Fresh and Exciting

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Something I would have expected Woody Allen to come up with! The primary reason for me to see this is to see and hear the stunningly elegant, adorable, Marilyn Monroe in a movie where she is not scripted as a gold digger. She has a NYC summer job advertising dazzledent toothpaste, thus has moved into the apartment above the Shermans. Mr. Richard Sherman has sent his wife and boy to a cooler Maine for the summer. Having time on his hands, he decides to try to get acquainted with this gorgeous creature, who also has lots of spare time. She begins by knocking a flower pot off her patio that nearly beans Richard. Before this, she called a plumber to extract her big toe from the bathtub faucet, she having stuck it in to try to stop it leaking!?This film had to be toned down from the stage version to get past the Hays Commission. Thus, some of the humor was lost, but probably some more was added. Tom Ewell, who played Richard Sherman in the Broadway stage version, was tapped to star in this film version. Marilyn , for some reason, is never given a name other than the anonymous "The girl". This has led some to wonder if she is supposed to be purely a daydream, as clearly she is in one segment. Although Richard has never been a philanderer, he now has daydreams that his secretary is madly in love with him, and that he is making love to his wife's best friend in the surf, in mimicry of the famous scene in "From Here to Eternity". Sherman tells a psychiatrist that he suspects he's suffering from 'The seven year itch': a recognized stage in many marriages. He feels guilty and imagines that his wife finds out and shoots him. Finally, he decides he has to leave this situation. So he packs up and joins his family in Mains, telling 'the girl' that she can stay in his air-conditioned apartment until he returns.In past centuries, the idiom "Seven year itch" referred to persistent itches caused by parasites, rashes, dry skin, etc.. This film did much to promote its modern usage, as a means of expressing the all too common phenomenon of a reduction in marital satisfaction over the years. This is supported by data that says the average divorce happens after 7 years of marriage. The German politician Gabriele Pauli famously suggested that marriage licenses should be good for only 7 years, after which they could be renewed, if both parties agree.

Lately, I had a very interesting read about male infidelity, an expert was asked a simple, if not falsely naive, question: why is that men keep looking at other women even when they are with their love companions? Everyone noticed my head's nodding movements and the smile that went along, the expert stated the obvious, men are less likely to monogamy, so a man doesn't look at another woman because she's attractive but because she's another woman. The answer was in the question. The catch is that the man instantly forgets about that woman and won't think of cheating his wife. It's just the compulsive need to "check on the menu even though he's on diet". Still, a man always wants more, despite the rules fixed by any society, even the old 50's puritan American God-fearing one. Well, at least, that's what Billy Wilder believes and whether he's right or not is irrelevant, as long as it's funny. And while he handles it with humor, we suspect that there are some shades of truth behind the caricature of average men in "The Seven Year-Itch". Wilder finds a hilarious way to assert the universality and timelessness of the phenomenon through an opening sequence that showed Natives from the Island of Manhattan also getting rid of wives and family... to enjoy some private 'manly' business with a Native pin-up. And after an ellipse of a few centuries, respectable family men wave goodbye to their beloved ones before turning their head to the first 'tomato'. But one man is more disciplined than the others: played by Tom Ewell, Sherman promises his wife (Evelyn Keyes) not to drink, smoke or go out at night for the whole summer holidays. And he seems determined to keep his word, motivated by the promise of a long period of pure male idleness in the house's restrictive area. And Ewell plays fair with the rules; he goes to a vegan restaurant, hides his cigarettes packs in a drawer, then the drawer's key and drinks a bottle of coke. Isn't the best way not to yield to temptation not to come to it? But what if it comes to you?Sure, infidelity is reprehensible, I'm not sure any man with nerves of steel would resist to the 'Girl' next door if she happened to be Marilyn Monroe. This is quite a case of force majeure if you asked me. And in "The Seven Year Itch" Marilyn Monroe is sexy in a way that hasn't been soiled yet by the likes of Kardashian or Cyrus, sensual, voluptuous, yet her obliviousness to the effect she has on Sherman makes her even more irresistible. The film is full of clever 'fantasy' sequences in fact; the whole thing is a perfect fantasy. This is man with average look, even by Hollywood average looks' standards, yet the girl comes to his house, drinks with him, asks to sleep, and creatively uses the air conditioner, like a foretaste to a coming iconic moment. This is the funniest aspect of the film, Sherman doesn't even need to seduce the Girl, the real struggle is with his conscience, and seeing him wrestling with the impulses of this beast inside is the key to the film's enjoyment. Of course, it would have made sense if they 'made it', The Seven-year Itch" was based on a successful play about a husband cheating on his wife, the title being a reference to the midlife crisis tickling men's hormones after seven years of marriage. But in the 50's, Broadway was far more liberal than Hollywood, still under the tyranny of the Hayes Code. Like crime, infidelity wouldn't pay, or wouldn't even be object of clowning around. No kidding, it was a time where the Catholic League could prevent people from watching a film to save their souls. And it's hard to believe that Wilder who broke so many censorship grounds with "Double Indemnity", "Sunset Blvd." and "The Lost Weekend" would face the harshest resistance with a harmless comedy. But it's ignoring the Master's capability to counter-attack with an inventive screenplay full of delightful innuendo and ambiguous lines; he managed to deliver a comedy that is still naughty and raunchy for its time. That he considered the finished result a 'nothing' film because he couldn't feature the most central aspect of the play is too severe a judgment. Sure, he swam in less safe waters with "The Apartment" and "Avanti" broke the ultimate taboo by daringly showing jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills as naked as unfaithful, but Monroe wouldn't wait for so long... and they still exchanged a few sensual kisses, didn't they?Within its sexual limitations, "The Seven Year Itch" fully delivers its premises and provides the one image that forever made Monroe an icon, with the infamous blowing dress scene above the subway, a scene more iconic than the film itself. The scene also suffered from censorship and we don't get the full picture of Monroe with her dress blown, but the effect is the same nonetheless. And the picture is so iconic it took many shots, with many passersby whistling and cheering at Monroe, under the bitter eyes of newlywed Joe Di Maggio. What a sad irony that a scene that had to be shot again in a studio, still cost a marriage. As the Girl said: "it makes you think".But what a price to pay for posterity, if not a major comedy, not in the same league than the superior "Some Like it Hot", "The Seven Year Itch" blessed us with Monroe's signature shot, broke a few boundaries in terms of censorship and if the story isn't the most sensational, its making has everything, it is about sex, love, censorship, religion and marriage. The story of "The Seven-Year Itch" elevates it to this category of movies that didn't need to be masterpieces to become parts of Hollywood legend.

