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101-445: Some Like It Hot is a 1959 American crime comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder . It stars Marilyn Monroe , Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon , with George Raft , Pat O'Brien , Joe E. Brown , Joan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff in supporting roles. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan from the 1935 French film Fanfare of Love . The film

202-416: A Hollywood feature went from $ 20,000 in 1914 to $ 300,000 in 1924. Silver and Ursini stated that the earliest crime features were by Austrian émigré director Josef von Sternberg whose films like Underworld (1927) eliminated most of the causes for criminal behavior and focused on the criminal perpetrators themselves which would anticipate the popular gangster films of the 1930s. The groundwork for

303-478: A broader category called "film type", mystery and suspense as "macro-genres", and film noir as a "screenwriter's pathway" explaining that these categories are additive rather than exclusionary. Chinatown would be an example of a film that is a drama (film type) crime film (super-genre) that is also a noir (pathway) mystery (macro-genre). The definition of what constitutes a crime film is not straightforward. Criminologist Nicole Hahn Rafter in her book Shots in

404-505: A change signaled by films like Chinatown (1974) and The Wild Bunch (1969) noting that older genres were being transformed through cultivation of nostalgia and a critique of the myths cultivated by their respective genres. Todd found that this found its way into crime films of the 1980s with films that could be labeled as post-modern , in which he felt that "genres blur, pastiche prevails, and once-fixed ideals, such as time and meaning, are subverted and destabilized". This would apply to

505-575: A conservative era. For crime films, this led to various reactions, including political films that critiqued official policies and citizen's political apathy. These included films like Missing (1982), Silkwood (1983), and No Way Out (1987). Prison films and courtroom dramas would also be politically charged with films like Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) and Cry Freedom (1987). While films about serial killers existed in earlier films such as M (1931) and Peeping Tom (1960),

606-454: A crooked shell" and portrayed gangsters who showcased the "romantic mystique of the doomed criminal." The 1940s formed an ambivalence toward the criminal heroes. Leitch suggested that this shift was from the decline in high-profile organized crime, partly because of the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and partly because of the well-publicized success of the FBI. Unlike the crime films of the 1930s,

707-404: A divorce and cash settlement when his ruse is revealed. Joe convinces Jerry that he cannot marry Osgood. The hotel hosts a conference for the "Friends of Italian Opera Society", a front for a national Mafia meeting presided over by "Little Bonaparte". Spats and his gang recognize Joe and Jerry as the witnesses they have been looking for. Fearing for their lives, Joe and Jerry realize they must quit

808-484: A film described as "crime/ action " or an "action/crime" or other hybrids was "only a semantic exercise" as both genres are important in the construction phase of the narrative. Mark Bould in A Companion to Film Noir stated that categorization of multiple generic genre labels was common in film reviews and rarely concerned with succinct descriptions that evoke elements of the film's form, content and make no claims beyond on how these elements combine. Leitch, stated that

909-400: A great similarity." The film's closing line, "Well, nobody's perfect", is ranked 78th on The Hollywood Reporter list of Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movie Lines, but it was never supposed to be in the final cut. Diamond and Wilder put it in the script as a "placeholder" until they could come up with something better, but they never did. Wilder's tombstone pays homage to the line by reading, "I'm

1010-626: A late-night party on the train and struggle to remember that flirting with her would compromise their cover. Once in Miami, Joe woos Sugar by affecting a Mid-Atlantic accent and posing as oil heir " Shell Oil Junior" while feigning indifference to her. An actual millionaire, the much-married, aging Osgood Fielding III, persistently pursues "Daphne", whose refusals only increase his appetite. He invites "her" to dinner on his yacht. Joe convinces Jerry to keep Osgood occupied onshore so that "Junior" can take Sugar to Osgood's yacht and pass it off as his own. On

1111-491: A locker of the Hollywood Athletic Club. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) consolidated a tendency to define criminal subculture as a mirror of American culture. The cycle of caper films were foreshadowed by films like The Killers (1946) and Criss Cross (1949) to later examples like The Killing (1956) and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Leitch wrote that these films used the planning and action of

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1212-684: A mobster known as The Snapper Kid. Regeneration (1915) was an early feature-length film about a gangster who saved from a life of crime by a social worker. These two early films and films like Tod Browning 's Outside the Law (1920) that deal with the world of criminal activity were described by Silver and Ursini as being gangsters "constrained by a strong moral code". Stuart Kaminsky in American Film Genres (1974) stated that prior to Little Caesar (1931), gangster characters were in films were essentially romances . European films of

1313-500: A portion of Giuseppe Verdi 's "Miserere", a chorus and duet from the opera Il trovatore . Years later, Firpo reported the historic moment as follows: In 1916 I was playing in the café La Giralda in Montevideo, when one day a man was accompanied by about fifteen boys — all students — to say he brought a carnival march song and they wanted me to review it because they thought it could be a tango. They wanted me to revise and tweak

