Review of The Seven Year Itch (1955) by Kyle G — 14 Mar 2012

Begins as a fairly funny, shockingly dark, and nicely brisk film -- interesting summer-in-the-city Manhattan energy -- but squanders that mood on a steadily-cheapening story. One of Billy Wilder's (Golden Age of Hollywood) direct Broadway adaptations, The Seven Year Itch is a breezy rom-com with Tom Ewell and Marylin Monroe.

After seeing his wife and kid off to their upstate vacation home, Richard Sherman wallows in uncertain bachelorhood. The vices he has to contend with, we learn, are "cigarettes, tattoos, and girls" (We'd seen the "girls" bit thanks to a funny but uncomfortable Indian prologue.

.. Richard says later that love is "a kind of animal thing I've got"... and he talks with his waitress about nudism... Hmm!). Soon enough, his neighbor shows up: a breathy, lusty blonde who remains unnamed but, as another character remarks, looks sort of like Marilyn Monroe.

There are the predictable romantic shenanigans, which I guess are nicely performed; but the smaller bits are all pretty lame: Kruhulik (an awkwardly lecherous neighbor) is a terrible character all around; the paddle sub-plot is weak; the Rachmaninoff and Creature from the Black Lagoon allusions are pretentious at best; and the psychoanalyst character is sort of (/literally?) a big tool.