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The Seven
Year Itch (1955)
In director/co-writer Billy Wilder's romantic sex
comedy, a witty and farcical tale adapted from George Axelrod's 1952
Broadway play:
- in the film's opening, paperback
publisher and middle-aged Manhattanite Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell)
escorted his wife Helen (Evelyn Keyes) and son Ricky (Butch Bernard)
to the train station; they were on their way to Maine for the summer
to escape the city's heat
- after work, Richard went for dinner in
a vegetarian restaurant on 3rd Avenue where
plain, nudism-loving and middle-aged health-food waitress (Doro
Merande) espoused the virtues of nudity and naturism to him - she
explained that although she didn't accept tips, she did solicit
contributions for a fund established for a nudist camp; she claimed
that if everyone went without clothes, there would be no war: "Nudism
is such a worthy cause. We must bring the message to the people.
We must teach them to unmask their poor suffocating bodies and
let them breathe again. Clothes are the enemy. Without clothes,
there'd be no sickness, there'd be no war. I ask you, sir, can
you imagine two great armies on the battlefield, no uniforms, completely
nude? No way of telling friend from foe. All brothers, together"
- on his return home, a light-headed,
gorgeous, shapely and voluptuous upstairs neighbor - The Girl (Marilyn
Monroe as a quintessential blonde), who had forgotten her outer
building key, met her married New Yorker
neighbor Richard Sherman when she hit his
buzzer to get in, allowing her entrance to the upstairs apartment
above Richard's that she had rented for the summer
- after seven years of marriage to his wife Helen,
Richard - who was often prone to fantasy, bragged about how he was immune to the
'seven year itch' phenomenon of extra-marital affairs by repressed
men: "Seven years we've been married and not once have I done anything like
that. Not once. Don't think l couldn't have either. Because l could
have, plenty. Plenty. Don't laugh, Helen. l happen to be very attractive
to women. This isn't a thing one likes to tell his wife but women
have been throwing themselves at me for years. That's right, Helen.
Beautiful ones, plenty of them. Acres and acres of them"
- then, Richard told Helen about three fantasized
scenarios regarding seductions that he claimed he had resisted:
(1) with his secretary, Miss Morris (Marguerite Chapman) in the
privacy of his office, (2) in his hospital bed by seductive Miss
Finch (Carolyn Jones), the beautiful registered night nurse, and
(3) a spoof of the From
Here to Eternity beach kissing scene with his wife's best friend
Elaine (Roxanne) on a moon-lit deserted beach with waves crashing
onto the shore; during his fantasies, he told his wife that he
had an
"animal thing" that aroused women
- in a "balcony scene,"
a pot with a tomato plant from the upstairs apartment balcony crashed into the chair he just
vacated; it was an opportunity to invite her down to have a cool
drink; the Girl innocently told Richard how she kept cool during
the summer: "Let me just go put something on. I'll go into the kitchen and get dressed...Yes,
when it's hot like this - you know what I do? I keep my undies in
the icebox"
- Richard fantasized seducing the Girl by playing
Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, while wearing an elegant
red dressing gown, as she begged him: "Rachmaninoff...It isn't
fair...Every time I hear it, I go to pieces...It shakes me, it quakes
me. It makes me feel goose-pimply all over. I don't know where I
am or who I am or what I'm doing. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't ever
stop!"; however, it was just a fantasy - he was interrupted
from his reverie when a janitor arrived to pick up the bedroom rugs
for cleaning; when the Girl arrived, he offered to prepare her a
martini, as she stood in front of his ari-conditioner to cool off
- the empty-headed Girl, with more physical assets than
brains, told Richard that she had previously lived in a women's club,
and was briefly an "artistic" model, before becoming an actress,
doing Dazzledent Toothpaste Hour TV commercials every other week;
after the Girl went to retrieve a bottle of champagne from her apartment,
she returned and revealed that she had changed
into a seductive white dress with loose criss-cross straps; during
the 'party' scene, Richard helped the blonde to fasten the straps
of her seductive white dress, while she was holding a bottle of champagne
and a bag of potato chips: "I figured it just isn't right to drink champagne in matador pants.
Would you mind fastening my straps in the back?...Potato chips, champagne,
do you really think you can get it open?"
- after a struggle to open the bottle, she accidentally discovered that he was
married, but was relieved - nothing can get "drastic" with
a married man: ("No matter what happens he
can't possibly ask you to marry him because he's married already.
Right?")
- she ignored his attempt to seduce her with Rachmaninoff,
but then reassured him: "Hey, did you ever try dunking a potato chip in champagne? It's
