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The Seven Year Itch

January 19, 2023

For other uses, see Seven Year Itch (disambiguation).

The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American romantic comedy film directed by Billy Wilder, from a screenplay he co-wrote with George Axelrod from the 1952 three-act play. The film stars Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, who reprised his stage role. It contains one of the most iconic pop-culture images of the 20th century – Monroe standing on a subway grate as her white dress is blown upwards by a passing train.[1] The titular phrase, which refers to a waning interest in monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, has been used by psychologists.[2]

The Seven Year Itch
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBilly Wilder
Screenplay byGeorge Axelrod
Billy Wilder
Based onThe Seven Year Itch
1952 play
by George Axelrod
Produced byCharles K. Feldman
Billy Wilder
StarringMarilyn Monroe
Tom Ewell
CinematographyMilton R. Krasner
Edited byHugh S. Fowler
Music byAlfred Newman
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century-Fox
Release dates
  • June 1, 1955 (1955-06-01) (Premiere)
  • June 3, 1955 (1955-06-03) (United States)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.8 million
Box office$12 million

Plot

Richard Sherman is a middle-aged publishing executive in New York City with an overactive imagination, whose wife, Helen, and son, Ricky, are spending the summer in Maine. When he returns home from the train station with the kayak paddle Ricky accidentally left behind, he meets an unnamed woman, who is a commercial actress and former model. She rents the apartment upstairs while in town to make television spots for a brand of toothpaste. That evening, he works on reading the manuscript of a book in which psychiatrist Dr. Brubaker claims that almost all men are driven to have extra-marital affairs in the seventh year of marriage. Sherman has an imaginary conversation with Helen, trying to convince her, in three fantasy sequences, that he is irresistible to women, including his secretary, a nurse, and Helen's bridesmaid, but she laughs it off. A potted tomato plant falls onto his lounge chair; the woman upstairs apologizes for accidentally knocking it off her balcony, and Richard invites her down for a drink.

 
Ewell reprised his Broadway role and Monroe replaced Vanessa Brown.

While waiting for her to arrive, he vacillates between a fantasy of her as a femme fatale overcome by his playing of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, and guilt at betraying his wife. When she does come down, she is wearing pink pajamas and turns out to be a naïve and innocent young woman. On his suggestion, she brings back a bottle of champagne from her apartment and returns in a white dress. Richard, overcome by his fantasies, awkwardly grabs at her while they are playing "Chopsticks" together on the piano, causing them to fall off the piano bench. He apologizes, but she says it happens to her all the time. Guilt-ridden, he asks her to leave.

The next day at work, Richard is distracted by the fear Helen will find out about his indiscretion, though she is none the wiser and just wants Richard to send Ricky his paddle so he can use the kayak. Richard's waning resolve to resist temptation fuels his fear that he is succumbing to the "Seven Year Itch". He visits Dr. Brubaker, who arrives at the office to discuss the book, to no avail. When he keeps hearing of his wife spending time with her writer friend McKenzie in Maine, Richard imagines they are carrying on an affair, and he decides to invite the young woman out to dinner and a film. They go to an air-conditioned theater, seeking respite from the oppressive heat, and see The Creature from the Black Lagoon. As the two are talking while walking home, she briefly stands over a subway grate to experience the updraft – Monroe in the iconic scene in her pleated white halterneck dress, blowing her skirt up in the breeze. The two then spend the night (platonicly) at his air-conditioned apartment (as her apartment is uncooled) so she can rest for her television appearance.

The next morning, Richard comes to his senses, and fearing his wife's retribution (within his dream), he tells the woman she can stay in his apartment, and leaves to catch the train to Maine.

Cast

 
Monroe posing for photographers while filming the subway grate scene for the film in September 1954

Soundtrack

Song[3] Performer(s) Note(s)
"Piano Concerto No. 2" Played on a record and often in the score
"Sentimental Journey" — Played often in the score
"Chopsticks" Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell —

Production

 
Marilyn Monroe's skirt blows upwards in the film.
 
