Honestly, if you look at the 1959 production of Some Like It Hot, it’s a miracle the movie ever got finished. It was a disaster behind the scenes. Absolute chaos. You’ve got Marilyn Monroe, arguably the biggest star in the world at the time, struggling so hard with her lines that it took 47 takes just for her to say, "It’s me, Sugar."
Forty-seven.
Think about that. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon were standing there in high heels and itchy corsets, melting under the Florida-simulated California sun, just waiting for her to get three words right. Curtis later famously (and maybe a bit cruelly) said kissing her was like "kissing Hitler."
But then you watch the movie.
And she’s magic. You can't look at anyone else when she's on screen. That's the Marilyn Monroe effect. Even when she was falling apart, she was outshining everyone in the room.
The Sugar Kane Reality Check
Most people remember Some Like It Hot as a lighthearted romp about two guys in drag running from the mob. But for Marilyn, playing Sugar Kane was a battle. She was tired of the "dumb blonde" trope. She wanted to be a "serious" actress, but Hollywood kept handing her the same ukulele and the same breathy lines.
She wasn't just being difficult for the sake of it. She was dealing with a failing marriage to Arthur Miller, a high-risk pregnancy, and an addiction to barbiturates that made her brain feel like "Swiss cheese," as director Billy Wilder once put it. Yet, she fought to make Sugar human. She didn't want a cartoon; she wanted a woman with a heart and a bit of a drinking problem who just wanted to be loved.
What Really Happened on the Set of Some Like It Hot Marilyn Monroe
The tension between Wilder and Monroe is the stuff of legend. Wilder was a perfectionist. Marilyn was... not.
- The "Where's the Bourbon?" Incident: It took her dozens of takes to find a drawer and say a simple line. Wilder eventually had to tape the dialogue inside the drawer so she could read it.
- The Strasberg Influence: Marilyn wouldn't listen to Wilder. She’d look past him to her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, for approval after every take. It drove the crew insane.
- The Physical Toll: She was actually pregnant during filming. If you look closely at some of the later scenes, she looks slightly heavier, and the costumes had to be constantly adjusted. Sadly, she miscarried shortly after the production wrapped.
Despite the 2 a.m. phone calls to the director and the constant delays, Wilder knew he couldn't have made the movie with anyone else. He had originally thought of Mitzi Gaynor for the role. But he knew. He knew that even a late, unprepared Marilyn was worth ten of anyone else.
Breaking the Rules of 1959
You have to understand how risky this movie was. The Hays Code—that rigid set of moral rules for movies—was still a thing. A movie about cross-dressing, suggestive dialogue, and blurred gender lines? It didn't get the seal of approval.
Wilder didn't care. He released it anyway.
The Catholic Legion of Decency gave it a "C" for Condemned rating. They thought it was "seriously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency."
Naturally, that made everyone want to see it even more.
The movie basically helped kill the Hays Code. It proved that audiences were ready for something more sophisticated, more "adult," and way funnier than the sanitized stuff the studios were pumping out. The ending alone—where Joe E. Brown’s character Osgood responds to the reveal that "Daphne" is a man with the legendary "Well, nobody's perfect"—was a massive middle finger to the censors of the time.
Why We Are Still Talking About It
Some movies from the 50s feel like museum pieces. They’re stiff. The jokes don't land. Some Like It Hot feels like it could have been written yesterday, minus the black-and-white film stock.
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It’s about identity. It’s about the lengths people go to for survival and, eventually, for love. Jack Lemmon’s performance as Jerry/Daphne is a masterclass in physical comedy, but it’s his chemistry with Marilyn that gives the movie its soul.
Actionable Insights for Movie Buffs:
- Watch the "I Wanna Be Loved By You" sequence: Notice the lighting. Cinematographer Charles Lang Jr. used a specific "halo" lighting effect to make Marilyn practically glow. It’s a masterclass in how to film a star.
- Compare the screenplay to the finished product: Much of the "dumb blonde" dialogue Marilyn hated was replaced by her subtle facial expressions. She proved that acting isn't just about saying the lines; it's about the space between them.
- Check out the Hotel del Coronado: If you’re ever in San Diego, go to the Hotel del Coronado. That’s where they filmed the Florida scenes. It still looks almost exactly like it did in 1958.
Marilyn won a Golden Globe for this role, and honestly, she earned every bit of it. She took a character that could have been a footnote and made her the heart of the greatest comedy ever made.
To really appreciate the depth of her performance, you have to look past the "sex symbol" label. Look at the eyes. There’s a sadness there that makes the comedy even funnier and the romance even sweeter. That's why we’re still watching.
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To dive deeper into the technical side of the film, look for the Criterion Collection release, which features interviews with the cast about the chaotic daily grind of working with a legend who was both at her peak and on the edge of a breakdown.