1414-535: A psychopathic personality." Drew Todd in Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society described the character as different than films featuring rebellious characters from the 1940s and 1950s, with a character whose anger is directed against the state, mixed with fantasies of vigilante justice. Films like Dirty Harry , The French Connection and Straw Dogs (1971) that presented a violent vigilante as

1515-470: A remake of The Defiant Ones (1958). The cycle generally slowed down by the mid 1970s. Prison films closely followed the formulas of films of the past while having an increased level of profanity, violence and sex. Cool Hand Luke (1967) inaugurated the revival and was followed into the 1970s with films like Papillon (1973), Midnight Express (1978) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979). When Ronald Reagan became president in 1980, he ushered in

1616-413: A robbery todramatize the "irreducible unreasonableness of life." The themes of existential despair made the these film popular with European filmmakers, who would make their own heist films like Rififi (1955) and Il bidone (1955). Filmmakers of the coming French New Wave movement would expand on these crime films into complex mixtures of nostalgia and critique with later pictures like Elevator to

1717-420: A savior. By the mid-1970s, a traditional lead with good looks, brawn and bravery was replaced with characters who Todd described as a "pathological outcast, embittered and impulsively violent." Hollywood productions began courting films produced and marketed by white Americans for the purpose of trying to attract a new audience with blaxploitation film. These films were almost exclusively crime films following

1818-469: A screening of the film at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in March 1959, “Joe E. Brown’s nonchalant delivery of the final line elicited the loudest, deepest, heartiest laughter I have ever heard in a theater...recognizing a perfectly timed one-liner for the ages, a thousand spectators roared in unified delight.” The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: The film was inducted in 1989 into

1919-423: A single line according to Tony Curtis. The line "It's me, Sugar" took 47 takes to get correct because Monroe kept getting the word order wrong, saying either "Sugar, it's me" or "It's Sugar, me". Curtis and Lemmon made bets during the filming on how many takes she would need to get it right. Three days were scheduled for shooting the scene with Shell Jr. and Sugar at the beach, as Monroe had many complicated lines, but

2020-487: A writer, but then, nobody's perfect". In 2000, The Guardian ranked the closing scene at No. 10 on their list of "The top 100 film moments". With regard to sound design, there is a "strong musical element" in the film, with the soundtrack created by Adolph Deutsch . It has an authentic 1920s jazz feel using sharp, brassy strings to create tension in certain moments, for example whenever Spats's gangsters appear. In terms of cinematography and aesthetics, Wilder chose to shoot

2121-402: Is a style of crime film that originated from two cinematic precursors: the gangster film and the gentleman thief film. The essential element in these films is the plot concentration on the commission of a single crime of great monetary significance, at least on the surface level. The narratives in these films focus on the heist being wrapped up in the execution of the crime more or at as much as

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2222-434: Is about two musicians (Curtis and Lemmon) who disguise themselves as women to escape from Mafiosi whom they witnessed committing a crime. Some Like It Hot opened to critical and commercial success and is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time . The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor , Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay , winning for Best Costume Design . In 1989,

2323-521: Is among the most famous and recognizable tangos of all time. Roberto Firpo , director and pianist of the orchestra that premiered the song, added parts of his tangos "La gaucha Manuela" and "Curda completa" to Matos' carnival march ("La cumparsita"), resulting in "La cumparsita" as it is currently known. "La cumparsita" was first played in public in the old Café La Giralda in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Tango Museum of Montevideo stands currently on that site. The title translates as "the little parade", and

2424-404: Is considered among the best films of all time . On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , 95% of 73 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critical consensus calls it "a spry, quick-witted farce that never drags." According to Metacritic , another review aggregator which calculated a weighted average score of 98 out of 100 based on 19 critics,

2525-423: Is different just as crime are different than horror, science fiction and period drama films. Rafter also suggested that Westerns could be considered crime films, but that this perception would only be "muddying conceptual waters." The history of the crime film before 1940 follows reflected the changing social attitudes toward crime and criminals. In the first twenty years of the 20th Century, American society

2626-537: Is very popular at milongas ; it is a common tradition for it to be played as the last dance of the evening. It is sometimes referred to as "the National Anthem of Tango". The song was named cultural and popular anthem of Uruguay by law in 1997. Gene Kelly dances to "La cumparsita" in the film Anchors Aweigh (1945). The song was included in a ballroom scene of the film Sunset Boulevard (1950), in which Gloria Swanson and William Holden danced

2727-640: The British Board of Film Censors or conveyed mostly through narration. Box-office receipts began to grow stronger towards the late 1960s. Hollywood's demise of the Hays Code standards would allow for further violent, risqué and gory films. As college students at the University of Berkeley and University of Columbia demonstrated against racial injustice and the Vietnam, Hollywood generally ignored

