{"id":14945,"date":"2014-05-14T17:40:27","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T07:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=14945"},"modified":"2014-05-15T15:15:28","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T05:15:28","slug":"the-seven-year-itch-1955","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=14945","title":{"rendered":"The Seven Year Itch [1955]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Director:\u00a0 <\/strong>Billy Wilder<\/em>
\nScreenplay:\u00a0 <\/strong>George Axelrod, Billy Wilder<\/em>
\nStarring:\u00a0 <\/strong>Tom Ewell, Marilyn Munroe
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/span>fter many successful years making films in the drama and noir genres, director Billy Wilder decided to branch out into comedy.\u00a0 He wanted to adapt the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch<\/em>.\u00a0 A young Walter Mathau auditioned for the role and made a strong impression.\u00a0 Wilder wanted him in the role.\u00a0 His producers overruled him however as they were reluctant to cast Mathau because he was a relative unknown at the time.\u00a0 Instead, the actor from the stage show Tom Ewell was given the part.\u00a0 The role of The Girl was given to Marilyn Munroe.\u00a0 She was a nervous wreck on set.\u00a0 She constantly showed up late and forgot her lines.\u00a0 Her marriage to Joe Di Maggio broke down during the film.\u00a0 At the end of production, Wilder swore never to work with Munroe again.\u00a0 The whole thing sounded like a mess.\u00a0 The production ran long and went over budget.<\/p>\n

Against all odds, the final product was a film that is fondly remembered as a classic and it features one of the most iconic images in cinematic history – Marilyn Munroe’s skirt billowing up from standing over the subway grating.<\/p>\n

Here’s the premise:\u00a0 There is a centuries old tradition in the peak of summer where it becomes so insufferably hot that all the women and children leave town to head south for a few weeks.\u00a0 The men stay behind to carry on working and pay for their families.\u00a0 While the women are away, the men have an opportunity to indulge in their vices.\u00a0 They smoke more.\u00a0 They drink more.\u00a0 They might also entertain the company of the unmarried women who are still around them.<\/p>\n

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Richard Sherman is one such jobsworth who lives in New York City.\u00a0 He publishes dime store novels for a living and has been married for seven years.\u00a0 His wife and son go away to a holiday home by a lake.\u00a0 Sherman has the best intentions for his summer to himself.\u00a0 He promises to give up smoking.\u00a0 He wants to cut down on his drinking.\u00a0 He even eats at a vegetarian diner on his first night alone.\u00a0 But all his good intentions fall by the wayside when a beautiful blonde girl moves in to the upstairs apartment.\u00a0 She is busty, blonde and bubbly.\u00a0 She is of course, Marilyn Munroe.<\/p>\n

By this stage of her career, Munroe was already a star.\u00a0 And in The Seven Year Itch<\/em> she’s very much playing a caricature of her earlier roles.\u00a0 She’s the apple of men’s eyes.\u00a0 Her naive yet radiant sexuality causes men in this film to turn into that foot-stamping wolf from the Looney Tunes cartoons.\u00a0 Such is her affect on men that she isn’t even given a name.\u00a0 She exists as an object of desire.\u00a0 Ewell’s character describes her as ‘looking like Marilyn Munroe!’ (wink, wink).<\/p>\n

Initially, I wasn’t really sure how to take this film.\u00a0 After seeing her in more substantive roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes<\/em> and Some Like It Hot<\/em> I found the role of The Girl to be regressive and one dimensional.\u00a0 The humour in the film was considered incredibly racy at the time and the American film censorship board were a constant presence on the set, making sure there was no funny business.\u00a0 Today, it all seems rather tame and silly.\u00a0 It plays like an American version of the Carry On <\/em>films.\u00a0 Sherman invites The Girl in for a drink of champagne and he can’t pop the cork.\u00a0 When he does, it sprays everywhere.\u00a0 “That’s never happened to me before” says Sherman.\u00a0 Ho ho!\u00a0 I see you what you did there, Sherman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the end however, I warmed to the film.\u00a0 It’s not a film about a man having a salacious affair.\u00a0 It’s not even close.\u00a0 He’s a lovable loser.\u00a0 She’s an unwitting flirt.\u00a0 The Seven Year Itch<\/em> is as much a film poking fun at societal conventions about marriage and gender roles.\u00a0 Sherman spends so much time fantasizing about how he romantically wooed all the women in his life but the joke is he never does.\u00a0 Instead he spends all his time preparing for and covering his tracks for these romantic dalliances that never happen.<\/p>\n

If anything, the film turns out to be rather progressive in its views.\u00a0 Sherman likes to think he’s a ladies man and the head of the household but its clear that its his wife Helen that keeps him organized and in check.\u00a0 The film never judges or punishes Sherman for being infatuated with The Girl.\u00a0 She is Marilyn Munroe after all.\u00a0 And when the moment comes, he never acts on his impulse or put Marilyn in a spot.\u00a0 He mostly makes an ass out of himself, fusses over what the busybody janitor might say and then finishes the film scampering off to his missus.<\/p>\n

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A word or two on the famous skirt scene.\u00a0 It took hours of shooting and was shot on location in the public with thousands<\/em> of onlookers.\u00a0 It caused Di Maggio to fly into a rage and beat Munroe at the end of the day.\u00a0 Most surprisingly, the shot doesn’t actually appear in the film intact.\u00a0 In the final cut, you only see a shot of Marilyn’s legs as the skirt begins to billow and then it cuts to another shot from the waist up.\u00a0 It’s one of those cases of a film being incorrectly remembered in popular culture, like how Vader doesn’t<\/em> say ‘Luke, I am your father.’<\/p>\n

That said, the film shoot spiked massive public interest in the film and full body photos taken from the shoot were used by the studio to promote the film, including a massive larger-than-life poster that was draped on the side of a building in New York.<\/p>\n

All said, The Seven Year Itch<\/em> is a decent comedy that draws most of its humour from poking fun at the social mores of the Fifties and specifically the hapless reaction of everyday men trying to function around Marilyn Munroe.\u00a0 It’s funny, good natured and not the potential disaster that it could have been when you consider the rocky film shoot and constant studio interference.\u00a0 It’s probably not my favourite Munroe film but its a cheeky laugh all the same.<\/p>\n