It's a steamy summer in New York City and this scandalous, sexy comedy heats things up even more! A married man (Tom Ewell), whose wife and son are away for the summer, has his fidelity put to the test when a seductive starlet (Marilyn Monroe) moves in upstairs. Keeping his marriage vows in the face of her flirtations proves tough when challenged by the notorious "seven year itch." Faced with this provocative problem, he's victim to an outrageous mating dance filled with hilarious comedy!
A married man, left alone during a hot summer, fantasizes madly about the impossibly gorgeous woman living in the upstairs apartment. When the woman is Marilyn Monroe, such fantasies are the stuff of epics, and The Seven Year Itch is a memorable laugh machine. Tom Ewell, repeating his role from George Axelrod's Broadway hit, plays the itchy protagonist, whose vivid imagination gets the better of him. When Monroe finally comes downstairs and becomes friends (confiding, among other things, that she keeps her undies in the icebox in this hot weather), imagination meets reality in a merciless attack on the male libido. Ewell's crack timing is matched by Monroe's zesty comic flair, and the scene in which her white dress is blown skyward by a passing subway train has entered the encyclopedia of great movie images. Director Billy Wilder adapted the play with Axelrod; if the film is not one of Wilder's signature works (Some Like It Hot and The Apartment would soon follow), it is nevertheless a smoothly crafted comedy. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
"Calomine Won't Work on this One":
If you combine the humorous Walter Mitty-type fantasies with a senario that includes a male writer staying at home for the summer to write, a wife and kid shipped off to avoid the heat, a voluptuous, georgeous new female neighbor that needs to chat, needs advice, and knows just who to ask, and sweltering temperatures in all areas, well, you have one of the funniest of comedies on film. It is not long before we realize the little scenes we often see are in Tom Ewell's head, wishful thinking on his part.... more info
Monroe was Monroe:
The only thing this movie has going for it is Marilyn Monroe, and that's just not enough. Tom Ewell plays a blundering fool who loses his competence at the very sight of her. If there are laughs in this advertised comedy, I must have dozed off at the time. The setting is New York of a bygone era, complete with Automats and sans universal air conditioning. I lived there then. Ewell's wife and family have gone to the sticks to avoid the summer heat, and Monroe has taken the apartment upstairs. Ewell's... more info
Set Traps, Hunt & Fish!:
I just watched this movie for the very 1st time on television.... I thought it was fabulously funny in a light/campy sort of way. Lots of typical cliches as this movie pokes fun at the institution of marriage. Husbands are depicted as getting the so called "itch" to chase after women after seven years of marriage. Great acting by Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. Lots of funny mishaps and so on make this a great classic film.
Doesn't quite scratch the itch...:
The concept behind `The Seven Year Itch', and in ways even its execution, I really `get', but there is just something about the finished product that feels underdone, or maybe just done wrong. I am new to the Billy Wilder fan club, but I've grown to adore just about every movie he's done. This is the only one of the six I've seen this past month that doesn't sit right with me as a finished product. In parts I love it, but lumped together it just doesn't translate well for me. The story is one that I... more info
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