Director Billy Wilder gets a great, comic book-styled performance out of Marilyn Monroe: she's guilelessly sexy and playful, and has no idea she's enchanting the married man who lives downstairs in her New York City building. Unfortunately, hers are the only moments of inspiration in an otherwise dim-bulb comedy which must rank as Wilder's most disappointing venture. Beginning with a too-busy animated credits sequence (where colored boxes open to reveal teeny-tiny print), Wilder's handling is in question and his timing seems off. The central situation via George Axelrod's play--a husband rationalizing having an extra-marital fling--has no heart and, as the man whose wife and child are away on vacation, Tom Ewell gives a flaccid performance. Wilder certainly doesn't do Ewell any favors by staging dumb gags like have the character get his finger stuck in a champagne bottle, but the actor hardly ingratiates himself to us by constantly jabbering while fantasizing different 'dramatic' scenarios (none of them too amusing). The camera doesn't love Ewell, so why does Wilder shoot a scene with Ewell in the shower? (it's something we don't need to see.) Monroe's fans won't want to pass this one up, as long as they don't mind slogging through the inept, timeworn gags and groaning dialogue. Just to see the platinum blonde's skirt get that famous blast of air over the subway grating is nearly worth sitting through the rest. ** from ****
Review of The Seven Year Itch
