Some Like It Hot (1959) directed by Billy Wilder Movie Review

Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon star in this hilarious rom-com set during the Prohibition. Opening with an impressive car chase, Some Like It Hot tells the story of two male musicians who accidentally witness the murders of a whistleblower and his friends under the orders of Mafia boss "Spats" Colombo (George Raft). To escape that same fate, the pair disguise themselves as women, rename themselves as Josephine and Daphne, and join an all-female band traveling to Miami. They meet vocalist and ukulele player Sugar Kane (Monroe), to whom they are immediately attracted. If Spats tracks down the duo or how the two reveal to Sugar that they are men are for the viewer to learn.

The greatest achievement of Some Like It Hot is its comedy, with the American Film Institute even naming it the funniest movie in American cinema in 2000. This was my second time seeing Monroe on the silver screen (the first time being her minor role in All About Eve), and her performance as an innocent, "not-very-bright" young woman who believed she always got the fuzzy end of the lollipop brought to life an icon comparable to Mickey Mouse. She stole the show the moment she hurried across the train station.

I was laughing both throughout Some Like It Hot and after Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown), a wealthy older man interested in "Daphne," uttered its well-known final line. The smiles the actors' performances caused is reason enough to watch this treasure. But does this highly acclaimed film deserve its prestigious status as one of the greatest movies ever made? It's funny and was a pretty good movie, without a doubt, but many movies are. I am curious as to what it offers beyond the entertainment, if it does at all.