Starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell
From 1955, The Seven Year Itch's title is not nearly as famous as the half-minute sequence in which the then-29-year-old Marilyn Monroe has her skirt blown up by a passing underground train as she stands on the grate. The movie's comedic brilliance is often overshadowed by the iconic image of Monroe pushing her skirt down--likely the most reproduced image of the ditsy blond bombshell ever.
But don't let that overshadowing fool you. The Seven Year Itch should have a permanent spot on the timeline of cinematic comedy. Women were never so idolized for their beauty as the characters Marilyn Monroe played. Sure, there were women that could make the hair on your arm stand, but Marilyn brought "sexy" to a new level entirely.
The "Seven Year Itch" refers to the idea that a man, once he's been married and settled for about seven years, will start to yearn, or "itch," for the company of another woman. Over the summer in Richard Sherman's (Tom Ewell) seventh year of marriage, his wife and daughter take a vacation, and the busty, irresistible Monroe (who doesn't have a name, she's just "the Girl"), moves in to the unit above. Richard is immediately swept off his feet, and has a series of grand delusions about the trouble he would be in for being unfaithful.
Never hailed for her acting ability, and often notorious for being high maintenance and for having to do (sometimes) dozens of takes of a scene or line before she got it right. According to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), it took Monroe more than 40 takes to get the skirt blowing scene right. Still, famed seven-time Oscar-winning writer/director/producer Billy Wilder kept her in his film. He even used her again in 1959 for what would become the most famous film in both their careers: "Some Like It Hot," also starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
She played similar characters in both films she did with Wilder, as she did in many of the approximately dozen she starred in before her untimely death in 1962. Her characters in these films were often naive, ditsy, and somehow completely oblivious to the affect she has on her male counterparts. Much of the humor of her films, particularly in The Seven Year Itch, was derived from jokes about men essentially tripping on their tongues over her, and her having no idea of why. She often doesn't even realize that the men around her are acting strange, just like this scene from The Seven Year Itch:
Laughasaurus worthiness:
There are two elements that stand out in The Seven Year Itch, accounting for most of the humor content, both of which have been mentioned already. The first is Marilyn Monroe's naivete and obliviousness, and the second is Tom Ewell's imagination. At one point, he talks to a mirage of his wife. He creates elaborate scenarios of his wife coming home and finding out about him having a relationship with Marilyn. I tried to find a clip showing his outrageous imagination, but unsuccessfully, so you'll have to rent the movie to see.
The other worthy element is in nearly every line spoken by Marilyn Monroe. Everything she says is sexy, yet she doesn't seem to know just how sexy she appears to the eyes of her neighbor (and everybody watching the movie). Billy Wilder likely knew this, and likely knew that even though her natural acting ability was (we'll call it) "mediocre at best," he knew that nobody could do what she did just the way she did it.
I highly recommend checking this movie out, because I know it will make you laugh. At Laughasaurus, that's what we're all about!
No comments:
Post a Comment