The Seven Year Itch
| The Seven Year Itch | |
| Missing image Seven_year_itch.jpg | |
| Directed by | Billy Wilder |
| Written by | George Axelrod Billy Wilder |
| Starring | Marilyn Monroe Tom Ewell |
| Produced by | Charles K. Feldman Billy Wilder |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date | June 3, 1955 |
| Runtime | 105 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,200,000 (est.) |
| IMDb page | |
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 movie starring Marilyn Monroe and directed by Billy Wilder.
It stars Tom Ewell as a Richard Sherman, a man approaching middle-age left alone for the summer in his New York apartment whilst his wife of seven years, Evelyn Keyes, is away with their child.
Marilyn Monroe is a nameless 22-year-old blonde who is staying in the apartment upstairs. Despite recent paranoia about being unfaithful (he has been reading an article about the Seven Year Itch, whereby a significant proportion of men have extra-marital affairs after seven-years of marriage) Richard invites the young woman to his place for a drink. However, his over-active imagination works overtime and he is torn between silly fantasies of seducing his guest and horrible thoughts of his wife catching him. Monroe's character remains cheerfully oblivious to all of this.
The film was based on a play that starred Tom Ewell (but not Marilyn). It cost $1.8 million, a large budget for a movie in those days. The high price was partly incurred by Marilyn often fluffing her lines and requiring many re-takes. This was because she had her mind elsewhere - her marriage to Joe DiMaggio ended during the film shoot.
It contains one of the most famous images of Marilyn Monroe, whereby her dress is billowing up from the draught through a grate.