Selecting the 'Best Movie Ever' is extremely tricky and depends largely on the criteria by which you judge a film's success. For example, a movie's popularity can be established according to box office takings, Academy Award wins or audience polls. In addition, individual taste plays a large role and the result is that there will never be a definitive answer to the question 'which is the best movie ever?'

As an avid movie-lover, I found myself wondering If I could only watch one film for the rest of my life, which would it be? Even this is not an easy question to answer. However, if pushed to make a choice, mine would be Some Like it Hot (1959).

Long before The Bird Cage, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon 'dragged' up to play Josephine and Geraldine/Daphne in Billy Wilder's hilarious romp.

Today, it's hard to appreciate the daring originality of the film. Although, the story on which the movie is based was transformed for the German big screen eight years before Wilder's version. Fanfaren der Liebe was directed by Kurt Hoffman and written by Michael Logan. Some, therefore, consider Some Like it Hot to be a remake, but the two films are actually very different. For example, Fanfaren der Liebe has no gangsters.

Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond adapted Michael Lomax and Robert Thoeren's story. Some Like it Hot is set in 1920s Chicago and follows two musicians, Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemon), who witness the St Valentine's Day Massacre. Forced to flee for their lives, the only job the pair can get is in an all-girl band heading for Florida. Complications arise when both men find themselves falling for the band's lead singer and banjo player, Sugar (Marilyn Munroe).

The movie is consistently voted amongst the funniest American films of all time. In fact, during previews sections of Some like it Hot, such as the announcement of Daphne's engagement, were so funny that the dialogue was obscured by laughter. Subsequently, the scene had to be re-shot with longer pauses and the trademark maracas.

Interestingly, the final line of the film, Well, nobody's perfect, was never intended to make the final cut. It was supposed to act as filler until the writers came up with something better. Ironically, the line was subsequently voted #48 in the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movie Quotes.

At the time of its release, Some Like it Hot was not without controversy. It received a 'C' rating (Condemned) from the Catholic Legion of Decency and was originally banned in the state of Kansas.

Nevertheless, the movie was incredibly successful earning an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Lemon), Best Director, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material form Another Medium and Best Cinematography.

In 1972, the movie was adapted into a stage musical, Sugar, which played on Broadway. When the piece subsequently moved to London, it took the film's original title. In 2002, another stage production of the movie starred Tony Curtis, who played the part of Osgood Fielding III.

The popularity of the movie has never wavered and, in 1981, it was re-released into movie theatres. The American Film Institute has since named it the Greatest American Comedy of All Time. Some Like it Hot remains a firm favourite with fans all over the world and if it teaches us anything it's that, it really is a whole different sex!

Learn more about this author, Samantha Markham.
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