SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
Directed by Billy Wilder/ Screenplay by Billy Wilder and A.I. Diamond
Main Characters
Joe/Josephine/Junior – 'Sugar' Kane Kowalczyk – “Toothpick” Charlie
(Tony Curtis) (Marilyn Monroe) Band Leader Sweet Sue
Jerry/Daphne/Geraldine – Federal Agent Mulligan Osgood Fielding the III
(Jack Lemmon) “Spats” Columbo Little Bonaparte
This film did NOT earn approval by the Hollywood Production Code. It earned a “C” for condemned
from the National Legion of Decency, which held great power in Hollywood. However, the studio
United Artists released it anyway and this was one of numerous films that helped mark the end of the
code in 1968. As you watch LIST actions, visuals, dialogue—watch and listen for sexual innuendo—
or subject matter you feel the Production Code may have objected to.
1.) What time period is the movie set in and what is illegal?
2.) Why do Joe and Jerry take the job with all-girl band? What are some of the reasons they are
that desperate?
3.) Why is Sugar grateful to Jerry/Daphne—what does he do to save her from trouble?
4.) What causes Jerry to want to abandon their cross-dressing jobs and go back to playing with an
all-male band?
5.) What inspires Joe to take on yet another identity—that of “Junior”? (List some of the
characteristics of this new character and why does he choose them)?
6.) Why is Jerry/Daphne excited by Osgood Fielding’s marriage proposal?
7.) What prop, and then later, costume elements reveal Joe and Jerry’s identity to Spats and the
other mobsters
8.) The Production Code had a field day with the final line of the film. What were they objecting
to?
9.) Why do you think the American Film Institute members ranked this film as the greatest
comedy of all time? (Even if you didn’t like it—why do you think it has become a piece of film
history?) I want more than “It’s funny!” Be specific!