Some Like It Hot (1959)

Tony Curtis spends a long stretch of Some Like It Hot faking a millionaire on a yacht with a Cary Grant accent, and it stalls the funniest movie of its decade. Marilyn Monroe’s Sugar is also written thinner than the two guys chasing her, which is a shame, because Monroe makes every scene she’s in glow. Everything else is close to perfect. Curtis and Jack Lemmon play broke musicians on the run from the mob in wigs and heels, and Lemmon goes so big he nearly falls off the screen. His Daphne gets engaged to a cheerful millionaire played by Joe E. Brown, and the tango with the rose, plus the maracas afterward, are about as funny as movies get. Billy Wilder keeps the jokes fast and the train scenes packed. It was shot on a reported $2.9M budget, and 308,105 IMDb ratings average an 8.2. A 9.3 because almost nothing in comedy since has moved this fast or landed this clean. $5,371 says you shake a box of rice like maracas the next time you get good news.

What works: Jack Lemmon is a comic tornado as Daphne, and Billy Wilder’s script lands joke after joke right up to one of the best final lines ever written.

What doesn’t: The yacht scenes with Curtis’s fake millionaire drag, and Marilyn Monroe’s Sugar gets less to do than the two guys chasing her.

Who it’s for: Anyone who thinks old movies can’t be funny, especially people who love a fast farce with a great last punchline.