It was an unusual period of time for me. Nineteen fifty seven fifty eight. When this picture came about and there were so many or your worries if thats the word things that all blended together for that movie had i not made like it hard i would have missed the film in my life. Billy wilders some like it hot was set in one thousand twenty nine during prohibition it tells the story of two down on their luck musicians joe in jerry who are marked for death after accidentally witnessing the st valentines day massacre thats colombo played by george raft guns down a rival gang joe and jerry flee and masquerading as women join a traveling female jazz band joe played by tony curtis becomes josephine and jerry played by jack lemmon is daphne. To seduce sugar came up one singer played by none other than Marilyn Monroe whos out to find herself a sugar daddy joe slips into the role of an impotent millionaire. Has for jerry he forgets he is a man when asked good fielding the third a real millionaire played by joey brown asks daphne to marry him. Unmasked the two musicians again ending up on osgoods boat upon discovering that daphne is a man always good remarks well nobodys perfect. And. Every individual in the audience is an idiot but together theyre genius we never ask ourselves is it a comedy or a tragedy or a musical we write a story and try to make it his affective and truest possible so that people believe it. Nicknamed billy by his mother wilder was born in vienna as a teenager he experienced the collapse of the austriahungary an empire in late one nine hundred twenty s. Berlin at the height of the Weimar Republic wilder discovered cinema and turned to screenwriting. To escape the nazis he left germany in one thousand thirty three and the following year became a naturalized u. S. Citizen some of his closest family members were killed in the holocaust. In los angeles one elder encountered many fellow country men who were just beginning to reinvent American Cinema douglas sirk robert siyad mack Otto Preminger fritz lon Michael Curtis and the man who became his mentor and lubitsch. A budding screenwriter wilder worked by his masters side and even squeezed a laugh out of grad a guard in the movie. Wilder soon teamed up with writer Charles Brackett and in one thousand nine hundred two they expanded their collaboration to include producing and directing. Docket for the day before i went to lubitsch and said tomorrow morning i start shooting my first film im going to crapped my pants yes yes. Yes and leave it said im making my seventy a thorough and i still crap my pants every day dr. Brackett and wilder proceeded to produce masterpieces like double indemnity and sunset boulevard with stolid seventeen sabrina and the seven year itch wilder proved himself a master of revolutionary realize im his biting humor and a surfeit one liners became his trademark. In one nine hundred fifty seven wilder met the romanian born brighter is diamond together they penned love in the afternoon then some like it hot the beginning of a lifelong collaboration. Was i realized that i did i think i was that its no use when im going to get away with. Joyce if you know this with joy journal first points. And. So what it began with was they talked they talked together for two months three months sometimes they sat and stared at each other for twenty four hours. In is at the typewriter when something happened he would write it now the structure. Is both of them in the eye basic ideas always billy and the structure is the two of them together just seeing scene by scene and the overall basic structure most of the actual dialogue is is because billy english was perfect it was a bit formal we just got to actually get picture of it and he she you know you have four million ideas just to bring order to it get the good stuff out you know thats easier to just invent think of facts but nobody starts rules that you start with too much. At the end there right there is. A bit of a kind of void if you want to keep but yourself to be an architect has to be organized say its got to be. A bookkeeper all kinds of fish caught and took it to get it off those. On this incident beaches i think they are a joy directed watch more than anything else thats right and their own. But once its record and you get on that set and those people thats thats fun. If the people of all what theyre doing. The United States had won the war against fascism louis but amid the recession of one nine hundred fifty eight and record high unemployment morale was at an all time low meanwhile a new front opened in the cold war after launching sputnik the worlds first artificial satellite and like of the dog into orbit the soviet union was leading the space race in response the u. S. Set up its Space Agency Nasa in europe the influence of communism was spreading as it was in cuba a stones throw from the florida coast the cold war had arrived on americas doorstep raising fears of communist subversion at home Sen Joseph Mccarthy had launched the second red scare in one nine hundred forty seven an anti communist witch hunt that continued even after mccarthy was censured by the senate until the late one nine hundred fifty s. At the same time the u. S. Government was moving to end racial segregation in schools sparking a white supremacist backlash. Meanwhile the countercultural