The depiction of Monroe over the grate has been compared to a similar event in the 1901 short film What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City.[4][5]

The Seven Year Itch was filmed between September and November 1954, and is Wilder's only film released by 20th Century-Fox. The characters of Elaine (Dolores Rosedale), Marie, and the inner voices of Sherman and The Girl were dropped from the play; the characters of the Plumber, Miss Finch (Carolyn Jones), the Waitress (Doro Merande), and Kruhulik the janitor (Robert Strauss) were added. Many lines and scenes from the play were cut or re-written because they were deemed indecent by the Hays office. Axelrod and Wilder complained that the film was being made under straitjacketed conditions. This led to a major plot change: in the play, Sherman and The Girl have sex; in the movie, the romance is reduced to suggestion; Sherman and the Girl kiss three times, once while playing Sherman's piano together, once outside the movie theater and once near the end before Sherman goes to take Ricky's paddle to him. The footage of Monroe's dress billowing over a subway grate was shot twice: the first take was shot on location outside the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater, then located at 586 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, while the second take was on a sound stage. Both eventually made their way into the finished film,[citation needed] despite the often-held belief that the original on-location footage's sound had been rendered useless by the overexcited crowd present during filming in New York. The exterior shooting location of Richard's apartment was 164 East 61st Street in Manhattan.[6]

Saul Bass created the abstract title sequence, which was mentioned favorably in numerous reviews; up until that time, it was unheard of for trade press reviews to mention film title sequences.[7]

Dimaggio was on set during the filming of the dress scene, and reportedly angry and disgusted with the attention his wife received from onlookers, reporters, and photographers in attendance. Wilder had invited the media to drum up interest in the film.[8][9][10]

Release

Box office

A major commercial success, the film earned $6 million in rentals at the North American box office.[11]

Critical response

The original 1955 review by Variety was largely positive. Though Hollywood production codes prohibited writer-director Billy Wilder from filming a comedy where adultery takes place, the review expressed disappointment that Sherman remains chaste.[12] Some critics compared Richard Sherman to the fantasizing lead character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".[13]

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 32 reviews from critics are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10.[14]

In the 1970s Wilder called the movie "a nothing picture because the picture should be done today without censorship... Unless the husband, left alone in New York while the wife and kid are away for the summer, has an affair with that girl there's nothing. But you couldn't do that in those days, so I was just straitjacketed. It just didn't come off one bit, and there's nothing I can say about it except I wish I hadn't made it. I wish I had the property now."[15]

Awards and honors

In 2000, American Film Institute included the film as No. 51 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs.[20] The film was included in "The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" in 2002.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Seven Year Itch". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 30, 2008.
  2. ^ Dalton, Aaron (January 1, 2000). "The Ties That Unbind". Psychology Today. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  3. ^ "The Seven Year Itch (1955): Soundtracks". IMDb. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
  4. ^ Rosemary Hanes with Brian Taves. "Moving Image Section – Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division" The Library of Congress. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  5. ^ Lee Grieveson, Peter Krämer. The silent cinema reader (2004) ISBN 0-415-25283-0, 0-415-25284-9, Tom Gunning "The Cinema of Attractions" p. 46. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  6. ^ . web.archive.org. December 18, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  7. ^ Horak, Jan-Christopher (2014). Saul Bass : Anatomy of Film Design. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-4720-8. OCLC 892799673.
  8. ^ "Inside Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio's Roller Coaster Romance".
  9. ^ "The Shocking Story You Never Knew Behind Marilyn Monroe's Skirt Scene". August 29, 2021.
  10. ^ "The Truth Behind the Marilyn Monroe Dress Scene". July 3, 2021.
  11. ^ "All Time Domestic Champs", Variety, January 6, 1960, p. 34.
  12. ^ . Variety. Reviews. January 1, 1955. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2008.
  13. ^ Schildcrout, Jordan (2019). In the Long Run: A Cultural History of Broadway's Hit Plays. New York and London: Routledge. p. 103. ISBN 978-0367210908.
  14. ^ The Seven Year Itch at Rotten Tomatoes
  15. ^ "Conversations with Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond [Part 8]" November 28, 2011 by Scott Go Into the Story accessed May 28, 2014
  16. ^ "Directors Guild of America, USA: Awards for 1956". IMDb. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  17. ^ "8th Annual DGA Awards: Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 1955 – Winners and Nominees – Feature Film". DGA. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  18. ^ . Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  19. ^ "The 13th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1956)". hfpa.org. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  20. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. 2002. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  21. ^ . The New York Times. 2002. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2013.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Seven Year Itch.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Seven Year Itch.
  • The Seven Year Itch at IMDb
  • The Seven Year Itch at AllMovie
  • The Seven Year Itch at the TCM Movie Database
  • The Seven Year Itch at the American Film Institute Catalog
  • The Seven Year Itch
  • The Seven Year Itch at Rotten Tomatoes
  • The Seven Year Itch review at Variety
  • Cinema Retro article on the famous subway breeze scene
  • at The Cad
  • The Seven Year Itch famous subway breeze scene becomes a twenty-six foot tall statue in 2011
  • “Marilyn Monroe's Long-Lost Skirt Scene” – January 26, 2017, piece on Studio 360
  • Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Seven Year Itch in 1954 by Photographer George Barris