2828-503: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935), promoted bigger budgets and wider press for his organization and himself through a well-publicized crusade against such real world gangsters as Machine Gun Kelly , Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger . Hoover's fictionalized exploits were glorified in future films such as G Men (1935). Through the 1930s, American films view of criminals were predominantly glamorized, but as

2929-702: The Library of Congress selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was produced without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) because it features cross-dressing . The code had been gradually weakening in its scope since the early 1950s, owing to greater social tolerance for taboo topics in film, but it

3030-505: The National Film Registry by the Library of Congress . The Writers Guild of America ranked the film's screenplay the ninth greatest ever written. An unsold television pilot was filmed by Mirisch Productions in 1961 featuring Vic Damone and Tina Louise . As a favor to the production company, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis agreed to film cameo appearances, returning as their original characters, Daphne and Josephine, at

3131-847: The United Artists Theatre with Monroe making an appearance, and in Washington, D.C., where it grossed $ 40,000 at the Capitol Theatre. With results from just six key cities, Variety listed it as the third highest-grossing film in the United States for the week. The film then expanded to 100 theatres around the country for the Easter holiday, including at the newly renovated State Theatre in New York City on Sunday, March 29, 1959, and became number one in

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3232-1045: The Western film as they lack both the instantly recognizable or the unique intent of other genres such as parody films. Leitch and Rafter both write that it would be impractical to call every film in which a crime produces the central dramatic situation a crime film. Leitch gave an example that most Westerns from The Great Train Robbery (1903) to Unforgiven (1992) often have narratives about crime and punishment, but are not generally described as crime films. Films with crime-and-punishment themes like Winchester 73 (1950) and Rancho Notorious (1952) are classified as Westerns rather than crime films because their setting takes precedence over their story. Alain Silver and James Ursini argued in A Companion to Crime Fiction (2020) that "unquestionably most Western films are crime films" but that that their overriding generic identification

3333-495: The gangster film as both a genre on its own terms and a subgenre of the crime film. In these films, the gangster and their values have been imbedded through decades of reiteration and revision, generally with a masculine style where an elaboration on a codes of behavior by acts of decisive violence are central concerns. The archetypal gangster film was the Hollywood production Little Caesar (1931). A moral panic followed

3434-512: The "Seminole Ritz Hotel" in Miami in the film, as it fit into the era of the 1920s and was near Hollywood. The Mirisch Company was the film's presenter, and producer Walter Mirisch employed several crew members from his home base, the Allied Artists studio. During filming, Monroe lacked concentration and suffered from an addiction to pills. She was constantly late to set, and could not memorize many of her lines, averaging 35–40 takes for

3535-612: The 1940s films were based more on fictional tales with gangsters played by Paul Muni in Angel on My Shoulder (1946) and Cagney in White Heat (1949) were self-consciously anachronistic. Filmmakers from this period were fleeing Europe due to the rise of Nazism. These directors such as Fritz Lang , Robert Siodmak , and Billy Wilder would make crime films in the late 1930s and 1940s that were later described as film noir by French critics. Several films from 1944 like The Woman in

3636-689: The 1980s had an emphasis on the serial nature of their crimes with a larger number of films focusing on the repetitive nature of some murders. While many of these films were teen-oriented pictures, they also included films like Dressed to Kill (1980) and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and continued into the 2000s with films like Seven (1995), Kiss the Girls (1997), and American Psycho (2000). In an article by John G. Cawelti titled " Chinatown and Generic Transformations in Recent American Films" (1979), Cawleti noticed

3737-652: The 1990s with films like Wild at Heart (1990). Quentin Tarantino would continue this trend in the 1990s with films where violence and crime is treated lightly such as Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Natural Born Killers (1994) while Lynch and the Coens would continue with Fargo (1996) and Lost Highway (1997). Other directors such as Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet would continue to more traditional crime films Goodfellas , Prince of

3838-876: The 76th annual ceremony in 2023: Casey Nicholaw for Best Choreography, Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter for Best Orchestrations, Gregg Barnes for Best Costume Design of a Musical, and J. Harrison Ghee for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Ghee was the first openly non-binary actor to be both nominated for and to win a Tony Award , along with Alex Newell , who won for their role in Shucked . Crime comedy Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identified crime film as one of eleven super-genres in his Screenwriters Taxonomy , claiming that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres.  The other ten super-genres are action, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, war and western. Williams identifies drama in

3939-498: The American crime film which began rejecting linear storytelling and distinctions between right and wrong with works from directors like Brian de Palma with Dressed to Kill and Scarface and works from The Coen Brothers and David Lynch whose had Todd described as having "stylized yet gritty and dryly humorous pictures evoking dream states" with films like Blood Simple (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986) and would continue into

