It was an unusual period of time for me. Nineteen fifty seven fifty eight when this picture came about and there were so many areas if thats the word things that all blended together for that movie had i not made some like it hot. I would miss the feeling my life. Billy wilders some like it hot west 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. As 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 as affective and true as 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 Wilder 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 garbo 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 crap my pants. And leave it said im making my seventy a thorough and i still crap my pants every day doc. 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 his servant 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. I realized that i didnt like the god its no use when i get away with it which george took to the list with joy journal first place. 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 that youre a bit into sheet you know you have to get four million ideas just to bring order to it get the good stuff out you know that egypt did just invent think of cats but nobody starts from scratch 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 a rocket think you have to be it or get i say its got to be. A bookkeeper all kinds of fish caught and took it to get it off those. Hundreds inserted beaches i think they are a joy directed watch more than anything else thats right and theyre our own. But once its record and you get on that set and those people thats thats fine. If the people about 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 were around was at an all time low. Meanwhile a new front had 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 senator Joseph Mccarthy had launched the second red scare in one thousand nine hundred 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 beat 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 for sure. 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 can 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 i had talked about it and billy billy told us. Actually i guess were to buy called just the bones of what eventually became some like. 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 gunmen working for al capone gunned down Seven Members of a rival chicago gang the mob boss is played by george raft who had starred in the original scarface and was known for his off screen associations with the underworld. The thing that made the difference thats getting that the threat out of the gang says that their lives their lives are in danger which meant that just because they got bored being in jag you couldnt do anything about it 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 to not demonstrates 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 witnesses we will be the word you wont break nothing not even. Really want to wants to talk to you. Really was it was a gruff joven expatriate vote of mine you know you know we had a little tortured id actually it would scare anybody so i said to hope and billy came down from that Little Theater and i 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 murderer. One guy im going to get is Frank Sinatra the other will be you and im going to get mitch again and for the girl i says oh i didnt even know he said my name he said did you hear me. Look at your he says you will be in my movie i said great i was so excited when you really were all along and citizen ocho was jack but the money people in new york didnt think that jack at that point was a big enough money star and they wanted sinatra but was not didnt show up for lunch. It was clear for jack and at that time marilyn decided she wanted work with him and once you had marilyn that mad about it jack wasnt a big star yet are not low was celine was my agent of m. C. A. He went to billy and said you but she was barely. And billy said the you think so he said you must choose at a Perfect Point in her life for 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 it even before we started i knew the three of us then they got joey brown the four of us. But then we know the key to that movie was marilyn and when you see the movie youll know its merely. 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 and through with love i think that song is heartbreaking well its heartbreaking because. Of Marilyn Monroes performance of a 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. Meant to me. For i had. Cereal and with my. Baby and through. We know each other i had lived with marilyn feel excuse the expression when we first came to california i was twenty two she was ninety and we went out together for about six months shame i better at universal she wasnt on the contract she was a working i was starting out. It was a wonderful time with those early years and there we are the next thing i know were going to make this picture together no one knew it but marilyn and i and up we had this with history so everything we did was based on something we had already done and billy like that he liked the chemistry between it 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 dumb blonde. She brought along her coach paul astronomer 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. Marilyn hated the sexual innuendo and the heroines name sugar. It was the recipe for a nightmare shoot. And that guy. Arthur miller. He thought the picture was terrible and he thought she should be playing. The version rare sukma. Of. The Arthur Miller was a 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 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. So they did it again and just before we said cut and he looked at paula paid for by all of it he said how was that for you paula and political. If it was ok to look. After that paula never stuck a nose at it she was a very disagreeable woman and caused a lot of trouble for chorale with a dumbbell and over a motley who led us to relax. And really. Get outta here i dont think she made a move without ali no she never did when she finished the scene paula was always in the back in this big shroud she used to wear like it is 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 we shoot it again. Whether liam pala 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. The strasburgs became the parents marilyn never ham. Youre. Wilder faced another challenge how would 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 once had 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. The flowers come. You know it was. Suck it we got suckered into it do you know who we were strong man but all of a sudden. You know it it became a double standard for for jack and for me when we got tony and i what we thought were the right make ups deli said ok says now we were on the Samuel Goldwyn lot where we shop and he said go to the ladies room we said what he said you go to the ladies are never going to find out whether theres actually that he says he quoted the ladies were mysteriously. Upset. Like. Just some. Kind of. Im. Out of that rhythm section. Hundred. One girl. Good night shark. I think you mean. Since one thousand thirty four the haze code had governed American Cinema applying rigid moral scrutiny to films but increasingly filmmakers were challenging the stifling regulations and while there 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 there are better 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. Your family. That i dont. Care how many oh 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 take could see as another example. Its not just that you 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. And sent monroe was this a plea distracted and finding it hard to concentrate. She would lose interest in the middle of a see how mine will just disappear she was all excited about opening the 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 had a running yes put under a blouse you know which startled her 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 well get paid and sing we sang a lot and the thing is we just signed off on a monday sheltering pounds and by the sea by the sea thats what we did we come every morning and rehearse. The most significant thing of course is the whole marilyn a thousand takes on things which. I know i was not involved in except i use and. 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 stop shooting and dub later jams nobody up 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 this thing about how terrible this was to both of them a little bit. I had no problem with their all had problems but when the problem it has self she was. She was slightly discombobulated or times she had great difficulties to concentrate. By i think i eating. And putting peace imho but by god you know when you went through with it when you suffered so that thing through the thirty forty fifty takes sometimes ought to have a litmus. You had something they know something absolutely unique that cannot be that cannot be duplicated and you forget up