Billy Wilder preferred shooting in black and white, but Marilyn Monroe's contract with Fox called for all of her movies to be shot in color. Monroe always thought that she looked far more attractive and glamorous in color than in black and white.
The Seven Year Itch is one of the few films that utilizes footage of New York City's original Pennsylvania Station - opened in 1910 and torn down in 1963. The Beaux-Arts style station - considered a masterpiece of architecture - was modeled after the great, natural light stations of Paris, and a brief glimpse of its glass ceiling can be seen when Richard takes his wife and son to catch their train toward the start of the film. The destruction of the station - and the subsequent shock of a previously ambivalent city - is widely credited with jump-starting the historic landmark preservation movement.
Marilyn Monroe's iconic white dress set a record when it was auctioned for $4.6 million in June 2011 (rising to $5.5 million after taxes and fees were included), quintupling the previous record for a movie costume ($923,000 for Audrey Hepburn's "little black dress" from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)).
After seeing Walter Matthau's screen-test in the part of Richard Sherman, Billy Wilder believed he had found his leading man. However, 20th Century-Fox was unwilling to take the risk on a newcomer. That's when Wilder next turned his sights on the actor who had originated the role on Broadway, Tom Ewell - who is inexplicably billed as "Tommy Ewell" in the opening credits.
Marilyn Monroe was eager to work with Billy Wilder but had to agree to star in There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) before Fox would allow her to make this film.
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