Tom Ewell & Marilyn Monroe

Source:The Daily Review

The Seven Year Itch is not one of my favorite movies. It’s a very good funny movie that is at least ten-years ahead of its time, but it’s not one of my favorites. But what I think I like most about it is that it’s a 1950s movie that takes on the 1950s. Here is this country called the United States of America that’s supposed to be this great land of freedom and everything and yet Americans back then weren’t free to be Americans. They couldn’t be themselves and didn’t have the freedom to be who they were and talk about what they were interested in and live their own lives for fear of censorship. And perhaps not being able to find jobs if they were who they actually were and moved away from the 1950s culturally conservative box where all Americans were supposed to be the same way.

Sex and adultery and of course humor about those things, of course they went on back then. They just weren’t done in public at least on TV and in films. The Seven Year Itch changed that by bringing out adultery and sex in the public. To show how men act and what they think about when their wife is out-of-town and they’re home alone and there’s a hot sexy women nearby whose very friendly. And who would essentially let the guy do whatever he wants with her, because she’s open to practically anything. The Seven Year Itch didn’t end the culturally conservative bubble of the 1950s. But it did show Americans that these things happen even though everyone knew that and that there wasn’t anything wrong with talking about it. The political correctness movement back then was basically dominated by what would be called the Christian-Right today and The Seven Year Itch took them on.

You could have a man with the most beautiful wife possible, who loves her and loves his kids and doesn’t want to lose them, or his wife. But we all think about other women especially hot sexy women like Marilyn Monroe, or anyone else and when our girlfriend, or wife is not there for whatever reason like perhaps visiting family out-of-town and another hot sexy women comes into the picture and she’s very friendly and shows an interest in him, or course the guy is going to think about her. And throw out ideas like, “I’ll have her over for one drink, who’ll be hurt by it? I’ll invite her out for dinner. It will be very neighborly. Besides my wife will never know anyway.” And that is what the Tom Ewell character does in this movie. He essentially fantasizes about what would life be like with another beautiful women.