BackgroundA Star is Bornis the superb 1954 dramatic musical and tearjerker, acclaimed by many as the greatest Hollywood musical ever made.On a budget of $2.2 million, the domestic box-office revenue totaled $7.27 million.The film""s success earned Monroe better roles opposite such stars as Laurence Olivier (as Elsie inThe Prince and the Showgirl (1957)), Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (as Sugar Kane Kowalczyk inSome Like It Hot (1959)), and Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift (as Roslyn Taber inThe Misfits (1961)), before her untimely death at the age of 36 in 1962." The cartload of humans were delivered to exploitative slave trader orangutan Limbo (Paul Giamatti) who called the group "the skankiest, scabbiest, scuzziest humans I""ve ever seen.Jolson was given the lead after Eddie Cantor and George Jessel denied Warners"" offer to play the title role.