The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Like many other Manhattan husbands, Richard Sherman sends his wife and son to the country
for the summer, while he stays behind to toil. Though reveling in temporary bachelor freedom of
lifestyle, he's resolved not to carouse and philander like some others. But his overactive, overvivid imagination goes into overdrive when a delightfully unconventional, voluptuous blonde
moves in upstairs.
Marilyn Monroe ...
Tom Ewell
...
Evelyn Keyes ...
Sonny Tufts
...
Robert Strauss ...
Oskar Homolka ...
Marguerite Chapman
Victor Moore
...
Dolores Rosedale
Donald MacBride
Carolyn Jones ...

The Girl
Richard Sherman (as Tommy Ewell)
Helen Sherman
Tom MacKenzie
Mr. Kruhulik (janitor)
Dr. Brubaker (as Oscar Homolka)
...
Miss Morris (secretary)
Plumber
...
Elaine (as Roxanne)
...
Mr. Brady
Miss Finch (night nurse)

Director: Billy Wilder

Runtime: 105 mins
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048605/
Codecs:
Video : 609 MB, 851 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 640*240 (2.66:1), XVID = XVID Mpeg-4
Audio : 91 MB, 127 Kbps, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, 0x55 = MPEG Layer-3, CBR
Forget today's sex symbols...Marilyn is IT.
If Kate Moss moved into the flat above mine while my wife was out of town with the kids, I'd have
no trouble resisting temptation; but, Marilyn Monroe is a force of nature. She's a fertility goddess.
She is pure hourglass with a dynamite smile. In short, she is pure concentrated femininity.
This movie is a comedy, and a good one at that. The timing of Monroe and Ewell is flawless. The
scene where he jumps Marilyn on the piano bench in a brief moment of passion causing them
both to fall to the floor gives this brief exchange...
"I'm sorry", Ewell says, "This has never happened to me before"
Marilyn answers, while standing up and adjust her clothes, "That's funny. It happens to me all the
time"...
Priceless...
The exchange between Ewell and a psychiatrist is equally well-done. The movie is a classic. It is
Jack Lemmon's The Apartment, done with an attractive woman and a man who, although not in
full possession of his marbles, certainly is better adjusted than Lemmon's character.
This is a must see...
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This is a decent comedy and I enjoyed it on the whole. I'll be honest and say and the only real
reason and I took an interested in the film and watched it is Marilyn Monroe. I've been trying to
watch as many as her films as possible lately, ever since a study of Photography at college found
me researching the icon of the silver screen. The good news is for me is that there was plenty of
Marilyn to enjoy in this classic comedy. I was pleased to find that she is supported by a good cast
and a very funny script, and the film on the whole is a real winner. There were several laugh out
loud moments for me, and considering my young age and the fact this is a film from the 1950's I
would say that's something pretty impressive. For me, though, the reason the film was great has
to be Ms. Monroe. She is just simply stunning and elegant in this movie (A word her character
very much likes to use!). She really captures the audiences heart as "The Girl" and it's not hard to
see why Tom Ewell's character fell for her obvious charms - she is just a sheer delight in the film.
A sequence which I found totally hilarious was that in which Ewell's character imagines a variety
of heated liaisons with various women in his life - all of them supposedly throwing themselves at
him. The way in which he and the "women" deliver the lines - in a classic dead-pan fashion had
me almost crying with laughter. Really hilarious stuff. And that's not even mentioning the glorious
skirt-over-subway scene. This is a film to watch and fall in love with. You'll really enjoy it if you like
Marilyn, you want to laugh, you're looking for a warm movie to just relax to and you're interested
in cinema history and classic Hollywood. A great film for so many people - rent it and enjoy!
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Lately, I have been really been getting into the classics, not to mention some new favorite actors.
I always had wondered what the Marilyn Monroe movies were like. Because I always did love her
in Some Like it Hot. She's not like today's actresses, she's not a stick, she looks so cute and like
she has fun on screen. Not to mention she was a very beautiful actress.
The Seven Year Itch is a great romantic comedy where a man has sent his wife and son into the
country while he works on his business over the summer. But after 7 years of marriage, he meets
the new house sitter, played by Marilyn, and falls completely for her, causing a 7 year itch. He has
also a wild imagination and just let's it go with him thinking he'll get caught, what if his wife is
cheating on him, or what his life would be like if he was with Marilyn instead of his wife.
This is a very charming and lovable romantic comedy and will remain with that timeless image of
Marilyn's white dress blowing up in the air. She's so adorable and anyone can easily become a
fan of her's when they see this movie. It's a fun movie to watch and I highly recommend it.
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* Not without a distinct ring of irony, the 9-month-old Marilyn Monroe-Joe DiMaggio marriage
officially ended during this shoot.
* 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.
* Marilyn Monroe's lifelong bouts with depression and self-destruction took their toll during
filming; she frequently muffed scenes and forgot her lines, leading to sometimes as many as 40
takes of a scene before a satisfactory result was produced.
* Marilyn Monroe's constant tardiness and behavioral problems made the budget of the film

swell to $1.8 million, a high price for the time. The film still managed to make a nice profit.
* After seeing Walter Matthau's screen-test performance in the part of Richard Sherman, Billy
Wilder believed he had found his lead man. But 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.
* The screenplay was adapted from the original Broadway show "The Seven Year Itch" which
was written by George Axelrod. The original Broadway show starred Tom Ewell (who reprised his
role as the imaginative Richard Sherman) and Vanessa Brown. When the project was moved
from Paramount to 20th Century Fox, Brown was replaced by top sex symbol Marilyn Monroe for
the film adaptation. Due to the Hays Office Production Code censorship rules, the racy dialogue
and sexual innuendos were significantly toned down from the play.
* Gary Cooper was considered for the role of Richard Sherman.
* The film adaptation rights to the stage play "The Seven Year Itch" by George Axelrod had
originally been bought by Paramount Pictures. After director Billy Wilder left Paramount, the
project moved to 20th Century-Fox.
* The film's entire story was an elaboration of the first scene in The Major and the Minor (1942),
which was Billy Wilder's directorial debut. That movie starred Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland.
* Amazingly, Marilyn Monroe's very narrow spike heels don't get stuck or break in the subway
grating that she stands on it in the movie's most famous scene, although this was a universal
problem, at the time, for the countless women wearing that very popular style heel in New York
City in that era.
* The film rights to this film had originally been bought by Paramount Pictures. After director
Billy Wilder resigned to Paramount, the project moved to 20th Century Fox.
* In the early 1980s, 20th Century Fox (which has the film rights), wanted to remake this movie.
However the project was turned down and as of 2007, it remains in development hell.
* George Cukor was the original choice to direct the film. He turned down the project and
eventually Billy Wilder, whose contract with Paramount ended in 1954 (his last film with that
studio was Sabrina (1954)), took it.
* An important promotional campaign was released for this mainstream motion picture,
including a 52 feet high cut-out of Marilyn Monroe (from the blowing dress scene) erected in front
of Loews State Theater, in New York City's Times Square.
* Final film of Donald MacBride.
* Final film of Victor Moore.
* The movie premiere was on June 1st, 1955 which happened to be Marilyn Monroe's 29th
birthday.
* The movie's poster was as #22 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.