Like thousands of other Manhattanites,
Tom Ewell annually packs his wife (
Evelyn Keyes)
and children off to summer vacation, staying behind to work at the
office. This particular summer, the lonely Ewell begins fantasizing
about the many women he'd foresworn upon getting married (in one of the
fantasies, Ewell and
Marguerite Chapman parody the beach rendezvous in
From Here to Eternity). He is jolted back to reality when he meets his new neighbor--luscious model
Marilyn Monroe.
Inviting Monroe to dinner, Ewell intends to sweep her off her feet and
into the boudoir. Things don't quite work out that way, thanks to
Ewell's clumsiness (and essential decency) and Monroe's naivete. Still,
Ewell becomes convinced that his impure thoughts will somehow be
transmitted to his vacationing wife and to the rest of the world,
leaving him wide open for scandal and ruination. In the original play,
the husband and the next-door neighbor did have an affair, but both play
and film arrived at the same happy ending, with Ewell and his missus
contentedly reunited at summer's end. Featured in the cast of
The Seven Year Itch are
Robert Strauss as a lascivious handyman,
Sonny Tufts as Evelyn Keye's former beau,
Donald MacBride as Ewell's glad-handing boss, and veteran Broadway funny man
Victor Moore in a cameo as a nervous plumber.
