One night, my mom pulled out an ancient VHS tape, the cover faded and worn, and popped it into the VCR.
My sister and I were hooked.
When Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot first debuted in 1959, the National Catholic Legion of Decency rebuked the film, stating that it contained content “judged to be seriously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency.”
Kansas banned the film completely when it refused to edit or censor any of its scenes.
It later received six Oscar nominations.
In Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) jazz players Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) dress in drag to escape violent mobsters. Although their feminine attire frequently serves to garner laughs from the audience, both men subvert stereotypical notions of masculinity by openly blurring gender lines. Only by “acting” like women do Joe and Jerry access spaces of emotional honesty and candor. While in disguise they are, ironically, freer to be themselves.
Stripped bare of shallow bravado or hollow displays of masculinity, Joe—as “Josephine”— engages in an emotionally resonant friendship with singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe). Likewise, Jerry experiences a sense of liberation as “Daphne,” enthusiastically embracing more feminine attributes and activities. The film arguably demonstrates how the ability to choose—and appreciate—different aspects of the female/male binary proves psychologically liberating.
In the beginning of the film, Jerry begrudgingly follows Joe’s orders—even when it leaves the two of them shivering in a Chicago snowstorm. He allows Joe to bully him into gambling all of their wages and cowers in fear after accidentally witnessing the vicious Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. At first, Jerry’s primary personality traits include anxiety, exasperation, and insecurity. However, as soon as Jerry slips on a dress, his demeanor significantly changes.
When Joe begins suggesting female names, Jerry rejects all of them. He quickly asserts himself as “Daphne.” When Joe raises his eyebrows, Jerry tells him bluntly, “I never liked Geraldine.” Rather than assume a moniker that pays tribute to his original identity, he chooses a completely new name, devoid of any reference to his past self. As they board a train filled with female jazz musicians, the new Daphne sociably gabs with the band. She stands tall and confident, even trading jokes and concocting stories about talented seamstresses.
Giddy with excitement, Daphne tells Josephine, “We have been playing with the wrong band.”
Unlike the tired, frustrated Jerry, Daphne is bubbly and energetic. Unlike Jerry, who was often subsumed by Joe, Daphne ignores Josephine’s orders and carves out a niche for herself during their travels.
While in Miami, Jerry’s disguise grants him a reality unhindered by societal expectations of male bluster. When Josephine grumbles about the logistics of splashing around in a swimsuit with other women, Daphne bats away her concerns. Although Joe dons a second disguise as Junior, the multimillionaire heir to Shell Oil, to re-establish his maleness, Daphne rents a frilly one-piece and indulges in an array of beach games with her female friends.
Jerry seems to fully enjoy tapping into his more feminine side, including forming a tight-knit camaraderie with the women of the jazz band. Dressed as Daphne, he cannot safely pursue any of the Society Syncopators, nor does he seem interested in doing so. Unlike Joe, he does not glean information from the ladies around him to later seduce them. He simply enjoys the many aspects of group bonding, including joking around and playing recreational activities. As Daphne, Jerry does not have to worry about upholding cultural standards of virility—he can speak with women as comrades and dress pretty if he so desires.
For most of the film, Jerry experiences a new form of freedom derived from gender ambiguity. While Daphne rejects the physical advances of Osgood Fielding III, an older millionaire intent on making her his wife, she accepts his invitation for dinner.
When Jerry announces his engagement, Joe asks, “Who’s the lucky girl?” Jerry sends him a winning smile and says, “Me.”
After Joe points out the holes in his plan, Jerry forces himself to chant, “I’m a boy. I’m a boy… I wish I were dead.”
He has to openly remind himself that he cannot always remain Daphne, a confident, flirtatious alter ego—and he experiences a sense of dread from that realization. Compellingly, he appears to feel more constrained by being a man rather than being a woman. In another scene, Daphne smoothly applies lipstick and smiles at her reflection. Her happiness falters, however, when she spots a mobster in her compact mirror. While clearly anxious due to the looming threat of violence, the dismay on her face may also be indicative of a deeper truth—the appearance of “Spats” Columbo and his gang anchor Daphne back to her old life as Jerry. As Daphne, he can access spaces of masculinity and femininity, a subversive act that topples cultural norms. Refreshingly, Jerry does not deride womanhood, nor does he seem uncomfortable with femaleness. Instead, he revels in his twofold self.
In contrast to Jerry, the film first establishes Joe as a flirtatious, careless character. He makes false promises to beautiful girls and smooth talks Jerry into highly untenable financial situations. When he disguises himself as Josephine, he quickly engineers a friendship with the lovely Sugar to learn what type of men she likes.
Sugar reveals her desire for stability after a string of failed relationships, explaining, “I always get the fuzzy end of a lollipop.”
Once they arrive in Miami, Joe transforms himself into the alleged man of her dreams: a bespectacled millionaire called Junior. The interactions between Sugar and Junior are sparse and shallow—he plays aloof and she pretends to be a classy socialite. They stick to typical social roles: Sugar is a fragile feminine figure and Junior is the stoic man who will save her.
While Joe (and Sugar herself) believe that this is the type of relationship she needs, a more meaningful friendship takes root between Sugar and Joe’s other persona, Josephine. No longer adapting to traditional expectations of masculine swagger and feminine compliance, the interactions between these two women prove compassionate and kind.
As Josephine, Joe patiently listens to Sugar’s thoughts and provides his own insights. He treats her as a friend and shares advice. Similarly, when speaking with Josephine, Sugar is able to be much more open about her opinions, no longer hindered by the role of passive debutante; she openly drinks alcohol and makes jokes. They do not act self-conscious or uphold a façade to impress each other. Moreover, they appear to rely on each other for emotional fulfillment.
After every moment with Junior, Sugar rushes to find Josephine to confer about her feelings and excitement. She repeatedly turns to her for deeper discussions concerning her frame of mind. At the same time, Joe better learns about the woman he originally idealized as a one-dimensional figure of beauty. As his friendship with Sugar grows, his understanding of love changes and deepens, allowing him to look outside himself and see his surroundings for what they really are. Only through time and a dramatic change in perspective does Joe finally see Sugar as a multifaceted person with her own wants and desires.
Their relationship is stripped bare of all frills, focusing on honesty and companionship—a much more powerful foundation than the fleeting notion of “love at first sight.”
No longer a crass playboy, Joe frets about his decision to leave Sugar in the wake of Spats Columbo’s arrival. When he hears her mournful singing, his face reflects true regret and pain. Still dressed as Josephine, he runs onstage and kisses her.
Intriguingly, Sugar does not pull away for an extended amount of time. When they do part, she stares at him and says, softly, “Josephine?”
She does not react with disgust or resentment, but quiet confusion and awe, as if she is gathering her thoughts. Later, when the two of them escape on a boat, Joe apologizes for his past manipulations and attempts to dissuade Sugar from coming with him. However, she only looks at him with affection. She is not in love with the haughty millionaire—this delusion shatters when Joe reveals his identity as a broke musician. But Sugar does know caring, nurturing Josephine, which is another significant facet of Joe’s persona. Their feelings for each other transcend the physical aspects of love and instead focus on their personalities. They have a love based not on gender, but on emotional connection.
Some Like It Hot is a clever and offbeat film. It provocatively questions gender roles and the ways in which men and women should submit to social convention. While both Joe and Jerry originally represent fixed identities—the cocky leader and the reluctant sidekick—their temperaments shift throughout the course of the film. Disguised as women, these men sidestep conventional masculinity and engage in nuanced interactions not only with other female characters, but also with themselves.
It is only by overcoming toxic masculinity that they can be whoever they want to be and love whoever they want to love.
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