rebellion of the bee generation was calling on americans to wake up it was against this backdrop that wilder was mining an old german movie to develop a satire about america thats hard to see before you begin to come when billy one day said you know ive been thinking and id like you to look at an old german film called funfair dead leave. And i said watch. And so he said no no no no no joke. You. See if you cant find a print of that picture somewhere and well look at it together and ill tell you what i have in mind. Amazingly we found a copy of that picture. And we ran it and talked about it and billy billy told us. Actually the i guess were to buy called just the bones of what eventually became some way. Back then drawing on the sentimentality of the original german screenplay wilder took his cue from the one nine hundred twenty nine st valentines day massacre when and was known for his off screen associations with the underworld the thing that made the difference s. Getting the threat of the gangster is that their life their lives are in danger which meant that just because they got bored being a drag couldnt do anything about. David selznick. Either got a hold of the script or billy wilder told him the idea for some like it hot i cant remember at this point and selznick was horrified because everyone knew you cant mix death and comedy well as some like cannot demonstrate the greatest of comedies come from bringing together things that everyone tells you you cant do you know not god no way. I dont like no witness we will be the words you wont break nothing not even a. Feeling while the wants to talk to you. Really was it was a gruff joven expatriate voting minute you know we had a little touch of that actually it would scare anybody so i said o o o o ok and billy came down from the Little Theatre and i and we went into a room and this is what he told me im going to make a picture of two men two guys who have to dress up as women because they see a murder one guy im going to get his Frank Sinatra the other will be you and im going to get mitch again if with a girl that says oh i didnt even know he said my name he said did you hear me. Its a good he says you will be in my movie i said great i was so excited. What you really want all along and citizen nacho was jack but the money people in new york to think that jack at that point was a big enough money star and they wanted sinatra but was not didnt show up for lunch and it was clear for jack and about that time marijuana is that its you under work with and once you had marilyn that matter whether jack was in the biggest star yet or not lho was a been was my agent of m. C. A. He went to billy and said you bought shoes barrel. And billy said the you think so he said you must choose it a Perfect Point in her life or the picture she may be trouble but not enough trouble to make you not want to make it. Listen ill do it the next thing i know marilyn is in the movie the picture was finished that even before we started i knew the three of us then they got joey brown the four of us. But barely know the key to that movie was marley and when you see the movie hell know its mannerly. At a time when hollywood was banking on cinema scope and technicolor wonder had the audacity of opting for black and white and mixing up genders and john as. Farce film and why are some like it hot is both as well as a musical comedy. And music is absolutely central to the film when shes singing im through with love i think that song is heartbreaking well its heartbreaking because. Of Marilyn Monroes performance of the character of sugar called waltz key. Of all of the elements that have been brought together so is the music a minor aspect of this bill not at all its an absolutely crucial aspect goodbye spring of the man to me. For im not scared to. Surrender. My. Son through. Baby and through. We know each other i have lived with marilyn feel excuse the expression when he first came to california i was twenty two she was nineteen and we went out together for about six months shame by better at universal she was on the contract she was a working i was starting out. It was a wonderful time with her for those early years and there we are the next thing i know were going to make this picture together no one know what but marilyn and i end up we had this with history so everything we did was based on something we had already done and billy like that he like the chemistry between us. He did know nobody knows. If. They loved it. When marilyn took on the role shed already shot the seven year itch with wilder shed been working in new york attempting to break free of her typecast hollywood role and the dumped law and. She brought along her coach paul a strong wife of the actor studio director least rosberg. Also on set was her husband Playwright Arthur Miller who strapped for cash had talked her into doing the movie that marilyn hated the sexual innuendo and the heroines name sugar. It was the recipe for a nightmare shoot. And that got. Arthur miller and. He thought the picture was terrible and he thought she should be playing. The virgin mary or someone. Where Arthur Miller was i thought. Now. Second day of shooting with barreling he knowing hes going to have trouble maryland in the first scene in the movie where she walked out to the train station and when bill it really