The Seven Year Itch (1955)

☆ ☆ ½

The Seven Year Itch (1955) – B. Wilder

I’m not sure what I expected – but I was hoping for more bite from Billy Wilder.  Instead, the film is awkwardly dated, focused on neurotic Tom Ewell’s fantasies about Marilyn Monroe (subletting the apartment upstairs) while his wife and son are away for the summer.  Maybe the Freudian underpinnings were more shocking in 1955 (as Ewell’s id battles his superego) but there is a bit too much lecherous leering for my tastes.  Then again, I don’t watch today’s sex comedies so possibly this sort of things still exists and might be more tasteless than Wilder’s tame shenanigans (by way of screenwriter George Axlerod) which end on a safe note (of course).  Monroe herself is exactly what you’d expect – playing dumb – but not as comedic as she is elsewhere.  Some Like It Hot is 1000 times better, so look there instead of here (despite the iconic subway vent scene).