Director
Billy Wilder
Leading Actors/Actresses
Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Joe E. Brown, George Raft
Genre
Musical, Comedy
Language
English
Awards
Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture, Best Actress (Marilyn Monroe), Best Actor (Jack Lemmon) Academy Award Nominations: Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Actor Leading Role (Jack Lemmon), Best Art Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay; Academy Awards: Best Costume Design
Date of Release
1959
Producer
Billy Wilder
Setting and Context
Miami, Florida, 1958
Narrator and Point of View
There is no narrator, but most of the film is from either Jerry/Daphne's and/or Joe/Josephine's perspectives
Tone and Mood
Entertaining, conspiratorial, light-hearted, screwball, absurd, witty
Protagonist and Antagonist
Daphne and Josephine are the protagonists; Spats Columbo, Little Bonaparte and the other gangsters are the antagonists
Major Conflict
The first conflict is that Joe and Jerry are broke, and then the conflict becomes more complicated when they witness the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Spats Columbo is then looking for them and wants to kill them, which drives them to dress up as women.
Climax
The climax of the film occurs when Joe and Jerry escape from Little Bonaparte and run to meet Osgood on the docks, with Sugar following close behind.
Foreshadowing
When Nellie sends Joe and Jerry in to ask after the job in Florida and they discover that it's a job for women, this foreshadows the fact that they will eventually take the job and dress up in drag to elude the bandleader.
Understatement
Sweet Sue thinks that there is something odd about Daphne and Josephine, which is an understatement because they are in fact not even the gender that they are pretending to be. Throughout, people curiously overlook their obviously masculine attributes and believe that they are women. The last line, Osgood saying, "Nobody's perfect," is disproportionate to the revelation that Jerry has just made—that he is a man.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
Allusions
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is an allusion to the infamous mob hits contemporaneous to the setting of the movie. Other allusions include references to Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Freud, the George White Scandals, and the Milk Fund.
Paradox
Sugar is looking for a quiet non-saxophone player, so her interest in "Junior" is paradoxical because he is, in fact, Joe, a saxophone player. Even though she didn't want to end up with a musician, she ends up loving Joe and staying with him.
