Billy Wilder and Some Like It Hot

The American Film Institute has ranked Some Like it Hot as the greatest comedy of the 20th century for 25 years. However, no one has ever unlocked the secret of its success. It is true that much has been written about its talented co-writer director Billy Wilder, but the material is soon bogged down in the trainwreck casting of the unstable Marilyn Monroe. Wilder manages to get a performance out of her. However, the real untapped enigma of Hot’s greatness is Wilder’s career up to its production. He had fully nailed the six comedy subgenres, and his masterful crazy quilt intertwining of parody, dark comedy, romantic comedy, personality comedian, screwball comedy and populism was the trick.

Plus, “Nobody’s Perfect” at the close of the film was Wilder’s own little LGBTQ+ time bomb waiting to happen. At the end of his screenplay (1959) he wrote that America was just not ready for Joe E. Brown’s comment. But just look at the current critical and commercial musical comedy success adaptation of Hot. As most critics suggest, the provocative Wilder would be loving it. This book explores the history, context, and success secrets of this venerated American comedy.

Author Biography

Wes D. Gehring is the Distinguished Professor of Film at Ball State University, and the author of 44 books, keying on biographies of film comedians and comic genres. Their reception has resulted in speaking engagements from the Paris-Sorbonne University to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He has periodically been one of Turner Classic Movies’ on-screen scholars for their summer online classes.