On the surface, Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot is as wholesome as apple pie. But a peek under the hood reveals this seemingly fluffy film as a gleeful, naughty treatise on sex, and you're drawn back for another viewing by its maniacal energy, crackling dialogue, soft spell. Which is my way of saying that I've seen the film eight or nine times; rare for a comedy, it gets richer with repeat viewings, inspiring a passionate devotion.

So I'm thrilled that a coffee table book about Some Like It Hot has been released, even if it carries a hefty $150 pricetag. In stores just in time for the holidays, the book--simply titled Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot--is big and glossy and a lot of fun, not to mention as packed with information as any DVD. Its attached bookmark shows a winking Wilder and similarly tucked away in the back cover are reproductions of passages from Marilyn Monroe's personal script, with notes written in the margins and many of her lines underlined again and again. (Monroe was famously bad at memorizing.)

Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot kicks off with a series of luminous stills (which, unlike the movie, are in colour). The text is never as compelling as the movie's images (or behind-the-scenes photographs), to be expected: worship of Some Like It Hot can't capture its magic. And most of the included anecdotes about the production have been told elsewhere. (Wilder shares my favourite: producer David Selznick's prediction of doom for the picture on the basis that, "You cannot combine murder with comedy." To which the director replied: "Well, I'll try anyway.") An early draft of the script is interesting, but the book is too bulky to sit down and read at length.

The last section of this volume (following the screenplay and interviews with Wilder, Jack Lemmon, and others), however, makes for wonderful, engrossing browsing. A self-styled scrapbook, it foregoes all text and lets the pictures tell the story. Advertising, posters, and news clippings are reproduced and compiled to create a veritable Some Like It Hot panorama. It's tempting to smile after reading that the state of Kansas refused to screen the movie because United Artists wouldn't cut the famous boat seduction; it's also an apropos reminder of how kinky Some Like It Hot really is. Although the sexuality is less blatant than in today's pictures, that doesn't make it any less pervasive.

In terms of structure, double-entendres, and spinning mistaken identities, Some Like It Hot is downright Shakespearean, and easily the greatest comedy ever filmed. Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot is an apt and lavish tribute, if less giddily enjoyable. It'll look great in your home, but whether or not you'll want to purchase it immediately or hold out hope for a January markdown probably depends upon, well, whether or not you've also seen Some Like It Hot eight or nine times.-Max Scheinin