4040-522: The City (1980), Q & A (1990), and Casino (1995). Other trends of the 1990s extended boundaries of crime films, ranging from main characters who were female or minorities with films like Thelma and Louise (1991), Swoon (1991), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Bound (1996) and Dolores Claiborne (1996). Every genre is a subgenre of a wider genre from whose contexts its own conventions take their meaning, it makes sense to think of

4141-794: The Gallows (1958), Breathless (1960) and Shoot the Piano Player (1960). Following the classical noir period of 1940 to 1958, a return to the violence of the two previous decades. By 1960, film was losing popularity to television as the mass form of media entertainment. Despite To The crime film countered this by providing material no acceptable for television, first with a higher level of onscreen violence. Films like Psycho (1960) and Black Sunday (1960) marked an increase in onscreen violence in film. Prior to these films, violence and gorier scenes were cut in Hammer film productions by

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4242-660: The Mirror: Crime Films and Society (2006) found that film scholars had a traditional reluctance to examine the topic of crime films in their entirety due to complex nature of the topic. Carlos Clarens in his book Crime Movies (1980), described the crime film as a symbolic representation of criminals, law, and society. Clarens continued that they describe what is culturally and morally abnormal and differ from thriller films which he wrote as being more concerned with psychological and private situations. Thomas Schatz in Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and

4343-516: The Studio System (1981) does not refer to the concept of crime film as a genre, and says that "such seemingly similar "urban crime" formulas" such as the gangster film and detective film were their own unique forms. Thomas Leitch, author of Crime Films (2004) stated that the crime film presents their defining subject as a crime culture that normalizes a place where crime is both shockingly disruptive and completely normal. Rafter suggested

4444-461: The Window , Laura , Murder, My Sweet and Double Indemnity ushered in this film cycle. These works continued into the mid-1950s. A reaction to film noir came with films with a more semi-documentary approach pioneered by the thriller The House on 92nd Street (1945). This led to crime films taking a more realistic approach like Kiss of Death (1947) and The Naked City (1948). By

4545-404: The band and leave the hotel. Joe conceals his deception from Sugar by telling her over the telephone that "Junior" must marry a woman of his father's choosing and move to Venezuela . Sugar becomes distressed and heartbroken. Joe and Jerry evade Spats' men by hiding under a table at the syndicate banquet, where Little Bonaparte roasts Spats and has him and his men killed. Joe and Jerry flee through

4646-632: The beginning of the pilot. Their appearance sees them in a hospital where Jerry (Lemmon) is being treated for his impacted back tooth and Joe (Curtis) is the same O blood type. In 1975 a Bollywood remake was released as Rafoo Chakkar . A 1984 stage production at the Claridge Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey , starred Joe Namath as Joe. A 1991 stage production of this show in London featured Tommy Steele and retained

4747-486: The best way to skirt complexities of various films that may be defined as crime films as works that focus primarily on crime and its consequences, and that they should be viewed as a category that encompasses a number genres, ranging from caper films , detective films, gangster films, cop and prison films and courtroom dramas. She said that like drama and romance film, they are umbrella terms that cover several smaller more coherent groups. The criminal acts in every film in

4848-601: The box office. The success of the film and its sequel The Godfather Part II (1974) reinforced the stature of the gangster film genre, which continued into the 1990s with films Scarface (1983), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990) and Donnie Brasco (1997). Dirty Harry (1971) create a new form of police film, where Clint Eastwood 's performance as Inspector Callahan which critic Pauline Kael described as an "emotionless hero, who lives and kills as affectlessly as

4949-431: The character of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle who Leitch described as a "tireless, brutal, vicious and indifferent" in terms of constraints of the law and his commanding officers. The film won several Academy Awards and was successful in the box office. This was followed in critical and commercial success of The Godfather (1972) which also won a Best Picture Academy Award and performed even better than The French Connection in

5050-429: The continual breakdown and re-establishment of borders among criminals, crime solvers and victims, concluding that "this paradox is at the heart of all crime films." Rafter echoed these statements, saying crime films should be defined on the basis of their relationship with society. Leitch writes that crime films reinforce popular social beliefs of their audience, such as the road to hell is paved with good intentions ,

5151-422: The country and remained there for three weeks before being knocked off the top by Imitation of Life . Imitation of Life was top for two weeks before being replaced again by Some Like It Hot , which remained there for another four weeks before being replaced by Pork Chop Hill . In its first month, the film grossed $ 2,585,120 from 96 engagements. Some Like It Hot received widespread acclaim from critics and

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5252-412: The crime film was following changing attitudes towards the law and the social order that criminals metaphorically reflect while most film were also no more explicitly violent or explicitly sexual than those of 1934. White Heat (1949) inaugurated a cycle of crime films that would deal with the omnipresent danger of the nuclear bomb with its theme of when being threatened with technological nightmares,

