The Seven Year Itch

I really wanted to like this movie as I am an unabashed Monroe fan. However, the movie is not one of her better ones. I often find movies from the 50s and 60s that were adapted from plays often don't match the success of their Broadway counterparts.

Tom Ewell is Tom, a husband whose wife and young son go away for the Summer. Tom is a weakling who daydreams about various women, to include his secretary and nurse, having the hots for him. Marylin Monroe is The Girl who moves into the apartment upstairs. She is stunning and keeps popping up in Tom's apartment for a variety of reasons. The entire time Tom is rationalizing his potential affair by convincing himself his wife is playing footsies with a hunk.

Aside from the infamous train grate scene (which only shows Monroe's legs), this movie really has little to offer. Everything here has been done better in other movies. Monroe is lovely as always and is the epitome of the sweet girl who has no idea just how gorgeous she is. She was just starting to come into her own as an actress and she would hit it big jut four years later with Some Like It Hot.

Almost all of the story takes place in Tom's apartment and the dialogue and comedy are not strong enough to sustain the plot. Tom is kind of a nerd and his fantasies are rather pathetic. I know this was the 1950s and at the time this was probably funny, but it came across as kind of sad.

I gave this a 7 simply on the strength of Monroe's presence in the film. With a lesser icon in the role, the movie probably is not a hit.