THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH

MARY T.

I must acknowledge a sad fact of our generation- most people reading this have more than likely never seen the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch, with Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. You’ve probably never even heard of it. That being said, out of this movie came an image so iconic that although you may have never heard of the film itself, I would find it impossible to believe that you haven’t seen this picture. The real reason I’m writing about it is that it’s one of my favorite movies. I’ve watched it since I was a little girl, and I can quote lines from memory. I also find it interesting that an image so famous could have come from a now nearly obscure and outdated film.

The film opens on a steamy Manhattan summer day, as a man named Richard sees his wife and young son off on a trip to the seaside. It is, the narrator explains, a common practice for the working husbands of the city to send their families away for the hottest months while they remain behind to make the money. This results in, to put it delicately, much foul play by the smoking, drinking, cheating, and newly tattooed summer bachelors of New York. Richard, a naïve and goofy middle aged man with an imagination constantly in hyper drive, grits his teeth and avoids the many temptations that present themselves to him in his first day of freedom, insisting to himself that he will remain loyal, sober, and generally stay out of trouble. As he sits in his apartment, half heartedly attempting to get some work done this first night alone, he encounters a beautiful blonde girl he had seen in passing early in the day. Quickly, all of his resolutions go out the window, and he enters into a half imagined, always silly relationship with the nameless girl on the top floor.

In terms of turning windows into mirrors, one of the questions I had about this movie that intrigued me the most was what it was about the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and this married man that seemed so entirely innocent and fun. What I realized about myself through asking this, is that in any other real or fictional situation in a which a husband cheats on his wife, I would be utterly and entirely against it. I would judge the woman, I would judge the man, I would snap judge (and harshly judge) the whole situation. This question stuck out to me the most, I decided, because I felt differently in this movie than I would at almost any other time, and I wondered what it was about the characters that had this effect. What was it about Marilyn Monroe that made her seem like seem sexy, adorable, and sweet, rather than trampy or slutty? What was it about Tom Ewell that made him goofy and naïve rather than horrible or unfaithful? I think the answer lies in the innocence and humor that sugarcoats every scene of this movie. Richard’s character is made to seem as though he honestly just doesn’t know any better, the girl’s as though she’s just a little lonely and too cute to help herself, and the wife’s as though she knows her husband is a little ridiculous, but it’s just the way he is. All in all, the movie comes across as a playful romp rather than a shocking and heart wrenching portrait of adultery. It does help as well that they never share more than a kiss, but I think that it really has nothing to do with the seriousness of the action, and more with the way the movie was filmed and written.

Finally, I come to the portion of this blog in which I describe others points of view. The movie has seen mixed reviews. However, one thing that I found interesting is that is still being reviewed today, on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, just as it was over 50 years ago in the New York Times. When I asked around at CITYterm about the image of Marilyn standing over the subway vent with her white dress around her shoulders, Abby Cali said: “Marilyn Monroe is an icon of our society back in the 50’s and ’40s and that picture shows the era because it was the time of all the pinups and she’s innocence and seduction at the same time. She’s a sex symbol.” Wyatt Scruggs said that the picture “represents that she’s a sex symbol but she’s trying to stay classy because it’s a candid picture so it shows that she’s a sexual icon to many men and some women and she knows that, but she stills stays classy with the clothes she wears and all that.” Some people find this movie to be a bust, while others hail it as a classic, but either way, to me it will always be hilarious, iconic, and thoroughly excellent.