5353-554: The criminal psychology and are characterized by and emphasis on the crime unfolding often though montage and extended sequences. The genre is sometimes used interchangeable with the term "caper". The term was used for the more dramatic films of the 1950s, while in the 1960s, it had stronger elements of romantic comedy with more playful elements as seen in films like The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Topkapi (1964). Leitch described combining genres as problematic. Screenwriter and academic Jule Selbo expanded on this, describing

5454-680: The decade ended, the attitudes Hollywood productions had towards fictional criminals grew less straightforward and more conflicted. In 1935, Humphrey Bogart played Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), a role Leitch described as the "first of Hollywood's overtly metaphorical gangsters." Bogart would appear in films in the later thirties: Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939). Unlike actor James Cagney , whose appeal as described by Leitch "direct, physical, and extroverted", Bogart characters and acting suggested "depths of worldly disillusionment beneath

5555-672: The dock. Joe confesses the truth to Sugar and tells her that she deserves better, but Sugar wants him anyway, realizing he is the first man to genuinely care for her. Meanwhile, Jerry tries to get out of his engagement by listing reasons why "Daphne" and Osgood cannot marry, none of which bother Osgood. Exasperated, Jerry rips off his wig and says "I'm a man!" in his normal voice; still smiling, Osgood replies "Well, nobody's perfect," confounding Jerry and leaving him speechless. The soundtrack features four songs performed by Marilyn Monroe, nine songs composed by Adolph Deutsch , and two songs performed by jazz artist Matty Malneck . Billy Wilder wrote

5656-438: The earlier 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 42nd-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll and 37th in the directors' poll. The 2002 Sight & Sound polls the film ranked 37th among critics and 24th among directors. In 2010, The Guardian considered it the third-best comedy film of all time. In 2015, the film ranked 30th on BBC 's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around

5757-401: The end of the decade, American critics such as Parker Tyler and Robert Warshow regarded Hollywood itself as a stage for repressed American cultural anxieties following World War II. This can be seen in films such as Brute Force , a prison film where the prison is an existential social metaphor for a what Leitch described as a "meaningless, tragically unjust round of activities." By 1950,

5858-575: The film became one of the first 25 inducted into the United States National Film Registry . In 1998, the film was ranked at No. 7 in Time Out ' s poll of "Top 100 Films". In 1999, Entertainment Weekly voted it at No. 9 on their list of "100 Greatest Movies of All Time". Some Like It Hot was voted as the top American comedy film by the American Film Institute on their list on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs poll in 2000, and

5959-420: The film in black and white as Lemmon and Curtis in full drag costume and make-up looked "unacceptably grotesque" in early color tests. Despite Monroe's contract requiring the film to be in color, she agreed to it being filmed in black and white after seeing that Curtis and Lemmon's makeup gave them a "ghoulish" appearance on color film. Orry-Kelly created the costumes for Monroe as well as Lemmon and Curtis, after

6060-485: The film received "universal acclaim". The Chicago Sun-Times ' s Roger Ebert wrote: "Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft." Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and included it in his Great Movies list. John McCarten of The New Yorker referred to the film as "a jolly, carefree enterprise". Richard Roud , writing for The Guardian in 1967, called it "close to perfection". In 1989,

6161-527: The film's title. Tony Curtis, then in his late 70s, performed in a 2002 stage production of the film, this time cast as Osgood Fielding III, the character originally played by Joe E. Brown. The 1972 musical Sugar , based on the film screenplay, opened on Broadway starring Elaine Joyce , Robert Morse , Tony Roberts , and Cyril Ritchard , with book by Peter Stone , lyrics by Bob Merrill , and (all-new) music by Jule Styne . On January 5, 2019, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman confirmed they were writing

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6262-693: The filming in 1958, actor George Raft taught the other two men to dance the tango for this scene. Gülen Gözler (Turkish movie, 1977) In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney 2000, the Argentine team marched with the music of "La cumparsita". This originated protests and official claims from the Uruguayan government. The work was an opening part of the 1938 radio drama The War of the Worlds . Many artistic and rhythmic gymnasts have used variations of

6363-514: The first version was a tune with no lyrics. Later, Matos Rodríguez produced a version with lyrics that begin: "The parade of endless miseries marches around that sick being who will soon die of grief." However, the most popular version of the song is accompanied by lyrics by Pascual Contursi and is also known as "Si supieras". The song was originally a march, whose melody was composed in early 1916 by an architecture student in Montevideo, an 18-year-old man named Gerardo Hernán "Becho" Matos Rodríguez,

6464-536: The gangster films of the early 1930s were influenced by the early 1920s when cheap wood-pulp paper stocks led to an explosion in mass-market publishing. Newspapers would make folk heroes of bootleggers like Al Capone , while pulp magazines like Black Mask (1920) helped support more highbrow magazines such as The Smart Set which published stories of hard-edged detetives like Carroll John Daly 's Race Williams. The early wave of gangster films borrowed liberally from stories for early Hollywood productions that defined

