Let’s work backwards here. Billy Wilder’s comedy about two musicians who witness a mob hit and go into hiding by dressing as women and joining an all-girl band has one of the best closing lines in cinema. Jack Lemmon tears off the fetching wig he’s been wearing for much of the movie and declares, “I’m a man!” Joe E. Brown, the millionaire who has fallen in love with him/her, calmly responds, “Nobody’s perfect.” Perhaps, but that line is perfect. And so are Lemmon and Curtis. The former revels in the role, his character joyously takes to playing a woman. The latter is less proficient, but his stumbling, barely veiled masculinity works perfectly alongside Lemmon’s giddy girlishness.
Top 10 Cross-Dressing Movie Performances
You knew Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill was going to be terrible. So we suggest you check out any of these gender-bending roles.
Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot
Full List
Something Different
- Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot
- Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie
- Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria
- Johnny Depp in Ed Wood
- Bugs Bunny in What’s Opera Doc?
- Katharine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett
- Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets
- Cary Grant in I Was A Male War Bride
- Johnny Depp in Before Night Falls