was cut she looked at paulas stress work to get to see if she did it right so we said lets do it again and really were going to get so they did it again and just before we said cut and he looked at paul a plate for barrel and it he said how is that for you paula and political. If it was ok to look. After that ball it never struck a nose at it she was a very disagreeable woman and caused a lot of trouble for chorale with a dumb brother over mouthing who led us to relax. And. Really. Get outta here i dont think she made a move what happened no she never did when she finished the scene paula was always in the back in this big shroud she used to wear like a its like a burka you know if she were brown adds after each scene marilyn would look straight back at paula and you could see paul and she did the go yes or no and it was no me shoot it again. Whether lee impala strasberg thought she really had an acting potential or whether they thought that they would get a great deal of publicity if they took her in which they did they took her in. And the strasburgs became the parents marilyn never hammer youre. Wilder faced another challenge how he bring josephine and daphne to life how would he make women out of the two male leads tony curtis and Jack Lemmon Tony Curtis the athletic handsome young man from brooklyn displayed a convincing feeling for sexual ambiguity i watch of a man anymore i was maybe more of a girl i could be saved like when i saw how people treated me pulled their chairs out jacket and i on the set we would be waiting to work we loved it and theres joey brown waving at us. And flowers come in the room. You know it was. Really suck that we got suckered into it you know who we were strong man but all of a sudden in the book you know it it became a double standard pull for jack and for me when we got tony and i what we thought were the right make ups billy said ok says now we were on the Samuel Goldwyn lot where we shot he said go to the ladies room and we said well he said you go to the ladies on the ever going to find out whether theres parts of that he says he quoted a ladys rectum mysteriously died. Right there she did. That to. See why. Just because. You look. Kind. Im. Out of that rhythm section. I want my girl. And my girl. Good night shaka. Thank you honey. Since one thousand thirty four the hays code had governed American Cinema applying rigid moral scrutiny to films but increasingly filmmakers were challenging the stifling regulations and wilder was a master at outfoxing the censors in one nine hundred fifty s. Hollywood gay actors went to Great Lengths to hide the true nature of their sexuality one only has to think of cary grant Randolph ScottBurt LancasterMontgomery Clift or rock hudson. Tony curtis himself never denied sexual encounters with men yes your. Competition from television now in color put pressure on hollywood in the space of a year Film Production dropped by twenty five percent Movie Theaters started closing as American Families discovered the joys of the t. V. Dinner. And the small screen found an unexpected ally in the House Unamerican Activities Committee its probe into alleged communist influence in the american Motion Picture business had been terrorizing hollywood since one nine hundred forty seven in televised hearings artists and technicians faced grueling questioning many cracked under pressure choosing to denounce colleagues rather than risk losing their jobs Arthur Miller was one of those who remained steadfast. After mark your heart what you want to talk about. How do you feel about how. I feel ashamed. That i dont. Care how many and all my in order to practice really. To survive American Cinema accommodated itself to television the networks needed a steady supply of films to fill their broadcast hours mostly b. Movies produced by lesser tear hollywood studios. The directors who had forged the hollywood legend names like Ford Hitchcock and hawks were making their last movies dusk was falling on hollywoods golden age it was an era of suspicion and deception as billy wilder illustrates in his imitable style. America is no longer what it seems. Coffins dont hold corpses Funeral Homes are bars birthday cakes harbor mobsters diamonds are a girls best friend and women are sometimes men. The greatest social commentary in american movies is always on comedy fake tootsie as another example. Its not just that youve got these number one and two. They have five polls for the greatest comedy and theyre both of them are about drag both of them are also. Extended social critiques to see i think more than some like it hot. When Marilyn Monroe began shooting in san diego she was already in a precarious state of emotional and Mental Health marriages abortions attempted suicide one night stands stress and loneliness had all taken their toll. Marriage to Arthur Miller was already on the rocks alcohol and medication ease the emotional pain of a series of miscarriages chronic insomnia and repeated bounce of depression. She had been hospitalized several times. Onset monroe was disciplined distracted and finding it hard to concentrate. She would lose interest in the middle of a see how mine would just disappear she was all excited about opening a bottle of champagne and then she would look away and for a second stop the scene inside of herself and then come back