The Seven Year Itch

The Seven Year Itch is a three-act play, written by George Axelrod. Billed as a romantic comedy, the play was first presented by Courtney Burr and Elliot Nugent at the Fulton Theatre, New York City, on November 20, 1952. The cast included Tom Ewell (Richard Sherman), Neva Patterson (Helen Sherman), Vanessa Brown (The Girl), Robert Emhardt (Dr. Brubaker) and George Keane (Tom Mackenzie). The production was directed by John Gerstad, with set and lighting by Frederick Fox.

In 1955, 20th Century Fox released a film adaptation starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. It was directed by Billy Wilder and presented in DeLuxe Color CinemaScope. Often cited as one of the great comedies of its time, the film version won critical acclaim and became the biggest US box office hit in the summer of 1955. It contains one of the most iconic images of the 20th Century in which Marilyn Monroe's dress is blown up above her waist by a passing train underneath a subway grate she is standing on. A famous quote, "Isn't it delicious?" has originated from this scene and was even posed as a question on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Plot

After sending his wife and son to Maine to escape the sweltering summer, Richard Sherman meets a nameless 22-year-old blonde television model, who is renting the apartment upstairs. Despite recent paranoia about becoming unfaithful (he is reading a book his company is going to publish about a "7-Year Itch"; which claims a significant proportion of men have extra-marital affairs after seven years of marriage) Richard invites the girl downstairs for a drink. However, his over-active imagination works overtime, to the point where he imagines his wife carrying on in Maine with their hunky neighbor, Tom McKenzie. He is torn between silly fantasies of seduction, and horrible thoughts of his wife catching (and, in one fantasy sequence, shooting) him.

Trivia

• Walter Matthau screen-tested for the lead role. The test footage survived and is featured in the DVD of the film.
• Footage of Monroe's dress blowing over her waist 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 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^{[citation needed]}.
• Many lines and scenes had to be cut because they were deemed to be unsuitable by the Hays office. A frustrated Wilder complained that the film was being made under straight-jacketed conditions. This also led to a key change: in the play, Sherman and The Girl become intimate, but in the movie, their romance is all in his head.
• Although they were used in print ads for the film, footage showing Monroe's dress clearly blowing above her waist were removed from the final movie because authorities considered it inappropriate.
• Filmed between 1st September 1954 and November 4th 1954.
• This is the only Wilder film released by 20th Century Fox.
• A remake was intended to be released in 1983, starring Al Pacino as Richard Sherman, but he turned down the role in order to play Tony Montana in Scarface. As a result, the 1983 remake was never made.
• Nicolas Roeg's 1985 film Insignificance features a character based on Monroe and a re-enactment of the shooting of the subway/dress scene.
• Marilyn showed up at 52nd Street, in the dark, in her white halter top dress, ready to pose for the soon to become famous "blowing skirt" photo shoot 20th Century Fox had scheduled (and unofficially "leaked" to make sure a large crowd showed up^{[citation needed]}). Reportedly, Marilyn was wearing the same thing under her clothes that she always slept in... her Chanel^{[citation needed]}. The frantic wardrobe mistress was charged with finding a way to fix her worst fashion nightmare - a mega star about to meet a subway breeze without any panties on. She solved the problem by convincing a Fox secretary or assistant to loan her panties to Marilyn for the shoot^{[citation needed]}. They quickly discovered that one pair of white briefs wouldn't quite do the trick under all those unforgiving film lights and the blinding flashbulbs from that mob of waiting photographers^{[citation needed]}. More frantic scurrying was necessary before a second pair of panties could be borrowed, and the fan turned on so shooting could begin^{[citation needed]}. Subway trains could not be depended on to run when Fox wanted Marilyn's skirt to billow up, so some very lucky electrician was paid union wages to stand on a platform under the subway grate and operate an electric fan on cue^{[citation needed]}.

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