6565-553: The genre has been popular since the dawn of the sound era of film. Ursini and Silver said that unlike the Western, the horror film, or the war film, the popularity of crime cinema has never waned. La Cumparsita " La cumparsita " ( little street procession , a grammatical diminutive of la comparsa ) is a tango written in 1916 by the Uruguayan musician Gerardo Matos Rodríguez , with lyrics by Argentines Pascual Contursi and Enrique Pedro Maroni  [ es ] . It

6666-412: The genre represents a larger critique of either social or institutional order from the perspective of a character or from the film's narrative at large. The films also depend on the audience ambivalence towards crime. Master criminals are portrayed as immoral but glamourous while maverick police officers break the law to capture criminals. Leitch defined this as a critical to the film as the films are about

6767-566: The genre with films like Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932). In comparison to much earlier films of the silent era, Leitch described the 1930s cycle as turning "the bighearted crook silent films had considered ripe for redemption into a remorseless killer." Hollywood Studio heads were under such constant pressure from public-interest groups to tone down their portrayal of professional criminals that as early as 1931. Jack L. Warner announced that Warner Bros. would stop producing such films. Scarface itself

6868-526: The growing rage against the establishment spilled into portrayal police themselves with films like Bullitt (1968) about a police officer caught between mob killers and ruthless politicians while In the Heat of the Night (1967) which called for racial equality and became the first crime film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture . The French Connection (1971) dispensed Bullitt ' s noble hero for

6969-408: The hotel after being spotted. Joe, dressed as Josephine, sees Sugar onstage singing a lament to lost love. He runs onto the platform and kisses her, causing her to realize that Josephine and Junior were the same person. Jerry persuades Osgood to take "Daphne" and "Josephine" away on his yacht. Sugar runs from the stage at the end of her performance and jumps aboard Osgood's launch just as it is leaving

7070-445: The law is above individuals, and that crime does not pay. The genre also generally has endings that confirm the moral absolutes that an innocent victim, a menacing criminal, and detective and their own morals that inspire them by questioning their heroic or pathetic status, their moral authority of the justice system, or by presenting innocent characters who seem guilty and vice-versa. Crime films includes all films that focus on any of

7171-498: The main gangster Jody Jarrett fights fire with fire. These themes extended into two other major crime films by bring the issues down from global to the subcultural level: The Big Heat (1953) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955) which use apocalyptical imagery to indicate danger with the first film which the film persistently links to images of catastrophically uncontrolled power and the "traumatic consequences" of nuclear holocaust and Kiss Me Deadly literally features an atom bomb waiting in

7272-633: The music and lyrics for a new adaptation in an interview with Graham Norton on BBC Radio 2 . The version had aimed for a Broadway production in 2020, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 20, 2022, the production was confirmed to star Christian Borle at the Shubert Theatre with previews beginning November 1, 2022, with music by Shaiman, music and lyrics by Shaiman and Wittman, and book by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin . The Broadway production went on to win four Tony Awards at

7373-405: The only or first gangster film following the fall of the production code, The Godfather (1972) was the most popular and launched a major revival of the style. The film followed the themes of the genres past while adding new emphasis on the intricate world of the mafia and its scale and seriousness that established new parameters for the genre. The heist film, also known as the "big caper" film

7474-591: The police raid the joint. Joe and Jerry escape, but later witness Spats and his henchmen gunning down Toothpick and his gang in revenge (an incident inspired by the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre ). Spats and his gang see them as they flee. Broke, terrified, and desperate to leave Chicago, Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women named Josephine and Daphne so they can join Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed by train to Miami . On

7575-434: The release of the early gangster films following Little Caesar , which led to the 1935 Production Code Administration in 1935 ending its first major cycle. As early as 1939, the traditional gangster was already a nostalgic figure as seen in films like The Roaring Twenties (1939). American productions about career criminals became possible through the relaxation of the code in the 1950s and its abolition in 1966. While not

7676-402: The role of Jerry. Finally, Wilder saw Lemmon in the comedy Operation Mad Ball and selected him for the part. Wilder and Lemmon would go on to make numerous films together, including The Apartment and several films which also included Walter Matthau . According to York Film Notes, Wilder and Diamond did not expect a star as big as Marilyn Monroe to take the part of Sugar. " Mitzi Gaynor

7777-712: The scene was finished in only 20 minutes. Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg and Monroe's husband Arthur Miller both tried to influence the production, which Wilder and other crew members found annoying. Wilder spoke in 1959 about making another film with Monroe: "I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and they tell me I'm too old and too rich to go through this again." But Wilder also admitted: "My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?" He also stated that Monroe played her part wonderfully. Years later, Wilder noted "I think there are more books on Marilyn Monroe than there are on World War 2, and there's

