Just about fifty years later, the scene is still good, but not particularly revealing. There are two distinct subway passes but both of them don’t seem to disturb Monroe’s outfit in a significant way. Regardless, the camera angles are all very high, reminiscent of the way Elvis Presley was filled waist up on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to keep his hips from scandalizing the nation. Still photographs and promotional films shot on the set are a lot more explicit, which makes sense; THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH was sold, rightly so, on Monroe and her incredible sexual charisma. But because of the rigorous Production Code that remained in place throughout Hollywood through the middle of the 1960s, the film itself is tamer than its commercials. The moments of indecency are so brief it’s hard to believe they became so iconic.

The Production Code, which dictated that, among other things, no comedy could be derived from situations involving adultery, shredded most of the racy content from THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, a very popular Broadway play by George Axlerod. In the play a Manhattan book editor named Richard Sherman has an affair while his wife and son holiday away from New York City without him, and his eventual guilt causes a variety of comedic situation. But since Hollywood wasn’t allowed to make a comedy about an adulterer Billy Wilder’s big screen adaptation, starring Tom Ewell (from the original Broadway cast) as Sherman, is about a man who is merely tempted to have an affair while his wife and son are gone.

Mainly due to the incredibly strict content guidelines, the comedy isn’t particularly funny. There are few memorable lines, and fewer sexy ones. Ewell looks his part, but his theatrical performance doesn’t do the picture any favors; his hammy, bug-eyed delivery surely played great on the stage, but doesn’t translate well in the screen version. He’s made even weaker in the role when you learn that Wilder wanted to cast Walter Matthau in the part, and one can imagine how much better THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH would have been with him in the lead. The DVD even includes a brief excerpt from Matthau’s screen test; reportedly, the studio decided it did not want to take a chance on on an unknown stage actor (Ewell, a Hollywood novice, was at least a Broadway star).

But let’s be honest here, a better costar would help the film, but THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH would be worth watching if the male lead was played by a well-trained dog because the real star of the show is the incredible Marilyn Monroe in one of her best performances. As Sherman’s unnamed upstairs neighbor she is breezy, adorable, honest, smart, funny, and, of course, the sexiest thing on two legs. On one of ITCH’s DVD features, Hugh Hefner credits Monroe for helping to plant the seeds of the following decade’s sexual revolution and watching ITCH it’s easy to see why. The billowing white dress may be famous, but Monroe is sexy in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH in everything she wears. Even her ankles are sexy! There just wasn’t an unflattering angle on that woman. Though she was famously difficult to work with, sometimes requiring dozens of takes to remember and properly deliver a single line, it all seems so effortless on the screen. Ewell is a good, faithful husband, but because Monroe is so beautiful, we actively root for him to cheat on his wife!