#17: Some Like It Hot (1959)
One of Marilyn Monroe’s best-known roles was in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot. Monroe joined Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in this 1959 musical comedy where the two men had to dress as women to pass as a jazz band to avoid getting whacked by the mob. It became one of the first films chosen for the National Film Registry.
Because of the cross-dressing element, Some Like it Hot was controversial and innovative for its time, and was not approved by the Motion Picture Production Code. Though it is often credited with being one of the reasons the restrictive code was abandoned by the late 1960s. Since then it has been named one of the best films by many, including the American Film Institute.