The 1959 film directed by Billy Wilder stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as two musicians who are forced to dress as women to hide from mobsters in an all-girls band. Marilyn Monroe co-stars as Sugar Kane, the singer of the band whom they befriend along the way, while Joe E. Brown plays a millionaire who becomes enamored with Lemmon and George Raft portrays the leader of the mobsters.
Various stage versions of the movie, including a musical version titled "Sugar" after Monroe's character's first name, have been attempted, and a 2002 version featured Curtis taking on Brown's role.
The tony voice Curtis puts on when pretending to be a young millionaire to romance Sugar is widely acknowledged to be an imitation of actor Cary Grant. Lemmon pokes fun at this when his character hears the voice, telling Curtis's character, "Nobody talks like that!"
According to the Daily Mail, the film was shot in black-and-white because the film style was better for Curtis and Lemmon's heavy makeup.