In Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob hit, and flee the state in an all-female band disguised as Josephine and Daphne, but further complications set in.
Acting
Lemmon's Daphne commits harder than method actors today.
Writing
Wilder & Diamond's dialogue: three jokes per line, zero fat.
Direction
Wilder balances mob threat and pure joy effortlessly.
Director
Billy Wilder
Tony Curtis
Joe (Josephine)
Jack Lemmon
Jerry (Daphne)
Marilyn Monroe
Sugar Kane Kowalczyk
George Raft
Spats Colombo
Pat O'Brien
Detective Mulligan
Joe E. Brown
Osgood Fielding III
Nehemiah Persoff
Little Bonaparte
Joan Shawlee
Sweet Sue
George E. Stone
Toothpick Charlie
Dave Barry
Beinstock
Mike Mazurki
Spats' Henchman
Harry Wilson
Spats' Henchman
Beverly Wills
Dolores
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released without Production Code approval due to cross-dressing and queer subtext; became a massive hit anyway and helped weaken censorship.
Tony Curtis's Cary Grant impression was so spot-on that Grant himself quipped, 'I don't talk like that.'
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