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50 free Some Like it Hot trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Some Like It Hot is the film the American Film Institute named the funniest ever made, and almost nothing about it went smoothly. Billy Wilder built a gangster plot onto a forgotten French farce, put Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in dresses, and then spent the autumn of 1958 coaxing Marilyn Monroe through take after take while the two men bet on how many she would need. These 50 questions cover the story and the making of it: Sugar Kane's band and her ukulele, the Shell Oil heir with the Cary Grant accent, the millionaire who pursues Daphne, the Mafia convention hiding behind an opera society, and the last line that was only ever meant to be a placeholder. There are production questions too, from the female impersonator hired to coach the leads and the San Diego hotel that stood in for Miami to the colour tests that sent the film to black and white, plus the Oscar it won and the Broadway musicals it spawned in 1972 and 2022. Easy questions stick to the cast and the big lines; the hardest ask about an unsold TV pilot, a Bollywood remake and a quarterback who once played Joe on stage. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a classic movie night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who produced, co-wrote and directed Some Like It Hot?
Billy Wilder
Wilder also co-wrote the script with I. A. L. Diamond, the start of a run that continued with The Apartment.
Q 02Which actress played the band singer Sugar Kane?
Marilyn Monroe
Monroe thought Sugar was another dumb blonde but took the part for a share of the profits.
Q 03Which pair of actors played the musicians Joe and Jerry?
Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon
Lemmon spent about 80 percent of the role in drag and based his Daphne partly on his own mother.
Q 04In which year was the film released?
1959
It opened in March and spent weeks at number one at the US box office that spring.
Q 05In which era of American history is the film set?
Prohibition
The speakeasy raid and the garage massacre both draw on 1920s Chicago gangland.
Q 06What is the name of the all-female band Joe and Jerry join?
Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators
Joan Shawlee played bandleader Sweet Sue.
Q 07Which Florida city is the band's train bound for?
Miami
The Florida scenes were actually shot in California, at a hotel in Coronado.
Q 08Which instrument does Joe play?
Saxophone
Sugar confides that she has sworn off players of that very instrument, which complicates Joe's plans.
Q 09What female names do Joe and Jerry take when they go into disguise?
Josephine and Daphne
Jerry later grows so comfortable as Daphne that he accepts a marriage proposal.
Q 10Joe woos Sugar by posing as the heir to which fortune?
Shell Oil
Wilder cast Curtis partly because Sugar had to believe he came from that family.
Q 11Whose accent does Joe imitate while playing the millionaire Junior?
Cary Grant
Curtis would later work with the real thing in Operation Petticoat the same year.
Q 12What is the name of the multi-divorced millionaire who pursues Daphne?
Osgood Fielding III
His refusals only make Daphne more attractive to him, and they end up dancing until dawn.
Q 13Which comedian played the smitten millionaire who delivers the film's last line?
Joe E. Brown
Brown had been one of the biggest screen comedians of the 1930s, famous for his enormous elastic smile.
Q 21Wilder's source was a German remake of the French original made in which year?
1951
The German film was Fanfaren der Liebe; Wilder worked from it and invented the gangster subplot.
Q 22Which real California resort doubled as the Seminole Ritz in Miami?
Hotel del Coronado
It was chosen because it still looked like the 1920s and was close to Hollywood.
Q 23Why did Wilder shoot the film in black and white?
The men's drag makeup looked grotesque in colour tests
Monroe's contract actually required colour, but she agreed to the change after seeing the ghoulish tests.
Q 14What is the film's celebrated closing line?
Well, nobody's perfect!
Wilder's tombstone pays homage to it, reading "I'm a writer, but then, nobody's perfect".
Q 15What is the name of the Chicago mob boss who owns the speakeasy?
"Spats" Colombo
He is executed at the end by a rival boss for bungling the Chicago situation.
Q 16Which actor played the mob boss hunting Joe and Jerry?
George Raft
It was his first A picture in a number of years, a nod to his 1930s gangster fame.
Q 17Which informant tips off the police, leading to the raid on the speakeasy?
"Toothpick" Charlie
The garage killing of his gang is what Joe and Jerry accidentally witness.
Q 18The garage shooting the pair witness was inspired by which real event?
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
The real 1929 killings happened in a Chicago garage, just as in the film.
Q 19Who co-wrote the screenplay with Wilder?
I. A. L. Diamond
Diamond's widow said the bickering friendship of Joe and Jerry was modelled on her husband's relationship with Wilder.
Q 20The plot was based on the screenplay of which 1935 French film?
Fanfare of Love
The French original is set in the Depression and sends its musicians to the Riviera; Wilder added the gangsters.
Q 24Who designed Monroe's gowns and the men's drag outfits?
Orry-Kelly
The outfits were so convincing that Curtis and Lemmon reportedly used the ladies' room after lunch without being spotted.
Q 25The film won its only Academy Award in which category?
Best Costume Design
It was nominated in the other three categories too, but Ben-Hur dominated the ceremony that year.
Q 26How many takes did Monroe need to get the line "It's me, Sugar" right?
47
She kept reversing the word order, and Curtis and Lemmon placed bets on how many takes it would need.
Q 27Who was Wilder's first idea for the role of Jerry?
Frank Sinatra
Wilder dropped the idea because he thought the singer would be too difficult to work with.
Q 28Which comedian turned down the part later played by Lemmon because he refused to do drag?
Jerry Lewis
He is said to have regretted the decision for the rest of his career.
Q 29Which actress did Wilder and his co-writer originally have in mind for Sugar?
Mitzi Gaynor
Once word came that Monroe wanted the part, the writers felt they had to have her.
Q 30Which female impersonator was hired to coach Lemmon and Curtis?
Barbette
Barbette had been a celebrated trapeze performer in Paris in the 1920s.