There is always a thing about Classics, even before you absorb the first frame; you are burdened with huge expectations. But, Some Like It Hot is one of those jet planes where you got to tight your seat belt and forget everything else to enjoy the joyride or you would fall off your seat.

I feel casting in a movie is one of the most under discussed elements of movie making amongst general public but it plays a very significant role in the success of a movie and SLIH is the prime example of it. Apart from Jack Lemmon, none of the protagonists were known for their superior acting skills and they would not have made the cut for a Billy Wilder piece. But, in retrospect, who other than Tony Curtis who had a boyish look and at the same time possessed sharp features could have played a saxophone playing woman charmer who could cross dress to be a part of a woman band. You can only get a flawless performance from a bad actor only if he/she is playing himself/herself and that is the exact reason why Marilyn Monroe wows you in every scene of Some Like It Hot. She is playing a dumb, vivacious and vulnerable damsel who can sing, doesn't mind sleeping with a charming guy whenever she gets a chance and then dips herself in a whiskey bottle when left all alone with herself. Jack Lemmon with a broad muscular jawline was surely the one who had a better chance of getting caught as someone not in the right clothes, but that is very small price to pay, as an actor of his caliber was indispensable to the cause of SLIH. He has an amazing sense of timing when it comes to humor; he is almost chaplinesque when it comes to expressions and the confidence with which he delivers his lines puts him right at the top of stack.

I am not sure when was the concept of black humor introduced in the world of cinema, but, SLIH has to be one of the better examples from the old times where black humor is integrated in the comedy. The black humor is there only to make its presence felt and nothing more. Other than that SLIH is a fun filled journey of Gerald (Lemmon) and Joseph (Curtis), two musicians on the run from dangerous Chicago gangsters who are after their lives. They find their safe house in an all-woman band that is off to Florida for a string of performances. This is where they meet the gorgeous Sugar (Marilyn) and try their luck on flattering her. It is all about how Joseph manages to get ahead in the race and Gerald like a true friend tags along without any explaining or pleading by Joseph. This is what makes SLIH sweet. The necessary salt is added to the movie by little moments like women having a party on train, Sugar hiding whiskey in her stocking, Fielding (Joe Brown) hitting on Dalphe (Gerald disguised as a woman) and further complications that set in because of these. What makes this classical comedy special is the fact that it makes you laugh at so many occasions without being slapstick or cheap or using the chaos technique. And when it doesn't make you laugh, it makes you smile. Most importantly, the movie stays with you.

The manner in which the movie begins, it suddenly makes you wonder - that's too much of real car chasing and shooting for a black and white movie of 40's and then you realize it's done in 1959 and the movie was intentionally produced in black and white. The first scene itself is a cracker and will create a cocktail of emotions, with words like liquor, crime, party, death, music all floating around at the same time. There are plenty of scenes where the camera pans out from one object to another capturing multiple things with different moods and complexion in the same scene and that is a technique which I guess wasn't used quite frequently back then. Make-up job of Curtis and Lemmon is too good for those times and it would have been so important for that to have been correctly done as that is absolutely central to the whole plot. Marilyn's costumes are way modern and she carries them effortlessly.

Some Like It Hot is without any doubt a classic but, probably in no other movie would have the last line played such an important role as in this. The finishing frames where Joe Brown utters the unexpected leave you pleasantly surprised and I am sure it would have had far better impact on the audience 50 years back.

Billy Wilder being as daring as he could with Code still firmly in place decides to stretch all the gender boundaries he could with this comedy in drag. The results some say resulted in the funniest film ever made.

Some Like It Hot concerns a couple of jazz age musicians in 1929 witnessing the murder of informant George E. Stone. Of course the head doer George Raft spots our intrepid duo and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are forced to flee Chicago.

The getaway plan. Take a gig with an all woman orchestra going south to Florida. The orchestra has Marilyn Monroe as a singer so the trip will have its pleasant diversity.

After the trouble Wilder had with Monroe on The Seven Year Itch he swore he wouldn't do another film with her. But United Artists wanted a big name for box office guarantee before he could get the financing and Curtis and Lemmon weren't big enough. So Monroe was signed and by all accounts the picture was another trial to make for all concerned.

Tony Curtis's feelings were well known about Monroe, he didn't like her. Yet his scenes with her were very funny indeed both with him in drag and doing a spoof of his idol, Cary Grant.

Jack Lemmon was far more philosophical. I saw him in an interview once simply say that Marilyn was a girl with a whole lot of problems and unrealized talent when she died. That's what you would expect from Lemmon, one of the nicest people ever in the film industry.

Jack Lemmon also got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. But Some Like It Hot ran into the year of Ben-Hur sweeping all the Oscars that year. It wasn't even nominated for Best Picture. Billy Wilder lost for Best Director. The only Oscar it did win was for Orry-Kelly for costume design for those recreations from the Twenties and the special costumes that Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis wore.

Billy Wilder sprinkled his cast with a lot of people identified with the gangster genre. Who more than George Raft who really lived the part in real life. And others like George E. Stone, Mike Mazurki, and Nehemiah Persoff. Pat O'Brien plays the federal man on the trail of the mobsters and in his memoirs O'Brien thanked Billy Wilder profusely for giving him a part in a classic film when his career hit the skids in the Fifties.

Of course the real daring here was Joe E. Brown as the dissolute playboy and his infatuation with Jack Lemmon in drag. Today Brown's character would be really a gay guy who's into drag queens and Lemmon after some initial misgivings might just decide that gay for pay pays a lot better than playing the bull fiddle. But the Code while not broken was stretched a might in Some Like It Hot.

A film that didn't get into the top five in 1959 is now considered the funniest comedy of all time. You won't get any argument from me over that one.

This is a wonderfully entertaining film that has to have one of the best final scenes in movie history--seeing Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon in this scene is truly delightful. However, I do wonder if perhaps, maybe, the film is a tiny bit overrated--especially since it is now ranked relatively high on IMDb's Top 250 list. It's an exceptional film...I just don't see it as quite THAT exceptional.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon stumble upon a mob hit. And, since mobsters really DON'T like witnesses, they know they'd better hide--and quick. So they hit upon the idea of hiding in an all-ladies' band, as they, too, are musicians. There, Tony falls in love with Marilyn Monroe--and it's hard for him to balance his female persona with the bookish guy he also pretends to be to impress her. As for Jack, he becomes the focus of a rich older man's attentions (Joe E. Brown). So how do they both balance these relationships with a strong desire NOT to be killed by the mob? The film has some nice supporting acting by George Raft and Pat O'Brien-and it's nice to see them return to films. As for the acting, it's generally very good, though I think Curtis' acting is a bit broad at times--but oddly charming as well.

Overall, there's a lot to enjoy and it's fun throughout.