The Seven Year Itch

1955 "It TICKLES and TANTALIZES! - The funniest comedy since laughter began!"
7.1| 1h44m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 03 June 1955 Released
Producted By: 20th Century Fox
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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With his family away for their annual summer holiday, a publishing executive decides to live a bachelor's life. The beautiful but ditzy blonde from the apartment above catches his eye and they soon start spending time together—maybe a little too much time!

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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Director

Billy Wilder

Production Companies

20th Century Fox

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The Seven Year Itch Audience Reviews

Executscan Expected more
Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
weezeralfalfa 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.
classicsoncall This movie probably holds the record for at least two categories I can think of. First, it's got the greatest amount of on screen dialog by a character talking to himself. And secondly, the story references more movie titles than any other picture I can think of. I came up with the following - "Riot in Cell Block 11" (1954); "From Here to Eternity" (1953); "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945); and ""Creature From the Black Lagoon" (1954). All but Dorian Gray were relative contemporaries of this one, made within a couple years of "The Seven Year Itch".So I guess the time and place for a picture like this was the 1950's. Along with "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "Some Like it Hot" (1959), both of which also star Marilyn Monroe, the story telling consisted of libido saturated men salivating over ditzy women and the complications that arise during the chase. Time and tastes would eventually put these kind of pictures out of favor and I guess that's why they have a dated feel to them today. One could make the case that they're chauvinistic to a fault and you wouldn't get much push back from me on that score.But just like the racial references one finds in pictures of the Thirties and Forties when blacks were called 'boy' and Chinese were 'Chinks', it's interesting to see the evolution of society and the movies that reflect those attitudes in each ensuing decade on the big screen. "The Seven Year Itch" is like a movie version of a TV sit-com one might have caught during the era, but with a subject matter a bit too intimidating for family fare.I've never been a big fan of Marilyn Monroe and her film comedies generally leave me feeling ambivalent regarding her talent. The one picture in which she does leave a significant impression is 1961's "The Misfits" where she uses her eyes expressively to reveal the pain of her character. Had her life not been cut short we might have seen more influential work from this actress who's legacy primarily rests on scenes like the one in this picture, skirt billowing in an updraft to reveal the hint of sexuality for which the blonde actress was primarily known.Tom Ewell, with his hilarious facials and discombobulated lack of self confidence is the perfect foil for 'The Girl" in this story. Unable to pull the trigger on his infatuation for the girl upstairs, Richard Sherman (Ewell) represents the Everyman who considers himself a Casanova, but underneath it all, is firmly anchored to the idea of one man, one woman, at least as the institution of marriage existed in the Fifties. An insight into his cluelessness was confirmed when he needed the entire Manhattan phone book to look up the number of his upstairs neighbor.
SmileysWorld Richard Sherman is looking forward to time away from his family as they are on vacation.He embraces a temporary life of freedom from the stresses of everyday family life.It just so happens that a pretty young blonde is moving in upstairs while his family is away,and his imagination,already overly active,begins to really run wild.He's obviously attracted to her,but his ties to his family and his love for them limit his potential actions to that wild imagination.The results play out in a series of moments ranging from mildly amusing to downright hysterical.I thoroughly enjoyed this film and will no doubt do so again in the future.
Chris L Billy Wilder delivers, with The Seven Year Itch, one of his typical rom com, where, as usual, the writing is refined with exhilarating dialogues and the mise-en-scène perfect.The movie relies on situational comedy and repetitions that are often funny, but the plot is little inspired and gradually runs out of steam, the conclusion of the script is particularly abrupt. One can also regret a relatively heavy narration due to the voice over of the main character who consistently speaks to himself.However, the quality of the dialogues and mise-en-scène manage to compensate for an unfinished script, and even though The Seven Year Itch is probably not the best Billy Wilder comedy, the movie still remains very enjoyable.