billie saw that we all saw that we all saw went from her vibrations this she. Just disappeared she was tired she wasnt thinking well i didnt let alone centrist you know i was. A good enough soldier to see what i had to do in that kissing in that kissing sequence she had so many opportunities to drift away. And i guess. You know which struggled so that way we were able to continue otherwise marilyn was really in bad shape i felt she would never make a movie again. She was always late wed sit around and wait and wait and we didnt get paid and sing we sang a lot and sing as we just saying a lot on a monday sheltering pounds and by the sea by the sea thats what we did we come every morning every hearse. The most significant thing of course is the whole marilyn and a thousand takes on things which. I was not involved in except i use is. Show me crazy because the famous some of the eighty seven takes she has a back to the camera if at any time billy can stops shooting and dub later jams nobody there thousand actually says and i do the time to do marilyns voice so it was just a contest of wills between them and all of the sing about how terrible this was the both of them a little bit. I had no problem with when theyre all men theyre all had problems but one problem it has self she was. She was slightly discombobulated zero times she had great difficulties to concentrate. But i think. And it was like pulling teeth you know but by god you know when you went through it when you sat through that thing through that thirty forty fifty takes sometimes or to have a litmus. You had something they know something absolutely unique that cannot be that cannot be duplicated and you forget that the debate just finished and you had a rough time before that that she was mean anything like that. Monroe was also troubled by changing beauty standards the voluptuous female ideal of the fiftys that monroe epitomized the sex symbol with the voice of a child was being singlehandedly overturned by twenty maker mattel with the tall slender silhouette of the barbie doll. Signs of her distress were beginning to show. Marilyn monroe was pregnant and billy wilder came to me and he said look we need someone to do a publicity stills and wed like you to do them for us with jack lemmon and tony curtis they would be using my body and her face and it worked out very very well. And this was really a close that when we were shooting this no one was allowed on the sat i mean you didnt none of us did i didnt you did it sooner than the girls and. I think part of Marilyn Monroe is power as an actress as an icon. Is that. The loss is written on her face the loss is in the eyes and more than any sex pot. In American Culture that has had a lot of sexpot. Marilyn monroe could bring tears to both men and womens lives. I girls i take it from the top and probably eight hundred. It. Then and while you love control that it was the little game you refuse to get reminded of the time never blew it always goal no dont know way i wish i was i can. Laugh. It was it was all down the was. Is a day when she did show up on the set but she locked herself in her dressing and she wouldnt come out. So billy wilder had to find a way to get her out of her dressing room and thats when he came to me and said im going to put the play back arent you running wild theres the market for you know the lyrics i want you to sing to the playback. The playback was running for about a half a minute while i was singing to the playback marilyn heard that opened her dressing room door and slowly walked onto the set and stopped in front of billy wilder never said a word. And billy wilder looked at her and said lets go to work. Because he was brilliant he knew exactly how to get marilyn to do what he thought was right. He was a genius i told you he could have been a professor of psychology in vs. Because he knew just how to work with people. Its its very very difficult to make is said through you know and you and treat every act in the same way its like. You know like a psychiatrist having various. Patients of a different. Illness as on the couch and you have to be all kinds of things that just is that god has to demi have to be. A masochist you have to be an s. Man you have to be a father confessor a priest you have to cuddle them you have to be sweet to damn be very severe with them it just depends and i dare say god to all human beings to defend problems really was. A new bush. We never thought we pleased them i didnt i never thought he like me could get the truth. I did the best i could. He never he never showed his preference he liked jack he liked jack four is. Tumbling comedy my comedy was a little less than that and so maybe that was what it was but im sorry to say i dont think. That it must be some girl said prick if you have a girl that could id never youre just like that would you do me a favor certainly want to let me have a dr freud or a nail for there are his friendships gays go i predict take a crack at it all right if you insist. And. Im afraid not. When im getting kissed by Marilyn Monroe lying down my foot goes up an ear. So i told is a diamond that was a piece of business i thought of because i heard if you look she was expression of an erection who was here and may by foot go up. And went up getting kissed by a it kind of could have it so i told it is