The Seven Year Itch

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On Sky Movies Screen 1 07/01/10 06:00

Director: Billy Wilder

Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell

Year: 1955 Running Time: 105 mins Rating:

While his wife is away, middle-aged New Yorker Tom Ewell finds his eye drawn to the single, blonde bombshell living upstairs. Who wouldn't - it's Marilyn Monroe! Driving menfolk to distraction was what Marilyn did best and Billy Wilder's cheeky comedy sees her playing it to the max - most memorably in a certain scene involving a billowing white dress and a subway vent...

Review

A dazzling Marilyn Monroe forms a liaison with a middle-aged neighbour (Tom Ewell) left alone by his holidaying wife and son in this vastly entertaining classic comedy.

There are clever, career-best performances by the stars in a delicious movie whose funniest sequences see the sad Ewell dreaming he's a great lover.

The famous scene of Monroe's dress billowing up over a subway grating was shot in Manhattan at 1am as 5000 onlookers whistled and cheered through take after take as Marilyn fluffed her lines.

Her baseball ace husband Joe DiMaggio was enraged and their marriage ended during the film's shoot. Ewell recreates his Broadway stage role.