Marilyn Monroe "Seven Year Itch" - May 30, 1955

Excerpt from the May 30, 1955 Life Magazine

"Seven Year Itch"

The important thing about the movie The Seven Year Itch is that it answers the burning question, can Marilyn Monroe also act? It is also true, of course, that the Fox film version of the stage hit establishes carp-faced Tom Ewell firmly as one of Hollywood's top comics. It is further true that the original George Axelrod plot about a summertime New Yorker who sends his family to the country and then discovers the pretty girl upstairs —is immeasurably helped by some cool Cinemascopic dreams (pp. 88, 90) that let the plot take wing from the hot Manhattan apartment of the Broadway version (Life, Dec. 8, 1952). It is, finally, true that Director Billy Wilder's Itch is an adult, uproarious farce—though it might be even funnier with a little judicious cutting. But to get back to the important matter: has Marilyn, in a slapstick but sophisticated role, really arrived as a comedienne? Well, she has.

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