The Seven Year Itch (1955) on Netflix
Approved19551h 45mComedyRomance
Richard Sherman, a publishing executive, stays in Manhattan while his wife Helen and son Ricky summer in Maine. A commercial actress takes the upstairs apartment, and Sherman is tempted.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.0/1046,082 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes84%
Trailer
Plot summary
Richard Sherman is a middle-aged publishing executive in New York City. His wife Helen and their son Ricky spend the summer in Ogunquit, Maine. Sherman returns from the train station with the kayak paddle Ricky left behind and meets a woman who has subleased the apartment upstairs; she is a commercial actress and a former model. He reads a manuscript in which the psychiatrist Dr. Brubaker argues that husbands in their seventh year of marriage are driven to have affairs. A potted tomato plant falls onto his chair, and he invites the woman down for a drink.
Cast
- Brandon Beachas Commuter at Station (uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Steven Bensonas Kid at Train Station (uncredited)
- George Bruggemanas Commuter at Station (uncredited)
- George Chesteras Porter (uncredited)
- Richard Elmoreas Commuter at Station (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Monroe's then-husband, the famed baseball player Joe DiMaggio, was on set during the filming of the dress scene and was reportedly angry and disgusted at the attention she received from the onlookers, reporters and photographers, although it was Wilder who had invited the media to drum up interest in the film.
- The footage of Monroe's dress billowing over a subway grate was shot in two places, first outside the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater in Manhattan and then on a sound stage, and elements of both ended up in the finished film, despite the often-held belief that the location sound had been ruined by the overexcited crowd.
- Saul Bass created the film's abstract title sequence, which was mentioned favourably in numerous reviews; until that time it was unheard of for trade press reviews to mention a film's title sequence at all.
SPOILER
Axelrod and Wilder complained that the film was being made under straitjacketed conditions, and it led to a major plot change: in the play Sherman and The Girl have sex, while in the film the romance is reduced to suggestion and three kisses.- The film's title phrase, which refers to waning interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, has since been used by psychologists themselves.
