The Seven Year Itch (1955)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Billy Wilder (screenplay) &
George Axelrod (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

3 June 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

It TICKLES and TANTALIZES! - The funniest comedy since laughter began!

Plot:

When his family goes away for the summer, a so far faithful husband is tempted by a beautiful neighbor (Marilyn Monroe).

Plot Keywords:

Summer | Apartment | Tomato | Vacation | Model

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Marilyn Monroe	...	The Girl
Tom Ewell	...	Richard Sherman (as Tommy Ewell)
Evelyn Keyes	...	Helen Sherman
Sonny Tufts	...	Tom MacKenzie
Robert Strauss	...	Mr. Kruhulik (janitor)
Oskar Homolka	...	Dr. Brubaker (as Oscar Homolka)
Marguerite Chapman	...	Miss Morris (secretary)
Victor Moore	...	Plumber
Dolores Rosedale	...	Elaine (as Roxanne)
Donald MacBride	...	Mr. Brady
Carolyn Jones	...	Miss Finch (night nurse)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Unrated (video rating) | Colombia:12 | Mexico:A (video re-rating) | Mexico:B (original rating) | France:U | Argentina:16 (original rating) | Argentina:Atp (re-rating) (2002) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (1980s) | Singapore:PG | Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (video rating) (1998) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | France:-12 (original rating) | Spain:T | Spain:18 (original rating) | Chile:Y7 (re-rating) (2001) | USA:Approved (PCA #17230) | Canada:PG (video rating) | South Korea:15 (2006) | Australia:PG | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | UK:PG | West Germany:16 | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Charles K. Feldman Group

Trivia:

The classic shot of Marilyn Monroe's dress blowing up around her legs as she stands over a subway grating was originally shot on Manhattan's Lexington Avenue at 52nd St. on Sept. 15, 1954 at 1 AM. 5000 onlookers whistled and cheered through take after take as Marilyn repeatedly missed her lines. This occurred in presence of an increasingly embarrassed and angry Joe DiMaggio, then Marilyn Monroe's husband. The original footage shot on that night in New York never made it to the screen; the noise of the crowd had made it unusable. Billy Wilder re-staged the scene on the 20th Century Fox lot, on a set replicating Lexington Avenue, and got a more satisfactory result. However, it took another 40 takes for Marilyn to achieve the famous scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Richard is talking on the phone, he moves to the porch during his phone call. At first, the cord of the phone is seen coming around the corner through the doorway, but later disappears and eventually reappears.

Quotes:

The Girl: [in Richard's fantasy] It shakes me! It quakes me! It makes me feel goose-pimply all over!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Wrongfully Accused (1998)

Soundtrack:

Chopsticks

Billy Wilder has done much better, but I don't care

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.