real crazy. Here...Isn't that crazy?...Everything's fine. A married
man, air-conditioning, champagne and potato chips. This is a wonderful
party"
- in a memorable "Chopsticks" sequence,
she was startled that he banged out the tune Chopsticks on
the piano; she exclaimed: "Chopsticks! I can play that too.
Shove over." She joined him on the piano bench, and they sang: ("Bum bum bum
bum bum bum...") and played together. When they finished, she
giggled and gushed: "I don't know about Rachmaninoff, whether
it shakes you and quakes you and stuff, but this really gets me...and
how!" After another hearty round of the song, she admitted: "I
can feel the goose-pimples...." She began again, but he stopped.
When she asked why: ("Don't stop. Don't stop"), he approached
his musical partner with a romantically-snooty Charles Boyer-like
accent: "You know why...Because, because
now I'm going to take you in my arms and kiss you, very quickly and
very hard." She jerked backwards, and his
lips never quite reached hers as expected. They fell backwards off
the piano bench as she blurted out: "Hey! Wait a minute." They
were left sprawled on the floor together, and she asked: "What
happened? I kinda lost track"
- later, Richard invited the Girl to dinner and
then to an air-conditioned movie on a hot summer evening; one of
filmdom's most iconic and immortal sexual poses was found in this
film - the Girl's famous pose in a white dress flying and billowing
up around her knees
- the sequence began as they left a movie theater screening. They discussed
the movie they had just seen: The Creature From The Black Lagoon.
She felt sympathy for the creature: "Didn't
you just love the picture? I did. But I just felt so sorry for the
creature at the end...He was kinda scary-looking, but he wasn't really
all bad. I think he just craved a little affection - you know, a
sense of being loved and needed and wanted."
- then, she stood spread-legged astride a New York subway
vent grating to cool herself during a hot summer, when a train whooshed
by underneath her. She smiled as moving trains below blew and lifted
her dress upwards above her legs with a rush of air: "Oh, do
you feel the breeze from the subway. Isn't it delicious?"
- she attempted, unsuccessfully, to keep her dress
down; standing close by, Richard gaped at her and observed: "Sort
of cools the ankles, doesn't it?"; soon,
another train came by, and she squealed with child-like delight as
it blew her skirt up one more time ("Oh, here comes another
one!")
- afterwards, she told him that she was filming a
Dazzledent TV commercial the next day. Trusting in him entirely,
he easily tricked her into kissing him by saying that he doubted
the truth of the commercials and the promise of flawless breath
- she heartily agreed to kiss him: ("It's true. I'll prove
it to you"); after her kiss, he pretended that he needed more
proof: "My faith in the integrity of American advertising is somewhat
restored....However, before I go to all the trouble of switching
brands, I want to make absolutely certain" - and he returned the
kiss
- when they returned home, Sherman agreed to let her
sleep in his air-conditioned bedroom, while he slept on the living
room couch; however, due to Sherman's paranoia about being spotted
with her in the apartment, he sent her back to her
own apartment, feeling neurotic and guilt-ridden, but soon, she returned
through a trap-door passageway from upstairs; the next morning
while the Girl was in the shower, Sherman continued to fantasize
that Helen had returned home early after learning about his dalliances;
she peppered the front door with bullets, and entered brandishing
a gun and shot at him
- realizing that Sherman was doubting himself, and
thought that women only wanted a man who looked like Gregory Peck,
she bolstered his ego and showed some kindness to reassure him,
ending with her ultimate compliment and unique accolade: "If
I were your wife, I'd be very jealous of you. I'd be very very
jealous. (She kissed him) I think you're just delicate"
- in the film's conclusion, Sherman decided to spend
two weeks on vacation in Maine and join Helen and Ricky; he gave
the Girl the key to his place, and before he left, the Girl sent
him off with a big kiss goodbye: "I have a message for your
wife. (A kiss.) Don't wipe it off. If she thinks that's cranberry
sauce, tell her she's got cherry pits in her head."
The Girl implied that a little jealousy on Helen's part would make
her more aware of his sex appeal to other women
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Paperback Publisher Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell)
A Waitress' (Doro Merande) Views on the Virtues of Nudity
The Girl (Marilyn Monroe) - The Upstairs Neighbor
Fantasy Spoof of "From Here to Eternity"
Balcony Scene: "I keep my undies in the icebox"
Richard's Fantasy of Seducing The Girl With Rachmaninoff
on the Piano
Strap-Fastening Help

Playing Chopsticks Together and Ending Up on the Floor

Richard's Fantasy: His Wife Helen's Return, Brandishing
a Gun

The Girl's Complimentary Kiss:
"I think you're just delicate"

Final Kiss with the Girl's Advice: "Don't wipe it off"
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