The all-time outrageous, satirical, comedy favorite, Some Like it Hot (1959) is one of the most hilarious, boisterous films ever made. The coarse film is a clever combination of many elements: a spoof of 1920s-30s gangster films with period costumes and speakeasies, and romance in a quasi-screwball comedy with one central joke- entangled and deceptive identities, reversed gender roles and cross-dressing (AMC). In fact, two of the film’s major themes are disguise and masquerade. The black and white film, reminiscent of the early film era in the 1940s, is filled with non-stop action, slapstick, and one-liners reminiscent of Marx Brothers and Mack Sennett comedies (Ebert). The exceptional film was the all-time highest-grossing comedy up to its time and one of the most successful films of 1959, and director Billy Wilder’s funniest comedy in his career.

The plot is again classic screwball. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play Chicago musicians who disguise themselves as women to avoid being rubbed out or murdered after they witnessed the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Ebert). They join an all-girl orchestra on its way to Florida. Marilyn Monroe plays a singer named Sugar, who dreams of marrying a millionaire but despairs with her history of bad luck so far. Curtis lusts for Monroe and disguises himself again as a millionaire to win her. Monroe lusts after money and gives him lessons in love.

Monroe’s explodes of the screen with effortless and sultry sexuality. “Look at that!” Jack Lemmon tells Curtis as he watches her adoringly. “Look how she moves. Like Jell-O on springs. She must have some sort of built-in motor. I tell you, it’s a whole different sex” (Ebert). This quote perfectly describes the racy lines that fill the film and made it one of the more controversial for its time, paving the way for the risqué films of the 1960s.

Wilder’s 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft, a movie that’s about nothing but sex and yet pretends it’s about crime and greed. When genuine emotions strikes the characters, it blindsides them: Curtis thinks he wants only sex, Monroe thinks she wants only money, and they are as astonished as delighted to find they want only each other.

When Considering Monroe’s solo of “I Wanna Be Loved by You, the situation is as basic as it can be: a pretty girl standing in front of an audience and singing a song, however she does it in a way no one else ever could. Monroe and Wilder turn it into one of the most mesmerizing and blatantly sexual scenes in the movies. She wears a clinging, see-through dress, and Wilder places her in the center of a round spotlight that does not simply illuminate her, but instead toys with her curves and teases viewers, especially men. The scene is almost a striptease in which nudity would have been superfluous (Ebert). All the time she seems unaware of the effect, singing the song innocently, as if she thinks it’s the literal truth. To experience that scene is to understand why no other actor, male or female, has more sexual chemistry with the camera than Marylyn Monroe.

When watching the movie, Wilder’s knack of hiding bold sexual symbolism becomes apparent. When Monroe first kisses Curtis while they’re both horizontal on the couch, notice how his patent-leather shoe rises phallically in the mid-distance behind her. The frigid millionaire then confesses he has been cursed, he says “I’ve got a funny sensation in my toes, like someone who has been barbecuing them over a slow flame.” Monroe coyly replies, “Let’s throw another log on that fire.” These hidden innuendoes were not so hidden, as the movie was banned from some theaters and even states.

This extremely funny and influential film, was very different from Wilder’s darker films Double Indemnity and Sunset Boulevard, and was advertised with the tagline: “The move too HOT for words” (Ebert). This line vaguely referring to either jazz, or the skimpy costumes, regardless, this movie was hot and extremely successful with American audience. It was released at the end of the 1950s at a time when the studio system was weakening, along with industry norms and decency expectation. Thus, with advent of television was threatening and during a time of the decline include of the Production Code and its censorship restrictions, Some Like it Hot was able to break through. However, the Catholic League of Decency strongly complained about the film, calling it seriously offensive to Christians and traditional standards of morality and decency due to its subject of cross dressing, double-entendre dialogue, and intimation of homosexuality (Ebert).

As director-producer Wilder had purposely challenged the system with this gender-blending and risqué comedy, filled with sly and witty sexual innuendos. In a way, the film threw open the doors for the 1960s and the unembarrassed vulgarity, free love and sexuality that was too come. The film also brought up issues of abuse, alcoholism, unemployment and murder. Needless to say, it broke free of Hollywood’s past decency standards and opened the door for future films and directors to use their auteur and not worry about decency laws, allowing film to assume a new level of reality and originality.