January 19, 2023
seven, year, itch, other, uses, seven, year, itch, disambiguation, 1955, american, romantic, comedy, film, directed, billy, wilder, from, screenplay, wrote, with, george, axelrod, from, 1952, three, play, film, stars, marilyn, monroe, ewell, reprised, stage, r. For other uses see Seven Year Itch disambiguation The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American romantic comedy film directed by Billy Wilder from a screenplay he co wrote with George Axelrod from the 1952 three act play The film stars Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell who reprised his stage role It contains one of the most iconic pop culture images of the 20th century Monroe standing on a subway grate as her white dress is blown upwards by a passing train 1 The titular phrase which refers to a waning interest in monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage has been used by psychologists 2 The Seven Year ItchTheatrical release posterDirected byBilly WilderScreenplay byGeorge AxelrodBilly WilderBased onThe Seven Year Itch1952 playby George AxelrodProduced byCharles K FeldmanBilly WilderStarringMarilyn MonroeTom EwellCinematographyMilton R KrasnerEdited byHugh S FowlerMusic byAlfred NewmanProductioncompanyCharles K Feldman Group ProductionsDistributed by20th Century FoxRelease datesJune 1 1955 1955 06 01 Premiere June 3 1955 1955 06 03 United States Running time105 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 1 8 millionBox office 12 million Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Soundtrack 4 Production 5 Release 5 1 Box office 5 2 Critical response 5 3 Awards and honors 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksPlot EditRichard Sherman is a middle aged publishing executive in New York City with an overactive imagination whose wife Helen and son Ricky are spending the summer in Maine When he returns home from the train station with the kayak paddle Ricky accidentally left behind he meets an unnamed woman who is a commercial actress and former model She rents the apartment upstairs while in town to make television spots for a brand of toothpaste That evening he works on reading the manuscript of a book in which psychiatrist Dr Brubaker claims that almost all men are driven to have extra marital affairs in the seventh year of marriage Sherman has an imaginary conversation with Helen trying to convince her in three fantasy sequences that he is irresistible to women including his secretary a nurse and Helen s bridesmaid but she laughs it off A potted tomato plant falls onto his lounge chair the woman upstairs apologizes for accidentally knocking it off her balcony and Richard invites her down for a drink Ewell reprised his Broadway role and Monroe replaced Vanessa Brown While waiting for her to arrive he vacillates between a fantasy of her as a femme fatale overcome by his playing of Rachmaninoff s Second Piano Concerto and guilt at betraying his wife When she does come down she is wearing pink pajamas and turns out to be a naive and innocent young woman On his suggestion she brings back a bottle of champagne from her apartment and returns in a white dress Richard overcome by his fantasies awkwardly grabs at her while they are playing Chopsticks together on the piano causing them to fall off the piano bench He apologizes but she says it happens to her all the time Guilt ridden he asks her to leave The next day at work Richard is distracted by the fear Helen will find out about his indiscretion though she is none the wiser and just wants Richard to send Ricky his paddle so he can use the kayak Richard s waning resolve to resist temptation fuels his fear that he is succumbing to the Seven Year Itch He visits Dr Brubaker who arrives at the office to discuss the book to no avail When he keeps hearing of his wife spending time with her writer friend McKenzie in Maine Richard imagines they are carrying on an affair and he decides to invite the young woman out to dinner and a film They go to an air conditioned theater seeking respite from the oppressive heat and see The Creature from the Black Lagoon As the two are talking while walking home she briefly stands over a subway grate to experience the updraft Monroe