<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $40 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American romantic comedy film set in 1929, directed and produced by Billy Wilder, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon . The supporting cast includes George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee, and Nehemiah Persoff . The screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on a screenplay by Billy Wilder and Michael Logan from the French film Fanfare of Love . The film is about two musicians who dress in drag in order to escape from mafia gangsters whom they witnessed commit a crime inspired by the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre . The film was produced in black and white, even though color films were increasing in popularity . </P> <P> Some Like It Hot opened to largely positive reviews and is today considered to be one of the greatest film comedies of all time . It was voted as the top comedy film by the American Film Institute on their list on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs poll in 2000 . The film is also notable for featuring cross dressing, and for playing with the idea of homosexuality, which led to its being produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code . The code had been gradually weakening in its scope during the early 1950s, due to increasing social tolerance for previously taboo topics in film, but it was still officially enforced . The overwhelming success of Some Like It Hot is considered one of the final nails in the coffin for the Hays Code . </P> <P> It is February 1929 in the city of Chicago, during the era of prohibition . Joe (Tony Curtis) is an irresponsible jazz saxophone player, gambler and ladies' man; his friend Jerry (Jack Lemmon) is a sensible jazz double - bass player; both are working in a speakeasy (disguised as a funeral home) owned by mob gangster "Spats" Colombo (George Raft). When the joint is raided by the police after being tipped off by informant "Toothpick" Charlie (George E. Stone), Joe and Jerry flee--only to accidentally witness Spats and his henchmen exacting his revenge on "Toothpick" and his own gang (inspired by the real - life Saint Valentine's Day Massacre). Penniless and in a mad rush to get out of town, the two musicians take a job with Sweet Sue (Joan Shawlee) and her Society Syncopators, an all - female band headed to Miami . Disguised as women and renaming themselves Josephine and Daphne, they board a train with the band and their male manager, Bienstock . Before they board the train, Joe and Jerry notice Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the band's vocalist and ukulele player . </P>

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