7878-465: The score that night because it was needed by a boy named Matos Rodríguez. In the 2/4 [march time signature] score there appeared a little [useful melody] in the first half and in the second half there was nothing. I got a piano and I remembered my two tangos composed in 1906 that had not had any success: "La gaucha Manuela" and "Curda completa". And I put in a little of each. At night I played the song with "Bachicha" Deambroggio and "Tito" Roccatagliatta. It

7979-420: The script for the film with writer I. A. L. Diamond . The plot was based on a screenplay by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan for the 1935 French film Fanfare of Love . The original script for Fanfare of Love was untraceable, so Walter Mirisch found a copy of the 1951 German remake, Fanfares of Love . He bought the rights to that script, and Wilder worked with this to produce a new story. Both films follow

8080-536: The silent era differed radically from the Hollywood productions, reflecting the post-World War I continental culture. Drew Todd wrote that with this, Europeans tended to create darker stories and the audiences of these films were readier to accept these narratives. Several European silent films go much further in exploring the mystique of the criminal figures. These followed the success in France of Louis Feuillade 's film serial Fantômas (1913). The average budget for

8181-521: The son of Montevideo's Moulin Rouge nightclub proprietor Emilio Matos. On 8 February 1916, Matos Rodríguez had his friend Manuel Barca show the music sheet to orchestra leader Roberto Firpo at the cafe called La Giralda. Firpo looked at the music and quickly determined that he could make it into a tango. As presented to him it had two sections; Firpo added a third part taken from his own little-known tangos "La gaucha Manuela" and "Curda completa", and also used

8282-402: The song as their floor routine soundtracks including Vanessa Atler (1998–99), Jamie Dantzscher (2000), Oana Petrovschi (2001–02), Elvire Teza (1998), Elise Ray (1997–98), Natalia Ziganshina (2000), Maria Kharenkova (2013), MyKayla Skinner (2011–12), Yana Kudryavtseva (2015, ribbon routine), and Dina Averina (Tokyo Olympics 2020, ribbon routine finals). Joannie Rochette skated to

8383-416: The song was a big hit, when he talked with Uruguayan violinist and tango orchestra leader Francisco Canaro , who was playing the tune at Paris engagements as "Si supieras". Canaro told Matos Rodríguez the song was "all the rage by all the orchestras". Matos Rodríguez spent the next two decades in various court battles over royalties, and finally succeeded in ensuring, that "La cumparsita" was re-established as

8484-546: The stock costumes the studio provided for the male leads fit poorly. By 1962, Some Like It Hot had grossed $ 14 million in the US. According to The Numbers , the film ultimately grossed $ 25 million in the US. As of 2020, it had grossed over $ 83.2 million internationally. The film opened in the week ended March 24, 1959, in several cities in the United States; the highest grossing of which were in Chicago, where it grossed $ 45,000 at

8585-426: The story of two musicians in search of work, but Wilder created the gangster subplot. The studio hired female impersonator Barbette to coach Lemmon and Curtis. Monroe worked for 10 percent of the gross in excess of $ 4 million, Curtis for 5 percent of the gross over $ 2 million, and Wilder for 17.5 percent of the first million after break-even and 20 percent thereafter. Tony Curtis was spotted by Billy Wilder while he

8686-410: The success of Shaft (1971) which led to studios rushing to follow it's popularity with films like Super Fly (1972), Black Caesar (1973), Coffy (1973) and The Black Godfather (1974) The films were often derivations of earlier films such as Cool Breeze (1972), a remake of The Asphalt Jungle , Hit Man (1972) a remake of Get Carter (1971), and Black Mama, White Mama (1973)

8787-465: The tango. In the 2006 dance movie Take the Lead , Jenna Dewan , Dante Basco and Elijah Kelley danced to a remixed version. In the 1959 film Some Like It Hot , "La cumparsita" is played by a blindfolded Cuban band during a scene in which Jack Lemmon dressed in drag dances with overstated flair in the arms of Joe E. Brown who thinks Lemmon is a woman ("Daphne – you're leading again"). During

8888-407: The three parties to a crime: criminal, victims, and avengers and explores what one party's relation to the other two. This allows the crime film to encompass films as wide as Wall Street (1987); caper films like The Asphalt Jungle (1950); and prison films ranging from Brute Force (1947) to The Shawshank Redemption (1994). Crime films are not definable by their mise-en-scene such as

8989-743: The title of the song. However, Contursi's lyrics became intimately associated with the song. Canaro formulated a binding agreement in 1948, one which would end the lawsuits. He determined that 20 percent of all royalties would go to the estates of the lyricist Contursi and his business partner Enrique P. Maroni. The other 80 percent of recording royalties would go to the estate of Matos Rodríguez. Canaro established that future sheet music printings would show Contursi's lyrics in addition to less well-known ones written by Matos Rodríguez, and no other lyrics. Famous versions of this tango include Carlos Gardel 's and performances by orchestras led by Juan d'Arienzo , Osvaldo Pugliese and Astor Piazzolla . "La cumparsita"