Even after sixty years, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH retains its freshness and bounce - a delightful testament both to the script (by Billy Wilder and playwright George Axelrod) and the quality of the performances.The story is a simple one: left on his own during a hot New York summer, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) tries his best to avoid the temptations of drink, tobacco and an extra-marital affair. However his best intentions are frustrated by the presence of The Girl (Marilyn Monroe), who has moved into the apartment above him. Nothing actually happens, but the promise persists ...Ewell gives a stellar performance, the best in his forty-five year acting career. In his rumpled gray suit, with tie askew, he embarks on a series of monologues where his better nature competes with his carnal desires. Most of them are shot in single takes in the Shermans' apartment: Ewell's India-rubber face changes rapidly as he debates the morality of inviting The Girl down for a drink. He walks from side to side of the frame, his shoulders hunched, almost as if he is bearing the cares of the world on his back. The fantasy-sequences are extremely funny, with Ewell imagining himself as the protagonist in a comic reworking of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, rolling about on the beach with a woman not his wife. Later on he casts himself as a Noel Coward-like figure speaking in a cod-British accent, as he plays Rachmaninov on the piano while trying to seduce The Girl (a reference to BRIEF ENCOUNTER). When the latter scene is re-enacted for real, The Girl is completely uninterested in Rachmaninov. Sherman tries to embrace her, and the two of them end up falling off the piano bench in an ungainly heap. Although Sherman imagines himself as the Great Lover, he will never be able to fulfill his role.Monroe is equally memorable in her role as the not-so-dumb blonde from Denver. It's clear she is attracted to Sherman - not because of his physical attributes, but because at heart he is an extremely sweet man. On the other hand she respects his love for his wife Helen (Evelyn Keyes), and thus refrains from making a pass at him. THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH contains the memorable sequence where she stands over a grille and lets the wind from a subway train beneath blow up her white dress. Wilder shoots this sequence very discreetly, leaving everything to the viewer's imagination. Monroe is far more seductive in an interior sequence, where she hides behind a chair and stretches out one leg, and then another. The janitor Mr. Kruhulik (Robert Strauss) witnesses what happens, and promises to leave Sherman alone.Wilder's and Axelrod's script fairly crackles with one-liners, as well as a series of in-jokes referring to Charles Lederer (Wilder's fellow-scriptwriter), as well as a reference to Monroe herself.THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH is one of those comedies that never loses its sparkle, even after repeated viewings.

Only Marilyn Monroe as The Girl brings life and effervescence to this movie; Tom Ewell, playing a summer vacation "bachelor" is dead weight. I agree with another reviewer that the part of Richard Sherman would have been a great vehicle for someone with the talent of Jack Lemmon. Lemmon would have provided the perfect foil for Monroe's brand of little girl naiveté, and disingenuous sexuality; the type of casting that made his pairing with Judy Holliday so successful. Ewell has absolutely no screen charisma. His characterization lacks the required wit, and whimsical nuance. He infuses no verve into his meanders as fantasizer engaging in monologues, which spout the trials and tribulation defining the battle of the sexes, as culturally accepted in 1950s America. When his character's frustrations morph into physical animation, he's a charmless bumbler and you find your eyes wandering to the set decor—the furniture, a lamp, even a flowerpot. The movie is all Marilyn. The viewer gets her screen persona in full bloom and with a fun, over-the-top bang. The movie is worth watching for her performance alone. Monroe at her iconic peak is the main attraction.