Joe (Curtis) and Jerry (Lemmon) are unwittingly witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. They make a escape but join the mafia's hit list. Obvious solution? Join an all-girl band on tour to Florida. Joe and Jerry become Josephine and Daphne (!), and compete for the attentions of Sugar Kane (Monroe), as they first notice her walking ('like jello on springs': supposedly an attractive quality) along a railway platform. Sugar is battling a minor, yet amusing tendency towards alcoholism, and heading to Florida to marry a millionaire. She's tired of getting the 'fuzzy end of the lollipop' and wants a nice rich fella and a happy life. Given she finds a lying no-good muso, pretending to be someone he's not, there is still a lot for the modern woman to relate to...
The comedy's success relies on a tight script as well as decent slapstick (and endless gags about cross-dressing). Even though colour technology was becoming widely available, director Billy Wilder chose to shoot the film in black and white, so that the guys' makeup and costumes would not be overly exaggerated. The musical numbers in the film are also a delight; Monroe is a sassy lead singer and a ukulele virtuoso. It's a highly camp, highly popular classic film, which you should really see on the big screen.

Billy Wilder and his co-writer I.A.L. Diamond followed the successful Some Like it Hot with an even bolder film. C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) is a corporate climber who curries favour with the executives in his office by lending his small apartment for their extra-marital trysts. Among them is his boss, J.D. Sheldrake (MacMurray) who uses the apartment to liaise with Miss Fran Kubelik (Maclaine), the elevator operator. After Sheldrake coldly dumps Miss Kubelik, she attempts suicide and is saved by Baxter's intervention. As he nurses her back to health, Baxter realises how foolish he has been (and risks losing his job). This bittersweet comedy (which won five Oscars, including Best Film) was considered frank in its day and is still a biting satire of corporate America.