The Seven Year Itch
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Movie Reviews of The Seven Year Itch
Movie Review: VERY FUNNY AND VA-VA-VA VOOM!
Summary: 4 Stars
If seeing the famous shirt blowing scene isn't enough reason to see this film, then the two stars hilarious performances should be. I watched this film and 'Midnight Cowboy' on the same night, two very different films, but they both focus on two strangers who wind up together for various reasons. Each film centers on two great performances with some small, but great supporting roles. If you haven't seen any of Marilyn's films, this isn't a bad place to start. I also suggest 'Some Like It Hot'. I was born the year Marilyn died, but I can certainly see why she was such a huge sex symbol. She is Hotter than H E L L in this film! Some may consider this a 5 star film and that isn't hard to agree with, but for me it dragged a little at times.Movie Review: Set Traps, Hunt & Fish!
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Movie Review: MARILYN IS GORGEOUS!
Summary: 3 Stars
The 1955 film version was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Ewell, reprising his Broadway role. It contains one of the most iconic images of the 20th century-Monroe standing on a subway grate as her dress is blown above her knees by a passing train.
Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) sends his wife Helen (Evelyn Keyes) and son Ricky (Butch Bernard) to Maine to escape the summer heat. When he returns home, he meets The Girl (Marilyn Monroe), a model who is renting the apartment upstairs while she is in town to make television spots for a toothpaste. That evening, while proofing a book by psychiatrist Dr. Brubaker (Oskar Homolka), claiming that a significant proportion of men have extra-marital affairs in the seventh year of marriage, he has an imaginary conversation with Helen, trying to "convince" her, in three fantasy sequences, that he is irresistible to women, but she laughs off his assertion. A tomato plant then crashes into his lounge chair; The Girl accidentally knocked it over, and apologizes. Richard invites her to come down for a drink.
As he waits for her to put on her underwear that she keeps cool in the refrigerator and gets dressed, Richard has a fantasy that The Girl is a femme fatale overcome by his playing of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. While playing Chopsticks (above), Richard, back in his fantasy, grabs The Girl in a bear hug, causing them to fall off the piano bench. She shrugs off it, but he is immediately contrite, and asks her to leave.
Over the next few days, they grow closer. His resolve to resist temptation in all of its many forms fuels his fear that he is succumbing to the 'Seven Year Itch'. He seeks out Dr. Brubaker for help, but to no avail. His imagination then kicks into overdrive: Helen and Ricky watch The Girl on TV as she warns the women of New York City about "this monster named Richard Sherman"; The Girl tells a plumber (Victor Moore) how Richard is "just like The Creature from the Black Lagoon"; the plumber repeats her story to the horrified patrons of the vegetarian restaurant Richard ate at; the Shermans' hunky neighbour, Tom McKenzie (Sonny Tufts), arranges for he and Helen to be alone on a hayride; a wronged Helen returns home to exact her revenge. The fantasies turn Richard into a paranoid wreck.
After a crazed confrontation with McKenzie, whom Helen has asked to drop by to pick up Ricky's canoe paddle, Richard comes to his senses. He tells The Girl she can stay at his apartment, then runs off to catch the next train to Maine.
The movie was filmed between September 1 and November 4, 1954, and was the only Wilder film released by 20th Century Fox.
The characters of Elaine (Dolores Rosedale}, Marie, and the inner-voices of Sherman and The Girl were dropped; 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 become intimate; in the movie, the romance is all in his head.
The footage of Monroe's dress billowing over a subway grate was shot twice: The first take was shot at Manhattan's Lexington Avenue at 52nd Street and the second on a sound stage. The sound stage footage is what made its way into the final film, as the original on-location footage's sound had been rendered useless by the over excited crowd present during filming.
Footage of Walter Matthau testing for Sherman is featured in the DVD of the film. Nicolas Roeg's film Insignificance features a character based on Monroe and a re-enactment of the subway/dress scene.
Movie Review: Doesn't quite scratch the itch...
Summary: 3 Stars
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 think is brilliantly crafted, because it is so much more than a mere tale of attraction. This is a study of the male libido; the lies we tell ourselves to convince ourselves we deserve love and admiration. This is a delicately crafted tale of intentional deceit and for that it deserves some major recognition. The film centers on Richard Sherman, a successful married man who sends his wife and son away for the summer. Unlike his male counterparts, Richard is determined not to fall into the summer fling territory, but then he meets a beautiful blonde staying in his apartment complex for the summer and soon his imagination is going haywire.
The entire film is shot like one long soliloquy, which at times adds to the humor but in the end takes away from the seriousness of the films subject. The ranting of Richard is at times funny and witty and at other times overdone and irritating in its redundancy. This may be due to the fact that actor Tom Ewell is slightly obnoxious in his delivery, but I think that talking every thought and emotion of a character would be hard on any actor.
Marilyn Monroe is without doubt the highlight of the film, for her infectiously bouncy portrayal of the desirable yet unattainable woman is spot on perfection. This was an iconic role for Miss Monroe, one that she will always be remembered for, and with good reason. She captures the naivety and innocence that makes a girl of her nature so desirable, and she serves up some of the funniest moments in the film.
In the end, the idea behind `The Seven Year Itch' is far more rewarding than the finished product. I absolutely adore the concept and believe wholeheartedly in the message. It is honest and rich with purity in its depiction (or attempted depiction) of the `real' man and his struggle with self security. I just wish that the film had been handled differently. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, since it was adapted from a stage play where soliloquy form is much more tolerable and necessary, but that is why film adaptations have to take liberties with material. What plays out as believable and normal even on the stage comes off as awkward and uncomfortable on the screen.
I won't say that you should stay away from this film, just know that it is not as effective as Wilder's other films. It still has that humor he is (was) so famous for, it just doesn't feel as complete or as satisfying as a film like `Some Like it Hot' or `Irma la Douce'.
Movie Review: The seven Year itch
Summary: 3 Stars
A movie they had trouble getting made to the fact that at the time it was taboo to show a married man having an affair on screen. In order to get around it they made the whole affair a fantasy in his head. The part the really surprise me about this 1955 movie was that the husband actually cared about his weight and health as that wasn't an issue normally talk about in most movies of 1950s and 1960s like you might have mention in movies today.