7 year itch tv movie#
7 year itch tv code#

The film seems to tell us that this is all okay because the Girl isn't shy about her sexuality. Their first kiss is the result of him tricking her. He leers at her and lies about being married with a son until she sees his wedding ring.

7 year itch tv code#

His flirtation with the Girl isn't innocent, although because of the Production Code it was toned down (in the play, they actually sleep together). Ewell manages to make me believe that Richard genuinely loves his wife, and he flips between the character's moments of relaxation and panic with ease. His dry humor works well here and he can handle the more screwball aspects, such as acting like a suave British man during one of his fantasies or imagining that he is getting shot by Helen. Walter Matthau made a screen test, but the role eventually went to the man who originated the part on Broadway, Tom Ewell. The audience wouldn't feel that if Richard was played by such dreamboats as Cooper and Holden. His pairing with the Girl is supposed to feel odd and mismatched. Although he puts up a front of swaggering confidence, he is motivated by insecurity and neuroses. Axelrod and Wilder were adamant, though, that the whole point of the guy is how ordinary and unattractive (their word) he is.

When 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to George Axelrod's play, they were thinking about such stars as Gary Cooper and William Holden to play Richard. Because I've become so familiar with Wilder, I was curious how The Seven Year Itch, a film I hadn't revisited in years, would stack up, especially since I remembered enjoying it but I've heard many others say it's subpar work from the iconoclastic filmmaker. These days, Wilder has become my second favorite director, a man whose eye for incredible wit and sparkling romance has swept me off of my feet more times than I can count. (Now I watch it and go, 'Whoa, Evelyn Keyes! Oscar Homolka! Victor Moore! Donald McBride! Carolyn Jones?!') Like everyone else, I knew it contained the infamous subway grate scene, but I basically went into the film knowing nothing about it, its director, and its cast. Perhaps it's because of this mindset that I didn't place any expectations on the film.

7 year itch tv movie#

At the time I saw it, the only classic Hollywood director I really cared to learn about was Hitchcock, so, for me, Itch was much more a Marilyn Monroe movie than a Wilder one.

It's weird to think that The Seven Year Itch was my first Billy Wilder film.