in the iconic scene in her pleated white halterneck dress blowing her skirt up in the breeze The two then spend the night platonicly at his air conditioned apartment as her apartment is uncooled so she can rest for her television appearance The next morning Richard comes to his senses and fearing his wife s retribution within his dream he tells the woman she can stay in his apartment and leaves to catch the train to Maine Cast Edit Monroe posing for photographers while filming the subway grate scene for the film in September 1954 Marilyn Monroe as The Girl credited as such though Richard Sherman satirically remarks maybe she s Marilyn Monroe Tom Ewell as Richard Sherman billed as Tommy Ewell Evelyn Keyes as Helen Sherman Sonny Tufts as Tom MacKenzie Robert Strauss as Kruhulik Oscar Homolka as Dr Brubaker Marguerite Chapman as Miss Morris Victor Moore as Plumber Donald MacBride as Mr Brady Roxanne as Elaine Carolyn Jones as Nurse Finch Tom Nolan as Ricky Sherman uncredited Doro Merande as Waitress at Vegetarian Restaurant uncredited Kathleen Freeman as Woman at Vegetarian Restaurant uncredited Soundtrack EditSong 3 Performer s Note s Piano Concerto No 2 Played on a record and often in the score Sentimental Journey Played often in the score Chopsticks Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell Production Edit Marilyn Monroe s skirt blows upwards in the film The depiction of Monroe over the grate has been compared to a similar event in the 1901 short film What Happened on Twenty third Street New York City 4 5 The Seven Year Itch was filmed between September and November 1954 and is Wilder s only film released by 20th Century Fox The characters of Elaine Dolores Rosedale Marie and the inner voices of Sherman and The Girl were dropped from the play the characters of the Plumber Miss Finch Carolyn Jones the Waitress Doro Merande and Kruhulik the janitor Robert Strauss were added Many lines and scenes from the play were cut or re written because they were deemed indecent by the Hays office Axelrod and Wilder complained that the film was being made under straitjacketed conditions This led to a major plot change in the play Sherman and The Girl have sex in the movie the romance is reduced to suggestion Sherman and the Girl kiss three times once while playing Sherman s piano together once outside the movie theater and once near the end before Sherman goes to take Ricky s paddle to him The footage of Monroe s dress billowing over a subway grate was shot twice the first take was shot on location outside the Trans Lux 52nd Street Theater then located at 586 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan while the second take was on a sound stage Both eventually made their way into the finished film citation needed despite the often held belief that the original on location footage s sound had been rendered useless by the overexcited crowd present during filming in New York The exterior shooting location of Richard s apartment was 164 East 61st Street in Manhattan 6 Saul Bass created the abstract title sequence which was mentioned favorably in numerous reviews up until that time it was unheard of for trade press reviews to mention film title sequences 7 Dimaggio was on set during the filming of the dress scene and reportedly angry and disgusted with the attention his wife received from onlookers reporters and photographers in attendance Wilder had invited the media to drum up interest in the film 8 9 10 Release EditBox office Edit A major commercial success the film earned 6 million in rentals at the North American box office 11 Critical response Edit The original 1955 review by Variety was largely positive Though Hollywood production codes prohibited writer director Billy Wilder from filming a comedy where adultery takes place the review expressed disappointment that Sherman remains chaste 12 Some critics compared Richard Sherman to the fantasizing lead character in James Thurber s short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 13 On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes 84 of 32 reviews from critics are positive with an average rating of 7 2 10 14 In the 1970s Wilder called the movie a nothing picture because the picture should