Seven Year Itch, The [2 Disc Special Edition]
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DVD Review
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Review
Based on George Axelrod’s play, Director Billy Wilder didn’t need to tweak the script too much from the hit Broadway farce [which was still running in 1955 when the movie premiered].
Essentially a two hander for Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell the action rarely strays from the confines of a Manhattan apartment.
Richard Sherman, Ewell, is a New York book publisher whose wife of seven years and young son have just left for a summer vacation in Maine. Sherman is left alone in Manhattan’s red-hot Summer with advice ringing in his ears from his wife [‘Stop Smoking’] and his Doctor [Stop Drinking Scotch!]
Talking to himself through out, and still only on Day 1, Sherman is already struggling on both counts; so he’s locked his cigarettes away and tries to force down a cherryade. But then when he meets and invites his new neighbour over, a young actress [whose name is never revealed] played by Monroe, the scotch bottle is back out and his cigarettes are liberated. Despite his wild imagination, some soft music and the sticky climate, adultery is the last thing on Sherman’s mind. What transpires and really makes the film work is not only Sherman’s boyish innocence but Monroes’s ability to defuse any undesirable thoughts with her coquettish naivety.
But after pouring her a couple of large Martinis, Sherman still does what any man would do when entertaining a beautiful blonde [especially Marilyn Monroe!] and kisses her. What follows is pure farce and at the same time pure Monroe: Sherman: ‘I’m really sorry, this has never happened to me before’, Monroe: ‘That’s strange, it happens to me all the time’. The flustered Sherman asks her to leave convinced his wife will find out. However, they meet the following day and see a movie together. What happens when they leave the theatre is probably the most iconic movie reel ever shot: Marylyn Monroe stands on a subway air grate and as the train passes beneath her dress is blown up around her head [I’m guessing the male viewers may just want to check their rewind button at this point!]
More farcical behaviour ensues but Sherman can stand it no more and in the last reel is seen getting in his car to drive down to Maine to rejoin his family.
Extras:
On Disc 1 we get a commentary from Kevin Lally, Billy Wilder’s biographer; seen, obviously more from the viewpoint of the Director, however on…
Disc 2, entitled The Last Years Of Marilyn Monroe we get the graphic details of a curtain coming down for the final time on one of the 20th century’s greatest performers. In 1962, after 32 movies and a continuing battle against manic depression, Monroe was just about to start shooting Something’s Got To Give [a film that never saw the light of day], with a stellar cast, when events overtook her. All her friends and close associates knew she had a penchant for champagne and sleeping tablets; it was to be her undoing. A sad end to a life which had its fair share of highs and lows, loves and losses. But, even after all these years, as is borne out in this mini documentary, all those interviewed still think about her to this day. She is as loved now as ever.
Sound & Vision
Those good people at Twentieth Century Fox certainly knew how to make a film. The DVD copy looks and sounds as fresh as the day the projectionist first took it out of the can over fifty years ago.
Overall
I must admit to being a little biased here. For me, Marylyn Monroe, could do no wrong. Her figure, as somebody once said: ‘she goes in and out in all the right places; her smile, which would turn your knees to jelly, her screen prescience…she had it all. And she could sing! Seven Year Itch may not be her best in terms of range [try Some Like It Hot or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes] but I’ll take this anytime over some of the dross Hollywood’s been churning out recently.
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