Not only is it the fun­ni­est film on the list, it’s also one of the most fam­ous – a shin­ing example of how won­der­ful movies could be in Hollywood’s golden age.

The first third of the film was pretty famil­i­ar – largely because clips from that early part are staples in doc­u­ment­ar­ies about movie his­tory. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are musi­cians in Prohibition-era Chicago. When they wit­ness a gang­land exe­cu­tion, they are forced to escape to Florida with an all-girl band. Of course, the only way they can do this is in drag but – being red-blooded young American males –being trapped on a train with a bunch of attract­ive single young women means tempta­tion that might get them killed. Especially when one of the young women is a blonde lush of a sing­er played with aplomb by Marilyn Monroe.

Some Like It Hot is two hours long but nev­er skips a beat. Wilder’s script – inspired by a French film called Fanfare of Love – is the per­fect com­bin­a­tion of plot and char­ac­ter and you can’t ima­gine Mr. Wilder put­ting up with the end­less impro­visa­tion that seems make up most mod­ern comedies.

Not only is it the fun­ni­est film on the list, it’s also one of the most fam­ous – a shin­ing example of how won­der­ful movies could be in Hollywood’s golden age.

The first third of the film was pretty famil­i­ar – largely because clips from that early part are staples in doc­u­ment­ar­ies about movie his­tory. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are musi­cians in Prohibition-era Chicago. When they wit­ness a gang­land exe­cu­tion, they are forced to escape to Florida with an all-girl band. Of course, the only way they can do this is in drag but – being red-blooded young American males –being trapped on a train with a bunch of attract­ive single young women means tempta­tion that might get them killed. Especially when one of the young women is a blonde lush of a sing­er played with aplomb by Marilyn Monroe.

Some Like It Hot is two hours long but nev­er skips a beat. Wilder’s script – inspired by a French film called Fanfare of Love – is the per­fect com­bin­a­tion of plot and char­ac­ter and you can’t ima­gine Mr. Wilder put­ting up with the end­less impro­visa­tion that seems make up most mod­ern comedies.