20 Comedy Movies You Must See Before You Die

5. Some Like It Hot (1959)

Some Like It Hot probably shouldn't have worked. After all, the plot mostly centres around the idea of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis dressed up as and pretending to be women, having escaped the St. Valentine's Massacre in Chicago. Isn't that a little... one note?

And yet the final film proved quite the opposite. Thanks to an incredibly sharp and witty script that never relents or slows to lets you ponder the madness for a second, brilliantly immersive performances from its two leads, and Marilyn Monroe's best ever turn, Some Like It Hot is a genuine triumph. At the time of release, Billy Wilder's funniest movie was seen to be somewhat controversial in its exploration of sexuality.

There had been nothing quite like it up until that point anyway, and having Lemmon and Curtis made-up as transvestites really was something else; the movie thrives on their dynamic, of course, and their resulting chemistry with Monroe.

But Some Like It Hot offers up laugh after laugh, and it's one of very few comedies from its era that hasn't dated at all. Recall that final line: "Well, nobody's perfect." Sure, but Some Like It Hurt is the exception to the rule.