The Seven Year Itch
| The Seven Year Itch | |
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| Directed by | Billy Wilder |
| Produced by |
Charles K. Feldman Billy Wilder |
| Written by |
George Axelrod Billy Wilder |
| Starring |
Marilyn Monroe Tom Ewell |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Cinematography | Milton R. Krasner |
| Edited by | Hugh S. Fowler |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.8 million (est.) |
| Box office | $12 million (USA) $6 million (US rentals) |
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American romantic comedy film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and stars Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role from the play. It contains one of the most iconic images of the 20th century – Monroe standing on a subway grate as her white dress is blown upwards by a passing train. The titular phrase, which refers to declining interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, has been used by psychologists.
Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is a nerdy, faithful, middle-aged publishing executive with an overactive imagination and a mid-life crisis, whose wife, Helen (Evelyn Keyes), and son, Ricky (Butch Bernard), are spending the summer in Maine. When he returns home with the kayak paddle Ricky accidentally left behind, he meets a woman (Marilyn Monroe), who is a commercial actress and former model who rents the apartment upstairs while in town to make television spots for a brand of toothpaste. That evening, he works on reading the manuscript of a book in which psychiatrist Dr. Brubaker (Oskar Homolka) claims that almost all men are driven to have extra-marital affairs in the seventh year of marriage. Sherman has an imaginary conversation with Helen, trying to convince her, in three fantasy sequences, that he is irresistible to women, including his secretary, a nurse, and Helen's bridesmaid, but she laughs it off. A tomato plant then crashes into his lounge chair; the woman upstairs apologizes for accidentally knocking it off the balcony, and Richard invites her down for a drink.
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Wikipedia