a diamond i said dont tell billy i told him so if he looked at me peculiarly like. Like i understand what you mean so went to billy wilder i said what i said what about tony lifting his foot in the middle of the kisses this is good could do it and he looked at me and smiled and i know it and i did it and its in the movie i walked on to the set and it was billy with these things going like this. What the hell is he doing he says here take these with you and day in between every lied just go out i thought that and i thought it hes made a disaster out of the scene. When i saw the film and heard an already and two reaction laughing all through from the line all through this before then theyd never missed the next line that was the whole idea i mean gauge congratulations whos a lucky guy. I. Think the. White. House good proposed to be planning to do what they. Say you want to do you cant marry us good. To open carry you cant be serious why dont you could marry and girls all the. Time the fuck youre not a girl youre a guy you know why would a guy want to marry a guy Security Care youve got a life out youre not well when you start treating me like a child im not home and i know theres an hour. Of the last sentence thats the whole last scene in the boat was written the day before it was shot and my husband wrote it and took it over the bill and left me a copy and when he came home i read the rest of the script except for the last thing and he asked me what i thought and i said i think its a wonderful scene but the last line is flat. And you know i dont want you to he had just come from two hours with the way in which billy had said im going to find Something Better for. Joey brown says well nobodys perfect let me use it a media comes up and out the end you are out of the Movie Theater you are in the parking lot and youre driving on the way home before you say what the hell does that mean it doesnt mean anything theres no logical ending to this movie. Nobodys perfect is a pioneer face of the audience i smoke smoke all the time i dont care. How terrible the last for three years now ive been living with a saxophone like i forgive you. I can never. Going to. Be about it and i have. Imam well nobodys perfect. After its World Premiere in new york in march one thousand nine hundred nine some like it hot was released nationally in the us within a few months it was a triumphant success. The third only collected one oscar for its costumes in e. U. When the epic benhur swept up a record breaking Eleven Academy awards but a few months later it won best picture at the Golden Globes where jack lemmon and Marilyn Monroe also picked up the prizes for best actor and actress. The film reached the european theater is in september at the height of the french nouvelle wagner screening alongside films like the four hundred blows the adventure and hiroshima minimal. And us critics voted some like it hot the best comedy of all time. I finally wrote a book and i call it i thought we were making movies not history we just dont know we set out to make the best movie we know how to make the fact that fifty years later people are still enjoying it. We cant nobody can anticipate that nobody its funny its still funny theres no other reason. And has nothing significant to say whatsoever. Maybe thats why they still are. Jack lemmon became Billy Wilders favorite actor but the director never teamed up again with tony curtis and although he called her a true comic genius never made another movie with Marilyn Monroe who died three years later in one nine hundred sixty two after a downward spiral of depression drugs Mental Illness scandal and exhaustion yet beautiful twenty five you are part of the century and about what that you know that i have and i write. She will notice. She was so impudent. And childish childlike. We do. Just fine you. It gives me a stature you know. I dont do anything that would hurt sub look at heart in any of the movies i made you know they all i felt that every one of them even the lousy ones that turned out lovely i had to do well it from beginning to end even in the scenes that im not a im part of it. I like that will be able. To. You. You. To. It and. You. Could legally keep. Crimea a fascinating melting pot of peoples and cultures play a place thats filled with history and has witnessed the rise and fall of empires slave Master Teacher territory that has been fought over for centuries. Come to the residence of crimea lose their identity played crimea through the age. Of fifteen minutes on t. W. Played your smart t. V. The smarter with the t w force most of. What you watch for the last up to date extraordinary. To upload the sidelights sunday morning. Dot com smart t. V. Started out with some junk and instructions from a book. Page of fourteen william kumquat. From malawi wanted to build a wind turbine to provide his village with electricity. The law business changed his life the cricket ball of much of an exciting journey the world began playing. Heros story. And the winter starting march twenty first w. Cut. Players played. This is. From berlin the tide of misery continues in syria as thousands of people stream out of the damascus suburbs of the eastern third day this as the Syrian Government forces intensify artillery bombardment of the area with the support of russian airstrikes also coming up