“It’s like kissing Hitler”: the truth behind Tony Curtis’ infamous remark about Marilyn Monroe
In many ways, Marilyn Monroe is the ultimate American on-screen icon. A representation of the positive myth of the American Dream – that anyone can make their dreams come true despite their origins – she broke through with hard work and undoubted talent, two things that the country held dear during her era. Accordingly, after bursting onto the scene, the actor and singer quickly became Hollywood’s definitive ‘blonde bombshell’ and an emblem of the ongoing sexual revolution. In her short life, Monroe clocked up 33 acting credits and established a mythos that still fascinates today.
While Monroe starred in many hits, it is the 1959 movie Some Like It Hot that is established as one of her best. The crime comedy was a critical and commercial triumph, earning her a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress’. In the movie, Monroe starred as the musician Sugar Kane, whom Tony Curtis’ Joe and Jack Lemmon’s Jerry compete for the affection of whilst on the run from the mafia. As is well-known, it is Joe who ultimately wins over Sugar Kane.
Despite their on-screen chemistry, at the time, some rumours claimed that Curtis was not a fan of Monroe, speculation which stemmed from an apparently derogatory comment he made about kissing her, in which it is suggested he said it was “like kissing Hitler”. However, others claimed the two actors actually had an affair and that the remark was just a smokescreen. Curtis would later confess to the romance much later, swearing that the Hitler comparison was taken out of context.
In Curtis’ 2009 memoir, The Making of Some Like It Hot, the actor claimed that not only did he and Monroe have an affair during the making of the film, but that it also resulted in a pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage. At the time, Curtis was married to Janet Leigh and Monroe to Arthur Miller. “What I experienced with her was unforgettable,” he wrote.
Curtis then claimed that when the pair admitted their tryst to Miller, Monroe sprung the news of her pregnancy. Per Biography, Monroe and Miller were trying to conceive during this period. “I was stunned,” Curtis continued. “I just stood there. The room was so silent that I could hear tyres screeching on Santa Monica Boulevard.”
Afterwards, Curtis was instructed to finish the movie and stay away from Monroe and Miller. After production had concluded, he heard about Monroe’s miscarriage. Monroe and Miller’s matrimony was then dissolved in 1961, a year before her untimely death. Curtis’ marriage to Leigh – which produced two daughters, including actor Jamie Lee Curtis – ended with divorce in 1962.
During a 2008 interview with The Guardian at the BFI Southbank, Curtis maintained that the Hitler remark was taken out of context and shortened to sound completely different. He took the opportunity with the publication to tell them what was really said. “Someone said to me, ‘Hey, what’s it like kissing Marilyn?’ I said, ‘It’s like kissing Hitler. What are you doing asking me such a stupid question?’ That’s where it came from,” he asserted.
