Billy Wilder usually tickles my funnybone, but “The Seven Year Itch” (1955) – for all its creative presentation and fame for Marlyn Monroe’s dress being blown by the storm grate – is never more than mildly funny to me.
Not surprisingly based on a play, the film’s action takes place mostly in the NYC apartment of Richard (Tom Ewell) over the course of a couple hot summer days. Apparently, back then, businessmen sent their wives and kids on vacation up the coast while they continued to work.
Winkingly, we’re told it was sort of a vacation for the men, too. While Tom is content to enjoy opening bottles without using the bottlecap-removing device, he doth protest too much in his own mind that he’s not the type to cheat on his wife, Helen (Evelyn Keyes).
“The Seven Year Itch” (1955)
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder (screenplay), George Axelrod (screenplay, play)
Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes
As it would also be done in the stage play by George Axelrod (who co-writes the screenplay with Wilder), Tom talks to himself, and therefore the audience can hear him. It’s amusing that he imagines his wife nagging, as an apparition on the patio, then rebuts her arguments, yet still generally loses.
Never intending to be a deep dive into psychology – despite an appearance by the doctor who devised the theory that men get restless around year seven of the marriage – the movie is relatable. Especially when the friendly upstairs neighbor is Marilyn Monroe (playing The Girl). The stereotype of the ditzy blonde can be traced back to here, with Monroe doing her trademark breathy doll’s voice.
Variations on one joke
It’s a one-joke premise, and the set-ups don’t amount to much, although there is some dialog that would be funnier if the film had some momentum going – like when Tom yells about being kind and gentle and then wallops his friend. Tom simply invites The Girl downstairs for a drink (in an interesting bit of architecture, a ceiling panel can be removed, allowing access to the blocked-off stairway in this reconfigured duplex).
She acts flighty and he’s attracted to her, and fights an internal battle over doing the right thing or the wrong thing – and there’s a slight subtext over which is which, but not too much because Wilder has the censors to placate. Interestingly, at one point The Girl talks to herself (and the audience) too, trying to think of how to get Tom to let her spend the night in his air-conditioned apartment since hers is stifling. But it’s clear she might as well be a doll; she has no ulterior motives or interior conflicts. I wonder if censorial concerns played into The Girl’s lack of depth.
Ewell and Monroe have a lot on their shoulders for 1 hour and 45 minutes. They perform the written material fine but don’t add an extra layer. Another actor could perhaps elevate this material to physical-comedy-based laughs, and a more risqué approach to The Girl could’ve resulted in over-the-top humor based on sexual naivete. If “The Seven Year Itch” had been remade in the 1990s, perhaps it would’ve been Jim Carrey paired with Cameron Diaz.
An oddity worth noting: Saul Bass’ opening credits are stylized for the time, featuring blocks of color that move around to reveal the names beneath. Fine in Cinemascope, but the filmmakers didn’t plan on the future where movies would be watched on TV screens. Only now, 70 years later, are TVs getting big enough so the credits are almost readable again. (I’m a laggard, so they were a bit small for my screen.)
With Monroe looking beautiful, a relatable premise and a few chuckles, “The Seven Year Itch” isn’t the most painful homework. But if this credit was subtracted from Wilder’s resume, it wouldn’t be a great loss.
Wilder Wednesdays looks at the catalog of legendary writer-director Billy Wilder.