9090-502: The train, Joe and Jerry befriend Sugar Kane, the band's vocalist and ukulele player. Joe and Jerry become obsessed with Sugar and compete for her affection while maintaining their disguises. Sugar confides to "Josephine" that she has sworn off male saxophone players, who have taken advantage of her in the past. She hopes to find a gentle, bespectacled millionaire in Florida . "Josephine" and "Daphne" become close friends with Sugar during

9191-450: The war in narratives, with exceptions of film like The Green Berets (1968). The crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) revived the gangster film genre and captured the antiestablishment tone and set new standards for onscreen violence in film with its themes of demonizing American institution to attack the moral injustice of draft. This increase of violence was reflected in other crime films such as Point Blank (1967). Leitch found

9292-660: The world. It was included in The New York Times ' s "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" list in 2002. In 2005, it was included on Time ' s All-Time 100 best movies list. The film was voted at No. 52 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma in 2008. In July 2018, it was screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice International Film Festival . According to film historian Foster Hirsch , during

9393-444: The yacht, "Junior" tells Sugar that psychological trauma from the death of a former lover has left him impotent, but that he would marry anyone who could cure him. Sugar tries to arouse him, with considerable success. Meanwhile, "Daphne" and Osgood dance the tango (" La Cumparsita ") until dawn. When Joe and Jerry get back to the hotel, Jerry announces that Osgood has proposed marriage to "Daphne" and that he has accepted, anticipating

9494-629: Was an apotheosis. Matos Rodríguez walked around like a champion... But the tango was forgotten, its later success began when the words of Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi were associated with it. Firpo recorded the song in November 1916 for Odeon Records : Odeon release number 483. He used the recording studio of Max Glücksmann in Buenos Aires, and employed two violinists, one bandoneon player (Juan Bautista "Bachicha" Deambrogio), and one flute player to join him as bandleader on piano. The song

9595-532: Was delayed for over a year as its director Howard Hughes talked with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America 's Production Code Office over the films violence and overtones of incest. A new wave of crime films that began in 1934 were made that had law enforcers as glamourous and as charismatic as the criminals. J. Edgar Hoover , director the Bureau of Investigation (renamed

9696-434: Was enforced until the mid-1960s. The overwhelming success of Some Like It Hot is considered one of the reasons behind the retirement of the code. In Prohibition -era Chicago , Joe is a jazz saxophone player and an irresponsible, impulsive ladies' man ; his anxious friend Jerry is a jazz double bass player. They work in a speakeasy owned by local Mafia boss "Spats" Colombo. Tipped off by informant "Toothpick" Charlie,

9797-495: Was making the film Houdini (1953), and he thought Curtis would be perfect for the role of Joe. "I was sure Tony was right for it", said Wilder, "because he was quite handsome, and when he tells Marilyn that he is one of the Shell Oil family, she has to be able to believe it". Wilder's first idea for the role of Jerry was Frank Sinatra , but he did not come to the audition. Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye were also considered for

9898-667: Was pressed as the B-side of a 78 rpm release, and had only a modest success, fading in familiarity after several years. Lyrics to the song were written by the Argentine Pascual Contursi in 1924, and soon became a hit. This version of the song is considered the most widely known tango song in the world, closely followed by " El Choclo ". Contursi recorded the song under the title "Si supieras" ("If you knew"). Living in Paris at that time, Matos Rodríguez discovered, that

9999-608: Was selected as the best comedy of all time in a poll of 253 film critics from 52 countries conducted by the BBC in 2017. In 2005, the British Film Institute included this film on its list of "Top fifty films for children up to the age of 14". The 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll ranked it as the 38th greatest film of all time, tied with Rear Window and a bout de souffle . The 2022 Sight & Sound directors' poll ranked it 62nd, tied with nine other films. In

10100-400: Was under intense social reform with cities rapidly expanding and leading to social unrest and street crime rising and some people forming criminal gangs. In this early silent film period, criminals were more prominent on film screens than enforcers of the law. Among these early films from the period is D.W. Griffith 's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) involving a young woman hounded by

10201-649: Was who we had in mind", Wilder said. "The word came that Marilyn wanted the part and then we had to have Marilyn." Wilder and Monroe had made the film The Seven Year Itch together in 1955. It was George Raft 's first "A" picture in a number of years. The film was made in California during the summer and autumn of 1958. AFI reported the production dates between early August and November 12, 1958, at Samuel Goldwyn Studios . Many scenes were shot at Hotel del Coronado in Coronado , California, which appeared as

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