Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts
Director: Billy Wilder
Oscar History: Wilder scored with the DGA and Ewell won Best Actor at the Globes, but the film surprisingly got no traction when it came to Oscar, even though AMPAS was getting creative with both of those categories.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars
Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol." This month, our focus is on Marilyn Monroe-click here to learn more about Ms. Monroe (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.
Normally when we tackle a film from an actor's career on "Saturdays with the Stars" we have picked one from very early in her career to start things out. It gives us a sense of either a very early breakout performance that led to her stardom, or in some cases, we pick the role that made them a star. However, with Marilyn Monroe, we're not doing that. This is in part because I have a rule where I don't watch movies for this project I haven't already seen as I want to experience this along with you, and I've seen most of the early work of Marilyn Monroe's that is worthy of note. While with an actress of Monroe's stature every film is kind of famous, the big roles early in her career were All About Eve, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, and How to Marry a Millionaire, all of which I've seen. Technically I could have done Niagara or maybe a supporting role in The Asphalt Jungle, but instead I want to start with where Marilyn the "unprecedented" began, in The Seven Year Itch. By this time, Monroe was a major, major celebrity, married to star Yankees player Joe DiMaggio & so famous that she'd be self-referenced in this movie (Ewell has a toss-away line about "wanting Marilyn Monroe" in his apartment). This features arguably the most iconic cinematic moment of Monroe's career in pictures, and indeed in all of the movies, with her skirt being blown up by a subway air vent. As a result, Seven Year Itch is when Monroe begins to be intertwined with her own iconography, and considering the next three pictures we'll be watching intermingle Monroe-the-Actress with Monroe-the-Icon, Itch ended up being a smarter jumping off point for our month dedicated to the blonde bombshell.
(Spoilers Ahead) The strange thing about Seven Year Itch considering it's inextricably linked to Monroe is that she's not the main character, even though she's a co-lead. That distinction belongs to Richard Sherman (Ewell), a publishing executive who is going through something of a midlife crisis during his seventh year of marriage. His wife Helen (Keyes) is out of town on a summer vacation, and he's stuck in the city working, and it's heavily implied, ready-for-an-affair (as is the wont of many other men, according to our narrator). Richard will oftentimes have imaginary conversations with his wife, where obviously he's playing both sides, where he'll try to convince her that he's a wolf and a playboy, but she knows better that he's a devoted husband, someone that might look but will never touch.
Then along comes "The Girl" (Monroe), a character that fulfills every male fantasy to the point where she doesn't even get a name. Monroe is there in the height of her sexuality and glamour, a nice girl who doesn't always understand the effect she has on men (but you get the hint does a little as the movie progresses, considering she gets everything she wants from Richard without actually having to give him much more than her time). Richard throws himself at her, thinking this is his big chance to have an affair, but he's not a playboy, but instead a hapless publishing executive who is deep-down devoted to his wife. The film ends with The Girl getting access to Richard's apartment for the summer as he runs to vacation to beg for forgiveness from his wife...for indiscretions he couldn't figure out how to commit.
The Seven Year Itch does not age well. The sexual politics on-hand here are pretty gross. Monroe's character being reduced entirely to her body is something honestly that I was expecting to see earlier in our series about sex symbols, and had been pleasantly surprised hadn't been a thing so far, but it's clearly here now. Richard is a cad and a louse, and he's also kind of a loser. The sort of man who only imagines himself to be great, but never had any gumption to follow-through with that greatness. In a way Wilder's script is mocking the men of the audience-in reality, you don't, in fact, have a chance with Marilyn Monroe no matter what you imagine in your spare time-but then he reduces Monroe's character to nothing more than something to be ogled.
Monroe does her best with this role, and is fun in it, but nothing more than that. Monroe's biggest gifts were in comedy, and she certainly can land a punchline (with Wilder penning, you know there are several), but this role doesn't give her enough to do, and it frequently feels like she's playing herself. The famed subway scene is intriguing, but you learn pretty quickly that the iconic shot of Monroe's skirt going up is from production stills-they don't actually show her legs in the movie, just Ewell's reaction to obviously being able to see them. The film feels like a staged play in the worst way, and its sexual politics are hard to get past, particularly since Monroe is so magnetic, and relegated to the sidelines so often. All-in-all, this reeks of a movie that wanted to use someone's star power, but didn't know how to harness it to make their picture great.
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