"The Seven Year Itch" (1955)

One of the first color films Billy Wilder made (from a script by George Axelrod). A brilliant Technicolor cinemascope movie used to combat television. This movie is a quintessential 1950’s style domestic comedy. Sort of. The movie is strange. Because it had to dance around some really touchy themes of those days. There is an odd reference to interior decorators who lived upstairs at the apartment Marilyn Monroe is sub-renting over the summer. It’s implied they’re gay and on vacation in Europe. There is the groping of Marilyn Monroe while the wife is away. There are numerous “fantasized” scenario by Tom Ewell depicting his many chances at adultery with different women. One had a nurse who enjoyed being smacked around. Who would’ve guessed BDSM existed in the 50’s.

What is also strange is that as iconic as the white dress flying to show Monroe’s beautiful gams, it is also odd that Wilder is rarely mentioned in connection with this movie. I think, in a sense, this movie, even though pre-dated “The Apartment” seems so much more silly. Something not attributed to Wilder is how off-beat he was. Really devoid of the cynicism you see in his previous works as “The Lost Weekend”, “Double Indemnity” or “Stalag 17” this movie seemed to be a very thin movie. And you wonder why Wilder decided to make it. Even the follow up of “Some Like It Hot” this felt a little less mature, and a lot more breezy. Could you imagine Francis Ford Coppola directing a romantic comedy after “The Godfather?” There have been talks that the Marilyn Monroe character is a figment of his imagination, which would explain a LOT of Ewell's psychotic episodes spawned by being married for 7 years, but also fulfill a part of Wilder's cynicism/darkness about a married man's mind. Monroe isn't even given a name in the movie.

I think this is actually a testament to Marilyn Monroe. Man…there will NEVER be anyone like her again. Her existence in this world, you know there’s something more that is beyond our conscience. I mean, when you watch her on screen, she absolutely pops. And there are starlets now who have attempted to emulate her.  But they don’t have that quality that she had. Even to this day, something about Marilyn Monroe. You could say the movies created her persona, but how many years have past now where we say “she’s the next Marilyn” only to have her fizzle. And you may be thinking it’s because she died young, or she was notorious for being difficult. I think her ability to guide her life, at a time when women were told what to do, that transcended the “rules” of the Hollywood game. If you think about it, the celebrities today have done nothing to earn it. Monroe actually had a craft she cared about. Others have become products of their notoriety. While Monroe hocked perfume and other items, none of it was the forefront of figuring out her ultimate role in life. She didn’t have one. She was whatever you wanted her to be. And when you watch “The Seven Year Itch” you can see she tapped into our fantasy of a oversexed woman who doesn’t understand her effect on people but has a very strong opinion about things. While on the surface seemed bubbleheaded (probably because it was delivered with her breathy sweet voice) the minute you consider the words, you agree with her simple message. As in a scene where Tom Ewell starts babbling about how his wife shouldn’t be jealous of him. And her simple response is “Why not? What’s her problem?” That cracks me up. She doesn’t even realize she’s manipulating him because it comes so natural to her. It’s endearing. Watch this movie again. It’s got some gems that hold up to even today’s standards.