Billy Wilder (1906-2002) was one of classic Hollywood's most versatile and acclaimed writer-directors. He won six Academy Awards and helmed two Best Picture Oscar winners. His range was exceptional: "Double Indemnity" (1944), landmark noir; "The Lost Weekend" (1945), a graphic portrayal of alcoholism; "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), the blackest comedy about movie stardom ever made; "Sabrina" (1953), a charming romance; "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957), a dazzling mystery; and "The Apartment" (1960), a harsh look at American corporate culture. He also directed and co-wrote (with I.A.L. Diamond) "Some Like It Hot" (1959). This fast-paced tale of murderous gangsters, transvestism, impotence, and sexual fluidity is hilarious. It has just been released in a superb Criterion DVD.
The film opens in Chicago in February 1929. Saxophonist Joe (Tony Curtis) and bass fiddler Gerry (Jack Lemmon) are playing in a speakeasy behind a funeral parlor. It's owned by "Spats" Colombo (George Raft), who's on site with his mob when Detective Mulligan (Pat O'Brien) leads a raid on it.
The guys avoid the police and look for work in the freezing weather. A booking agent needs two "girl" musicians, a saxophonist and a bass fiddler, for a band heading to Florida. They witness Spats and his boys kill rival hoods: the notorious St. Valentine's Day Massacre. They flee. The next day, in full drag, they board the train as the newest members of "Sweet Sue's All Girl Syncopated Band." Sue (Joan Shawlee) wonders if they're too refined to fit in, but she needs them. Joe is now "Josephine," and Gerry, in a last-minute switch, becomes "Daphne."
Sugar Kane (a somewhat zaftig Marilyn Monroe) is the band's singer and ukulele player. She's always getting "the fuzzy end of the lollipop" from the saxophone players she finds irresistible. She's made up her mind to marry a Miami millionaire.
One of the millionaires at the posh hotel where the band is performing, Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), falls for "Daphne." Joe, in a stolen blazer and white slacks, meets Sugar at the beach. In a flawless Cary Grant accent, he reveals he's the heir to the Shell Oil fortune and is known as "Junior." Sugar is impressed. Romantic complications follow for both couples.
Joe borrows Osgood's yacht and invites Sugar to dinner. He explains why he's unable to respond to women: a traumatic experience has left him incapable of performing. The best doctors have examined him, without finding a cure. Sugar offers to try. Meanwhile, Osgood has taken Daphne dancing, to a club featuring a Cuban band. They tango the night away. When Joe and Gerry meet later that night in their room, Gerry says he is going to marry Osgood "for security." Joe is dismayed.
The complications become more hilarious when Spats, his boys, and other gangsters arrive at the hotel to attend a gathering of The Friends of Italian Opera, presided over by a mafia Don, Little Bonaparte (Nehemiah Persoff). He wants to avenge the death of his childhood friend, Toothpick Charlie (George E. Stone). Prior to the banquet, Spats recognized "Josephine" and "Daphne" as the witnesses to the Chicago massacre, but they dodge the goons. The slam-bang finale is LOL funny and satisfying.
Monroe was often late on the set and had difficulties with her lines, but the results show none of that. She is perfect as Sugar. Her determination to arouse "Junior" is sweet, comic, and sexy. She is utterly convincing in her belief that "Josephine" and "Daphne" are women. Otherwise, the film would not work. She sings three songs, "Running Wild," "I Wanna Be Loved by You," and hauntingly, "I'm Through with Love." Sadly, she was overlooked when it came to an Oscar nomination.
Lemmon's "Daphne" is a comic masterpiece, even if "she" would not fool most people. He can hardly keep his hands off Sugar, yet is fascinated by the possibility of an unconsummated marriage to Osgood. He earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination, losing to Charlton Heston's pious "Ben-Hur."
Curtis wasn't nominated, yet his performance at times surpasses Lemmon's. One of the era's prettiest male stars, he looks appealing made up, and knows it. His Grant impersonation adds another lawyer of complexity: Grant was chased by his leading ladies, he often was a passive leading man, and his bisexuality was well-known. Curtis grows from womanizer to tender lover, a believable transition that makes him sympathetic.
Raft and O'Brien are marvelous in parodying the roles that made them famous at Warner Bros. Brown, too, makes the audience think he believes Daphne is a woman. He has the movie's celebrated last line. Although same-sex marriage wasn't legal in 1959, the line and Brown's delivery have a new meaning: perhaps the oft-married Osgood is open to a change.
Orry-Kelly (one of Cary Grant's former lovers) won the black-and-white Best Costume Oscar for Monroe's spectacular gowns. Wilder received a Best Director nomination, as did the black-and-white Cinematography, Art and Set Decoration. The Miami scenes were shot at San Diego's legendary Del Coronado Hotel. The film was a box-office smash.
Extras include interviews with Lemmon and Curtis, who discuss how difficult being in drag for hours was, how hard it was to walk and run in high heels. Curtis also discusses his off-camera relationship with Monroe. His reminiscences aren't reliable. Over the decades, his story changed, going from platonic dates to greater intimacy. It seems the older he got, the better he was.