Some Like It Hot

Chicago, 1929. Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) are struggling musicians who accidentally stumble on the St Valentine's Day Massacre, as Spatz and his boys kill Toothpick Charlie for giving their speakeasy up to the cops.
In a desperate act of self-preservation, Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women (Josephine and Daphne) and join a band travelling to Florida for a musical tour. Both of them fall for Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) but once they reach Florida Jerry attracts the unwanted attentions of a wealthy divorced playboy, leaving Joe to disguise himself as Junior, the millionaire heir to the Shell Oil fortune, in an effort to woo Sugar Kane. Soon, the mob catch up with them as an organised crime conference descends on their Florida resort and they are trying to evade Spatz and his men, maintain their disguises, woo the girl and avoid the lecherous advances of Osgood Fielding III.
This film is an ageless delight. Made over half a century ago and set another thirty years before that, it is hilarious, exciting and sexy. Monroe first appears walking along a train station platform, admired from behind by Jerry as "jello on springs". Although seemingly a cliched dumb-blonde, Monroe portrays her as much more charming, vulnerable and damaged than that. When she sings "I'm through with love", it's heart-breaking. Curtis is just effortless in switching between three very different roles. His performance as Junior is basically an elaborate impersonation of Cary Grant and his constant pouting as Josephine is continuously laugh-out loud funny.
Lemmon pretty much steals the show, though. Whether not noticing that he's playing the back of his double-bass because he is admiring Monroe's shimmying, or dancing the tango with Osgood, or shaking his maracas whilst announcing his engagement to him, or simply expressing endless exasperation at how unfair it is that he gets seduced by a man while Joe gets Monroe, he is immense. He makes such a bright-eyed woman and yet such a grumpy man. It all comes together into a perfect climax, never slipping into cliche or laziness. A genuine classic.