Overview

Billy Wilder's classic screwball comedy Some Like it Hot (1959), starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, tells the story of two struggling Jazz musicians who accidentally witness a mob massacre in Chicago who then, disguised as women, join a female band to escape the gangsters' pursuit. Despite the film's popular reception, with Academy Award nominations for Wilder and star Jack Lemmon, the film gained notoriety for its crossdressing plot and gender-bending comedy. Steven Cohan's study of the film disentangles its production history and subsequent notoriety from the film itself, reconsidering the ways in which it playfully challenged generic and gender conventions of the 1950s. He provides an in depth analysis of the film's near perfect comedic structure, Wilder's aesthetic choices and self-reflexive star performances by Curtis, Lemmon and Monroe. He goes on to consider the film's queerness, as well as its promotion and reception in 1959. Contextualizing the film within its contemporary moment, he argues its textual richness, one that allows it to be viewed differently across generations, securing its lasting influence in popular culture.

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9781839027314

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Author Information

Steven Cohan is Dean's Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University, USA and was the former President of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies from 2015–2017. His books include Sunset Boulevard (BFI Film Classics, 2022), Hollywood by Hollywood: The Backstudio Picture and the Mystique of Making Movies (2018), The Sound of Musicals (BFI 2010), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (BFI TV Classics, 2008) and Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical (2005).

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