An iconic cast in a classic comedy,
Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot."
Billy wanted Tony Curtis for the part of Joe from the very start.
He wanted someone handsome enough to
play millionaire "Shell Oil" (and realistically entice Sugar).
The role of Jerry
was first offered to Frank Sinatra;
after he didn't show up to the audition,
Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, and Anthony Perkins were briefly considered.
When Billy saw Jack in Operation Mad Ball, Jack was IN.
No one thought Marilyn Monroe would want the part,
so the first to be considered for the role of Sugar Kowalczyk
was Mitzi Gaynor.
But whatever Marilyn wanted, she got.
"Look how she moves. Like Jell-O on springs."
Sweet Sue
and her Society Syncopators.
At the right, Sweet Sue herself,
played by Joan Shawlee, who would later
take on the role of Pickles (Buddy's wife)
on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Jack with Joe E. Brown
(the secondary romance!).
"What are you going to do on your honeymoon?"
"He wants to go to the Riviera, but I kinda lean toward Niagara Falls."
George Raft taught them to tango.
Oh, and that last line of the movie...
a throw away line of Joe E.'s which was to be changed
"when something better came along."
It didn't.
Wilder hired Barbette,
a female impersonator,
to help Tony and Jack with their roles as
Josephine and Daphne.
They were deemed "female enough"
They were deemed "female enough"
after a test drive to a ladies room on the lot...
no one complained!
Tony's female voice was dubbed by Paul Frees.
And the title of the movie...at first...
"Not Tonight, Josephine." :)
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