The Seven Year Itch (1955)

The Seven Year Itch
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and George Axelrod from Axelrod’s play
1955/USA
Charles K. Feldman Group/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Richard Sherman: Miss Morris, I’m perfectly capable of fixing my own breakfast. As a matter of fact, I had a peanut butter sandwich and two whiskey sours.

This is not one of Billy Wilder’s most highly rated films but I think it’s one of his funniest.

Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is a man with a vivid imagination who is a bit of a Walter Mitty.  He sends his wife (Evelyn Keyes) and son off to Maine for the summer while he toils at a pulp fiction publisher in hot, humid Manhattan.  He has strict instructions from his wife and his doctor not to smoke or drink.  Naturally, his resolve withers the minute he is on his own.  Then it crumbles completely when confronted with his new upstairs neighbor  played by a luscious Marilyn Monroe and named in the credits only as The Girl.

The Girl’s apartment has no air conditioning and she is suffering mightily from the heat. Richard’s has air conditioning in every room.  Even Richard’s wildest dreams could not have come up with the situation that falls into his lap.  With Sonny Tufts as an imaginary rival, Oskar Homolka as a psychiatrist, and Robert Strauss as a randy building superintendent.

The title refers to that stage in a marriage when the parties’ attentions supposedly start to wander.  Monroe reveals herself to be an expert comedienne as the temptation in question but your reaction to the movie will probably depend on your views on Tom Ewell’s performance.  I think it is absolutely hilarious.  He’s so lame and full of himself all at the same time.  Recommended.

Trailer