 Not without a distinct ring of irony, the 9-month-old Marilyn Monroe-Joe DiMaggio marriage officially ended during this shoot. The classic shot of Marilyn Monroe`s dress blowing up around her legs as she stands over a subway grating was originally shot on Manhattan`s Lexington Avenue at 52nd St. on Sept. 15, 1954 at 1 AM. 5000 onlookers whistled and cheered through take after take as Marilyn repeatedly missed her lines. This occurred in presence of an increasingly embarrassed and angry Joe DiMaggio, then Marilyn Monroe`s husband. The original footage shot on that night in New York never made it to the screen; the noise of the crowd had made it unusable. Billy Wilder re-staged the scene on the 20th Century Fox lot, on a set replicating Lexington Avenue, and got a more satisfactory result. However, it took another 40 takes for Marilyn to achieve the famous scene.
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# Marilyn Monroe`s lifelong bouts with depression and self-destruction took their toll during filming; she frequently muffed scenes and forgot her lines, leading to sometimes as many as 40 takes of a scene before a satisfactory result was produced.
Marilyn Monroe`s constant tardiness and behavioral problems made the budget of the film swell to $1.8 million, a high price for the time. The film still managed to make a nice profit.
After seeing Walter Matthau`s screen-test performance in the part of Richard Sherman, Billy Wilder believed he had found his lead man. But 20th Century Fox was unwilling to take the risk on a newcomer. That`s when Wilder next turned his sights on the actor who had originated the role on Broadway, Tom Ewell.
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# The screenplay was adapted from the original Broadway show "The Seven Year Itch" which was written by George Axelrod. The original Broadway show starred Tom Ewell (who reprised his role as the imaginative Richard Sherman) and Vanessa Brown. When the project was moved from Paramount to 20th Century Fox, Brown was replaced by top sex symbol Marilyn Monroe for the film adaptation. Due to the Hays Office Production Code censorship rules, the racy dialogue and sexual innuendos were significantly toned down from the play.
Gary Cooper was considered for the role of Richard Sherman.
# The film adaptation rights to the stage play "The Seven Year Itch" by George Axelrod had originally been bought by Paramount Pictures. After director Billy Wilder left Paramount, the project moved to 20th Century-Fox.
The film`s entire story was an elaboration of the first scene in The Major and the Minor (1942), which was Billy Wilder`s directorial debut. That movie starred Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland.
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# Amazingly, Marilyn Monroe`s very narrow spike heels don`t get stuck or break in the subway grating that she stands on it in the movie`s most famous scene, although this was a universal problem, at the time, for the countless women wearing that very popular style heel in New York City in that era.
The film rights to this film had originally been bought by Paramount Pictures. After director Billy Wilder resigned to Paramount, the project moved to 20th Century Fox.
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# In the early 1980s, 20th Century Fox (which has the film rights), wanted to remake this movie. However the project was turned down and as of 2007, it remains in development hell.
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# George Cukor was the original choice to direct the film. He turned down the project and eventually Billy Wilder, whose contract with Paramount ended in 1954 (his last film with that studio was Sabrina (1954)), took it.
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# An important promotional campaign was released for this mainstream motion picture, including a 52 feet high cut-out of Marilyn Monroe (from the blowing dress scene) erected in front of Loews State Theater, in New York City`s Times Square.
Final film of Donald MacBride.
Final film of Victor Moore.
The movie premiere was on June 1st, 1955 which happened to be Marilyn Monroe`s 29th birthday.
The movie`s poster was as #22 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.
The Seven Year Itch opened at the Fulton Theater on November 20, 1952 and ran for 1141 performances. Tom Ewell reprises his role in the movie.
Despite being one of the most iconic images in pop culture history, as well as one of the most recognizable photographs of Marilyn Monroe, the famous full-length image of Monroe standing with her dress being blown up never actually appears in the film. The shot used in the film is only of her legs, cut with reaction shots, and never shown full-length.
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Marilyn Monroe
(as The Girl)
with Tom Ewell
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