionaire to woo her and Jerry’s female alter ego winds up engaged to a tycoon. With a whip-smart script by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, and sparking chemistry among its finely tuned cast, SOME LIKE IT HOT is as deliriously funny and fresh today as it was when it first knocked audiences out six decades ago. (Synopsis courtesy of the Criterion Collection)
See also: Nashville’s Great Pretenders: A Seminar on the History of Drag Performance in Music City (Sat, Mar 25 at 12:00pm)
“Effortlessly fluent, joyous and buoyant: a high-concept comedy that stays as high as a kite, while other comedies flag. ‘Nobody's perfect’ is the last line. Wilder, Lemmon, Curtis and Monroe come pretty close.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian “The first time you see Billy Wilder's 1959 farce, you might not believe that anything can make you laugh so hard for so long. Where most comedies wear out their audience after an hour and a half, SOME LIKE IT HOT goes on for 122 minutes and leaves you ebullient.” —Charles Taylor, Salon
