Some Like It Hot

UPC: 027616860385

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations, Questionable for Children]

Summary: The launching pad for Billy Wilder's comedy classic was a rusty old German farce, Fanfares of Love, whose two main characters were male musicians so desperate to get a job that they disguise themselves as women and play with an all-girl band in gangster-dominated 1929 Chicago. In this version, musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) lose their jobs when a speakeasy owned by mob boss Spats Columbo (George Raft) is raided by prohibition agent Mulligan (Pat O'Brien). Several weeks later, on February 14th, Joe and Jerry get a job perfroming in Urbana and end up witnessing a gangland massacre in a parking garage. Fearing that they will be next on the mobsters' hit lists, Joe devises an ingenious plan for disguising their identities. Soon they are all dolled up and performing as Josephine and Daphne in Sweet Sue's all-girl orchestra. En route to Florida by train with Sweet Sue's band, the boys (girls?) make the acquaintance of Sue's lead singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe, in what may be her best performance). Joe and Jerry immediately fall in love, though of course their new feminine identities prevent them from acting on their desires. Still, they are determined to woo her, and they enact an elaborate series of gender-bending ruses complicated by the fact that flirtatious millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown) has fallen in love with "Daphne." The plot gets even thicker when Spats Columbo and his boys show up in Florida. Nominated for several Oscars, Some Like It Hot ended up the biggest moneymaking comedy up to 1959. Full of hilarious set pieces and movie in-jokes, it has not tarnished with time and in fact seems to get better with each passing year, as its cross-dressing humor keeps it only more and more up-to-date. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: Best British Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Comedy – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Black and White Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Picture - Comedy – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: Digitally enhanced 5.1 Surround & mono
French: mono
Spanish: mono
French & Spanish subtitles

Some Like It Hot

Format: DVD

Release Date: 05/22/2001

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 122 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: French,Spanish,English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1
0. Scene Selections
1. Title/If You Gotta Go... [5:09]
2. ...This Is The Way [6:53]
3. Seeking Sax And Bass [6:13]
4. Bumped Off [5:49]
5. A Whole Different Sex [4:59]
6. Sugar Kowalczyk [5:50]
7. "Party In Upper 7" [13:37]
8. Life As A Red Flag [5:49]
9. "Shell Oil Junior" [2:59]
10. Millionaire Swap [11:51]
11. Fighting Freud [8:14]
12. Daphne's Last Chance [10:55]
13. Italian Opera Lovers [4:56]
14. Run From Commitment [1:05]
15. Spats Takes The Cake [4:50]
16. "Nobody's Perfect" [9:37]

Rebecca Flint Marx

Possibly the best cross-dressing film of all time, Some Like It Hot is a testament to both the humor of hairy men in heels and Billy Wilder's ability to stretch a one-joke premise into a two-hour film. Still hilarious after all these years, Some Like It Hot was remarkably ahead of its time, providing both timeless laughs and sly gender commentary. The film also stands out as a classic example of the heights to which all-out farce can aspire, achieving an uncontrived giddiness through both plot manipulation and the finely tuned work of its performers. As the film's reluctantly dragged-up musicians, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis give almost flawless fish-out-of-water performances. Their frustrated befuddlement when confronted with the terrors of walking in heels or adjusting fake breasts still feels fresh and unforced, unlike the self-conscious posturing of other actors in subsequent drag films. As the aptly named Sugar Kane, Marilyn Monroe is at her bubble-headed, sexy best, her voluptuous sensuality providing a perfect foil for Lemmon and Curtis. One of Wilder's best films, Some Like It Hot retains its intergenerational appeal, proving that under the frothy icing of 1950s sex comedies lurked some very dense cake. Some Like It Hot remains one of the few films that can still make drag seem a novel and innovative subject. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Mike Mazurki  Actor 
Tom Kennedy  Actor 
John Indrisano  Actor 
Grace Lee Whitney  Actor 
Marian Collier  Actor 
Adolph Deutsch  Composer (Music Score) 
I.A.L. Diamond  Screenwriter 
Billy Wilder  Director 
Billy Wilder  Producer 
Billy Wilder  Screenwriter 
Marilyn Monroe  Actor 
Tony Curtis  Actor 
Jack Lemmon  Actor 
George Raft  Actor 
Pat O'Brien  Actor 
Joe E. Brown  Actor 
Nehemiah Persoff  Actor 
Joan Shawlee  Actor 
Billy Gray  Actor 
George E. Stone  Actor 
Dave Barry  Actor 
Harry Wilson  Actor 
Beverly Wills  Actor 
Edward G. Robinson, Jr.  Actor 

Country: USA