The Seven Year Itch

Trailer—The Seven Year Itch

The Seven Year Itch

This is the movie responsible for the photo of Marilyn Monroe with her dress being lifted up by the blast from an air vent. I think this is a production photo - at any event I didn't see famous image anywhere in the air vent scene of the movie. But the photo sums things up pretty well. This film is about Marilyn Monroe being sexy. Actually, it's about Tom Ewell being tortured to the brink of insanity by Marilyn Monroe being sexy, but such a detail need not concern us here. I wasn't really looking at Tom Ewell. The comedy is weak and the plot is weak. Tom Ewell's character is certainly weak (in both senses: weak-willed and weakly delineated). Billy Wilder's sharp and witty treatment is there, but - well - weak. Ah, who cares. The situation has all of the tension Wilder thinks it has, and the film still has its charm. This is so even if one is immune to the charms of Marilyn Monroe - which is to say, not a heterosexual male.

Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is having to stay home and continue going to work while his wife and son go on vacation. He then notices the young woman (Marilyn Monroe) living in the apartment above him. He realizes that he's probably been bitten by the seven year itch, where he gets interested in other women after seven years of marriage. Obviously, everyone remembers the subway-grating scene. But there's much more to "The Seven Year Itch" than just that. It shows how, through his acquaintanceship with this young woman, Richard rediscovers a sense of strength in himself. Among other things, it goes to show (or rather, reaffirm) what a great director Billy Wilder was.

In Some Like it Hot, Marilyn was the hottest she ever was. In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she's the Woman of all Women. But in The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn is the prize of all treasures. She is timeless in every frame of the film. Coming across as this unique, cute, and innocent little woman, Marilyn makes your mind race, your heart thump, and your youth return. No one else but Marilyn Monroe could play "The Girl" in the movie. She is just that, a girl, but much much more. Most of the physical comedy in the film is executed by Monroe herself. A lot of us don't realize this as we expect most of the comedy to come from the comedian in the film, Tom Ewell. A must see if you are a fan of America's first Dream Girl, the amazing Marilyn Monroe.