be done today without censorship Unless the husband left alone in New York while the wife and kid are away for the summer has an affair with that girl there s nothing But you couldn t do that in those days so I was just straitjacketed It just didn t come off one bit and there s nothing I can say about it except I wish I hadn t made it I wish I had the property now 15 Awards and honors Edit Date of ceremony Award Category Recipients and nominees ResultJanuary 29 1956 16 17 Directors Guild of America Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Billy Wilder NominatedFebruary 23 1956 18 19 Golden Globe Awards Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Tom Ewell WonIn 2000 American Film Institute included the film as No 51 in AFI s 100 Years 100 Laughs 20 The film was included in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1 000 Movies Ever Made in 2002 21 See also EditList of American films of 1955 Forever Marilyn a giant statue of Monroe in the white dress by John Seward Johnson IIReferences Edit The Seven Year Itch Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved October 30 2008 Dalton Aaron January 1 2000 The Ties That Unbind Psychology Today Retrieved December 31 2016 The Seven Year Itch 1955 Soundtracks IMDb Retrieved November 9 2014 Rosemary Hanes with Brian Taves Moving Image Section Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division The Library of Congress Retrieved January 5 2011 Lee Grieveson Peter Kramer The silent cinema reader 2004 ISBN 0 415 25283 0 0 415 25284 9 Tom Gunning The Cinema of Attractions p 46 Retrieved January 5 2011 George Axelrod and The Great American Sex Farce Theatre web archive org December 18 2012 Retrieved January 6 2023 Horak Jan Christopher 2014 Saul Bass Anatomy of Film Design Lexington The University Press of Kentucky ISBN 978 0 8131 4720 8 OCLC 892799673 Inside Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio s Roller Coaster Romance The Shocking Story You Never Knew Behind Marilyn Monroe s Skirt Scene August 29 2021 The Truth Behind the Marilyn Monroe Dress Scene July 3 2021 All Time Domestic Champs Variety January 6 1960 p 34 The Seven Year Itch Variety Reviews January 1 1955 Archived from the original on August 11 2016 Retrieved October 30 2008 Schildcrout Jordan 2019 In the Long Run A Cultural History of Broadway s Hit Plays New York and London Routledge p 103 ISBN 978 0367210908 The Seven Year Itch at Rotten Tomatoes Conversations with Billy Wilder amp I A L Diamond Part 8 November 28 2011 by Scott Go Into the Story accessed May 28 2014 Directors Guild of America USA Awards for 1956 IMDb Retrieved November 10 2014 8th Annual DGA Awards Honoring Outstanding Directorial Achievement for 1955 Winners and Nominees Feature Film DGA Retrieved November 10 2014 The Envelope Past Winners Database 1955 13th Golden Globe Awards Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on May 17 2007 Retrieved November 10 2014 The 13th Annual Golden Globe Awards 1956 hfpa org Retrieved November 23 2014 AFI s 100 Years 100 Laughs PDF American Film Institute 2002 Retrieved August 27 2016 The Best 1 000 Movies Ever Made The New York Times 2002 Archived from the original on December 11 2013 Retrieved December 7 2013 External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to The Seven Year Itch Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Seven Year Itch The Seven Year Itch at IMDb The Seven Year Itch at AllMovie The Seven Year Itch at the TCM Movie Database The Seven Year Itch at the American Film Institute Catalog The Seven Year Itch The Seven Year Itch at Rotten Tomatoes The Seven Year Itch review at Variety Cinema Retro article on the famous subway breeze scene George Axelrod and The Great American Sex Farce at The Cad The Seven Year Itch famous subway breeze scene becomes a twenty six foot tall statue in 2011 Marilyn Monroe s Long Lost Skirt Scene January 26 2017 piece on Studio 360 Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Seven Year Itch in 1954 by Photographer George Barris Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Seven Year Itch amp oldid 1131974083, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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