Some Like It Hot

Billy Wilder wrote the script for the film with writer I.A.L. Diamond.[9] The plot was based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan for the 1935 French film Fanfare of Love.[10] The original script for Fanfare of Love was untraceable, so Walter Mirisch found a copy of the 1951 German remake, Fanfares of Love. He bought the rights to that script, and Wilder worked with this to produce a new story.[10] Both films follow the story of two musicians in search of work,[9] but Wilder created the gangster subplot that keeps the musicians on the run.[11]

The studio hired female impersonator Barbette to coach Lemmon and Curtis on gender illusion for the film.[10] Monroe worked for 10 percent of the gross in excess of $4 million, Curtis for 5 percent of the gross over $2 million, and Wilder for 17.5 percent of the first million after break-even and 20 percent thereafter.[12]

Tony Curtis was spotted by Billy Wilder while he was making the film Houdini (1953),[13] and he thought Curtis would be perfect for the role of Joe. "I was sure Tony was right for it," explained Wilder, "because he was quite handsome, and when he tells Marilyn that he is one of the Shell Oil family, she has to be able to believe it".[14] Wilder's first idea for the role of Jerry was Frank Sinatra, but he did not come to the audition.[15] Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye were also considered for the role of Jerry. Finally, Wilder saw Jack Lemmon in the comedy Operation Mad Ball[16] and selected him for the part. Wilder and Lemmon would go on to make numerous films together, including The Apartment and several films which also included Walter Matthau.

According to York Film Notes, Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond did not expect a star as big as Marilyn Monroe to take the part of Sugar.[9] "Mitzi Gaynor was who we had in mind," Wilder said. "The word came that Marilyn wanted the part and then we had to have Marilyn."[17] Wilder and Monroe had made the film The Seven Year Itch together in 1955.

It was George Raft's first "A" picture in a number of years.[18]

Hotel del Coronado (2011)

The film was made in California during the summer and autumn of 1958.[19] AFI reported the production dates between early August and November 12, 1958, at Samuel Goldwyn Studios.[20] Many scenes were shot at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California which appeared as the "Seminole Ritz Hotel" in Miami in the film, as it fit into the era of the 1920s and was near Hollywood.

There were many problems with Marilyn Monroe, who lacked concentration and suffered from an addiction to pills. She was constantly late to set, and could not memorize many of her lines, averaging 35–40 takes for a single line according to Tony Curtis.[21] The line "It's me, Sugar" took 47 takes to get correct because Monroe kept getting the word order wrong, saying either "Sugar, it's me" or "It's Sugar, me". Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon made bets during the filming on how many takes she would need to get it right.[22] Three days were scheduled for shooting the scene with Shell Jr. and Sugar at the beach, as Monroe had many complicated lines, but the scene was finished in only 20 minutes.[23] Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg and Monroe's husband Arthur Miller both tried to influence the production, which Wilder and other crew members found annoying.[24][25]

Billy Wilder spoke in 1959 about making another film with Monroe: "I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and they tell me I'm too old and too rich to go through this again."[26] But Wilder also admitted: "My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?"[27] He also stated that Monroe played her part wonderfully.[28]

The film's iconic closing line, "Well, nobody's perfect," is ranked 78th on The Hollywood Reporter list of Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movie Lines, but it was never supposed to be in the final cut. Diamond and Wilder put it in the script as a "placeholder" until they could come up with something better, but they never did.[29] Wilder's tombstone pays homage to the line by reading, "I'm a writer, but then, nobody's perfect".

With regards to sound design, there is a "strong musical element"[9] in the film, with the soundtrack created by Adolph Deutsch. It has an authentic 1920s jazz feel using sharp, brassy strings to create tension in certain moments, for example whenever Spats' gangsters appear. In terms of cinematography and aesthetics, Billy Wilder chose to shoot the film in black and white as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in full drag costume and make-up looked "unacceptably grotesque" in early color tests.[9] Despite Monroe's contract requiring the film to be in color, she agreed to it being filmed in black and white after seeing that Curtis and Lemmon's makeup gave them a "ghoulish" appearance on color film.[30] Orry-Kelly who was in charge of costume design created the costumes for Marilyn Monroe[31][32] as well as Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis,[33] after the stock costumes the studio provided for the male leads fit poorly.

By 1962, Some Like It Hot had grossed $14 million in the US.[34] According to The Numbers, the film ultimately grossed $25 million in the US.[35] As of 2020, it had grossed over $83.2 million internationally.[36]

The film opened in the week ended March 24, 1959, in several cities in the United States; the highest grossing of which were in Chicago, where it grossed $45,000 at the United Artists Theatre with Monroe making an appearance, and in Washington, D.C., where it grossed $40,000 at the Capitol Theatre.[37][38] With results from just six key cities, Variety listed it as the third highest-grossing film in the United States for the week.[39]

The film then expanded to 100 theatres around the country for the Easter holidays,[40] including at the newly renovated State Theatre in New York City on Sunday, March 29, 1959,[20][41] and became number one in the country and remained there for three weeks before being knocked off the top by Imitation of Life.[42] Imitation of Life was top for two weeks before being replaced again by Some Like It Hot,[43] which remained there for another four weeks before being replaced by Pork Chop Hill.[44] In its first month, the film grossed $2,585,120 from 96 engagements.[45]

Some Like It Hot received widespread acclaim from critics, and is considered among the best films of all time. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 66 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Some Like It Hot: A spry, quick-witted farce that never drags."[46] According to Metacritic, another review aggregator which calculated a weighted average score of 98 out of 100 based on 19 critics, the film received "universal acclaim".[47] Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert wrote, "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft."[48] Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and included it in his Great Movies list.[48] John McCarten of The New Yorker referred to the film as "a jolly, carefree enterprise".[49] Richard Roud, writing for The Guardian in 1967, said with this film Wilder comes "close to perfection".[50]

In 1989, this film became one of the first 25 inducted into the United States National Film Registry.[51] In 1998 the film was ranked at No. 7 in Time Out magazine's poll of Top 100 films of all time.[52] In 1999 Entertainment Weekly voted it at No. 9 on their list of 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.[53]

Some Like It Hot was voted as the top comedy film by the American Film Institute on their list on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs poll in 2000, and was selected as the best comedy of all time in a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017.[54] In 2005, the British Film Institute included this film on its list of "Top fifty films for children up to the age of 14".[55] In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 42nd-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll[56] and 37th in the directors' poll.[57] In the earlier 2002 Sight & Sound polls the film ranked 37th among critics[58] and 24th among directors.[59] In 2010, The Guardian considered it the 3rd-best comedy film of all time.[60] In 2015, the film ranked 30th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.[61] It was included in The New York Times's "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" list in 2002.[62] In 2005, it was included on Time's All-Time 100 best movies list.[63] The film was voted at No. 52 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008.[64] In July 2018, it was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.[65]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #14[79]
• 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #1[80][81]
• 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • Osgood Fielding III: "Well, nobody's perfect." – #48[82]
• 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #22[83]

The film was inducted in 1989 into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.[84] The Writers Guild of America ranked the film's screenplay the 9th greatest ever written.[85]