MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Like thousands of other Manhattanites, Tom Ewell annually packs his wife (Evelyn Keyes) and children off to summer vacation, staying behind to work at the office. This particular summer, the lonely Ewell begins fantasizing about the many women he'd foresworn upon getting married (in one of the fantasies, Ewell and Marguerite Chapman parody the beach rendezvous in From Here to Eternity). He is jolted back to reality when he meets his new neighbor--luscious model Marilyn Monroe. Inviting Monroe to dinner, Ewell intends to sweep her off her feet and into the boudoir. Things don't quite work out that way, thanks to Ewell's clumsiness (and essential decency) and Monroe's naivete. Still, Ewell becomes convinced that his impure thoughts will somehow be transmitted to his vacationing wife and to the rest of the world, leaving him wide open for scandal and ruination. In the original play, the husband and the next-door neighbor did have an affair, but both play and film arrived at the same happy ending, with Ewell and his missus contentedly reunited at summer's end. Featured in the cast of The Seven Year Itch are Robert Strauss as a lascivious handyman, Sonny Tufts as Evelyn Keye's former beau, Donald MacBride as Ewell's glad-handing boss, and veteran Broadway funny man Victor Moore in a cameo as a nervous plumber. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 3.0
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • Anamorphic widescreen [aspect ratio 2.55:1]
  • English 3.0
  • English stereo
  • French mono
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Spanish theatrical trailer
  • Movietone newsreel: "The Seven Year Itch"
  • Two deleted scenes: Bathtub and Subway

AWARDS

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1955 (Billy Wilder)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comed - 1955 (Tom Ewell)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Marilyn Monroe - The Girl
       Tom Ewell - Richard Sherman
       Evelyn Keyes - Helen Sherman
       Sonny Tufts - Tom MacKenzie
       Robert Strauss - Kruhulik
       Oscar Homolka - Dr. Brubaker
       Victor Moore - Plumber
       Marguerite Chapman - Miss Morris
       Carolyn Jones - Miss Finch
       Roxanne - Elaine
       Donald MacBride - Brady
       Butch Bernard - Ricky Sherman
       Doro Merande - Waitress
       Dorothy Ford - Indian Girl
       Mary Young - Train Lady
       Ralph Sanford - Railroad Station Gateman

• Director:

  Billy Wilder

• Producer:

  Charles K. Feldman, Billy Wilder

• Screenwriter:

  George Axelrod

• Play Author:

  George Axelrod

• Screenwriter:

  Billy Wilder

• Cinematographer:

  Milton Krasner

• Composer (Music Score):

  Alfred Newman

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Alfred Newman

• Editor:

  Hugh S. Fowler

• Art Director:

  George W. Davis, Lyle Wheeler

• Set Designer:

  Stuart A. Reiss, Walter Scott

• Costume Designer:

  Charles LeMaire, William Travilla

• Special Effects:

  Ray Kellogg

REVIEW:

• A slick, stylized sex farce with echoes of 1947's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Seven Year Itch parodies images of conventional Hollywood romances. Writer-director Billy Wilder takes jabs at several popular films of the era, including From Here to Eternity (1953) and Brief Encounter (1945), as he plunders the absurdities of the male libido. Of course, there was no better epitome of 1950s male sexual fantasy than Marilyn Monroe, ideally cast as "The Girl." Itch is further proof of Monroe's underrated comic skills, particularly in parts which allowed her to poke fun at her own image. Best remembered for its skirt-blowing scene, the film was actually a toned-down version of an even bawdier stage play. Wilder still manages to retain some of the play's naughtier puns and innuendo. Monroe and Wilder would work together again, on 1959's classic Some Like It Hot. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi