Line #43 Film/TheSevenYearItch


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4	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thesevenyearitch-posterart_4181.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:310:''"Isn't it delicious?"'']]
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7	->''"When something itches, my dear sir, the natural tendency is to scratch."''
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9	''The Seven Year Itch'' is a 1955 Creator/BillyWilder-directed RomanticComedy film that arguably marked the high point of Creator/MarilynMonroe's popularity--and a fair contender for the title of the most famous American film [[PopculturalOsmosis you've probably never seen]].
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11	Richard Sherman (Creator/TomEwell) is a middle-aged book publisher who lives with his wife and young son in a large apartment in [[BigApplesauce the Gramercy Park neighborhood of New York City]]. It gets [[HeatWave so hot one summer]] that the wife and kid decide to take a vacation up to Maine, with Richard staying behind to hold down the fort and win the bread.
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13	Richard has been having disagreements with his wife lately, and feels repressed. Even so, he agrees (at first) not to smoke, drink alcohol, or eat meat for the duration of his time alone. But one evening, as he is returning home from dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, he slips on one of his son's roller skates and hits his head. Enter a blonde and curvy girl (guess who), who just happens to start living in the apartment above Richard's. HilarityEnsues.
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15	Based on George Axelrod's 1952 stage comedy of the same name, in which Ewell also appeared... and which included an actual extramarital affair between Richard Sherman and The Girl, which was censored out of the film version.
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17	Also is famous for popularizing the MarilynManeuver, which is discussed in more detail below.
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19	----
20	!!This film provides examples of:
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22	* TheFifties: Choose just about any frame of this film, and you're looking at them undiluted. Even Richard and The Girl had just finished watching the ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' before the subway vents scene. Interestingly, being made almost smack in the middle of the decade, ''The Seven Year Itch'' appears to strike an aesthetic and ideological balance between the more "traditional" early years of the decade and the "hipness" of its later years.
23	* ActorAllusion: When Tom asks who the blonde in his apartment is, Richard snarks, "maybe it's Marilyn Monroe."
24	* AllMenArePerverts: The basic premise of the movie. As soon as the wives are away, most men ogle the first female they see.
25	* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Played to the hilt. There's even a [[HerrDoktor stereotypically Germanic professor]] on the subject - and, [[invoked]] [[ClicheStorm yes]], he has Richard [[FreudianCouch lie on a couch as he questions him]].
26	* AllThereInTheManual: The publicity shots of Marilyn's "subway scene" are a lot more revealing (and famous) than those in the film itself (which were edited heavily to appease the censors).
27	* AmusingInjuries: Richard keeps getting a crick in his neck. And tripping on Ricky's roller-skates.
28	* AskAStupidQuestion: Richard's wife always asks him what happened at the office when he comes home. When he's alone, he considers answering this: "I shot Mr. Brady in the head, made violent love to Miss Morris and set fire to 300,000 copies of ''Literature/LittleWomen''. That's what happened. What can happen at the office?"
29	* BeachKiss: Appears in one of Richard's {{Imagine Spot}}s, spoofing ''Film/FromHereToEternity''.
30	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Averted: Richard talks a lot when he's by himself, but not to us. More like ''Snubbing'' The Fourth Wall.
31	* BrickJoke: The other roller skate.
32	* CatchPhrase: The Girl makes frequent use of the word, "elegant."
33	* CelebrityParadox: When Tom asks Richard about the "blonde in the kitchen", Richard says,"Wouldn't you like to know! Maybe it's Marilyn Monroe!" Then again, considering [[NoNameGiven The Girl is unnamed]] throughout the film (and the credits), it's possible [[AsHimself the character in question really]] ''[[AsHimself is]]'' Creator/MarilynMonroe.
34	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The pro-nudism waitress at the vegetarian restaurant Richard visits.
35	* CommercialSwitcheroo: Richard worriedly imagines the Girl turning her Dazzledent toothpaste ad into a detailed warning for other young women not to get involved in his nearly-adulterous activities. The daydream goes FromBadToWorse as Richard imagines his wife and son watching this commercial on a portable TV.
36	* CostumePorn: It's a real shame this movie didn't even get nominated for an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for costumes. Among William Travilla's many creations for Marilyn, particular standouts include an absurdly famous billowing off-white dress (see MarilynManeuver below) and a spangled gown with zigzagging tiger stripes. ''Meow''.
37	* CrazyPrepared: Tom Mackenzie's hayride with Helen Sherman. ("Even the horses are wearing blinkers.")
38	* CryForTheDevil: Invoked. Richard and the Girl watch ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' together, and she says she felt sorry for the Creature: "He was kinda scary-looking, but he wasn't really all bad. I think he just craved a little affection - you know, a sense of being loved and needed and wanted."
39	* CuttingTheKnot: There's a boarded-up trapdoor between Richard and the Girl's apartments. The Girl just uses the claw of a hammer to pull out the nails, and the trapdoor falls away.
40	* DoWrongRight: When Richard threatens to kill the girl to avoid temptation, Dr Brubaker sarcastically says it may solve his problem, but advises that murder is exceptionally difficult, and since Richard has already bungled an assault, he should probably work on that before moving up to more difficult crimes.
41	* DumbBlonde: The Girl is arguably the TropeCodifier here, although even she shows some cleverness - particularly in her final lines of the film.
42	* FakeOutOpening: The film opens with this narration:
43	-->'''Narrator:''' The island of Manhattan derives its name from its earliest inhabitants - the Manhattan Indians. They were a peaceful tribe, setting traps, fishing, hunting. And there was a custom among them. Every July when the heat and the humidity on the island became unbearable, they would send their wives and children away for the summer, up the river to the cooler highlands, or if they could afford it, to the seashore. The husbands of course, would remain behind on the steaming island to attend to business - setting traps, fishing, and hunting. Actually, our story has nothing whatsoever to do with Indians. It plays 500 years later. We only brought up the subject to show you that in all that time, nothing has changed.
44	* GoodBadGirl: The Girl is implied to be this, since she's genuinely sweet, compassionate, and understanding, but she didn't like living in a club since they had a strict 1:30am curfew. She also implies that she gets marriage proposals all the time from various beaus, but she doesn't want to settle down yet. That's why she prefers the company of married men--no matter how crazy things get, they'll never ask her to ''[[ExactWords marry]]'' them.
45	* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Richard is seen undressing, and we get a good look at his polka-dotted boxer shorts.
46	* GreenEyedMonster: Richard imagines his wife as this (she's not), although he is actually crazy jealous of his wife hanging out with a good-looking friend of hers (who happens to be a romance novelist)--to the point that he goes into a jealous rage and ''punches'' the guy at the end.
47	* HappilyMarried: Richard and his wife.
48	* HeadTurningBeauty: Guess who?
49	* HenpeckedHusband: Richard sees himself as one (even though he really isn't), and uses this characterization as a persecution complex to justify all his (mostly imagined) indiscretions.
50	* HighClassGloves: Richard imagines the Girl in glittery black opera gloves with a strapless tiger-stripe gown.
51	* HypocriticalHumor: Near constantly.
52	-->'''Richard:''' Let me tell you, Helen loves me.
53	-->'''Tom [=MacKenzie=]:''' Sure, she loves you!
54	-->'''Richard:''' She loves me because I'm sweet and gentle and worried, and nervous and shy and tender! ''(knocks him out)''
55	* ImagineSpot: Richard conjures up several.
56	* LipstickMark: The Girl deliberately leaves one on Richard's collar at the end, all for the purpose of making Helen jealous. Apparently, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality we're supposed to feel happy that Richard is finally "standing up for himself" to his "mean, bitchy wife."]]
57	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: The Girl proves to be one for Richard (although unintentionally, and without the "manic" part).
58	* MarilynManeuver: With the subway grate on the corner of Lexington and 52nd Streets (it's not quite as revealing as it could have been, though; see AllThereInTheManual above). The TropeNamer and TropeCodifier.
59	* MrImagination: Richard has an overactive imagination - he once imagines his wife telling him this.
60	* NewhartPhonecall: Richard has a couple of these with his wife.
61	* NiceGuysFinishLast: Richard thinks this about himself under all of his {{Imagine Spot}}s, but The Girl convinces him otherwise.
62	* NoNameGiven: The Girl's name is never revealed.
63	* NotSoAboveItAll: Richard, after the first half-hour of the movie.
64	* OhCrap: Richard many times, especially when he imagines his wife coming home to literally murder him. Even culminates in a HeroicBSOD as Richard drops the toast he is buttering and ''inadvertently butters his own hand''!
65	* SayingTooMuch:
66	-->'''Richard''': I can explain everything: the stairs, the cinnamon toast, the blonde in the kitchen!
67	-->'''Tom Mackenzie''': Wait! Wait a minute, Dicky-boy! What blonde in the kitchen?
68	* SexySecretary: Miss Morris.
69	* ShoutOut:
70	** One of Richard's {{Imagine Spot}}s spoofs the famous beach scene from ''Film/FromHereToEternity''.
71	** In another Imagine Spot, Richard's wife tells him Kruhulik is actually a private eye she hired to watch him and that his real name is Johnny Dollar. ''Radio/YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar'' was a popular radio detective show of the era.
72	** Richard and the Girl go to the movies and see ''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'' together.
73	** For some reason, a newspaper clipping from ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951'' is on the wall of our hero's office.
74	* SmokingIsCool: Subverted at first, when Richard mentions that one of his doctors has ordered him not to smoke during periods of hot weather, and he locks his cigarettes away in a table drawer. But after the Girl shows up and (inadvertently) encourages him to rebel, he unlocks the drawer and helps himself to a cigarette - and suffers no ill effects from it.
75	%%* ThisLoserIsYou: Richard, arguably.
76	* UnusualEuphemism: Mr. Kruhulik is stepping out with a lady with a "big fat poodle''.
77	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Comedic variant, as Richard, in one of his awkward monologues, muses that [[VaguenessIsComing "Something happens to this town in the summer...."]] and then elaborates a bit by describing all the mischief that "summer bachelors" in New York get into when their families are gone and nobody knows what they're up to.
78	* WolfWhistle: The trailer has one play during the MarilynManeuver, since it's a fairly provocative pose.
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Context Film / TheSevenYearItch