Life-size icon in a white dress

Marilyn Monroe. Nice commentary – also cool photo, huh? I love that weird hand-chair right next to her.

Relevant clip from Seven Year Itch below:


I find Seven Year Itch rather nasty, actually. Seven Year Itch has a twisted sexual psychology to it, a hatred of HER, in particular – which makes me sad and angry – but Marilyn comes out of it smelling like a rose, even though the movie seems determined to humiliate her.

It’s not like Some Like It Hot which shows off her sexiness in a more fun-loving way, not so hateful … Yes, she’s babealicious in a way that could sink ships and make men crash their cars. I’m not saying to treat her like she’s NORMAL … she obviously isn’t … but don’t try to humiliate that lovely shining creature. Just kneel down in worship, and submit. That’s all you can do.

In Seven Year Itch she slips from from the grasping fingers of the nasty-minded people who want to shame her, who look eagerly at her face waiting to see her defeat – and gives a charming sweet innocent performance anyway. That’s guts.

Arthur Miller said: “I thought she had the potential for being a great performer if she were given the right stuff to do. And if you look at the stuff she did do, it’s amazing that she created any impression at all because most of it was very primitive. And the fact that people remember these parts from these films is amazing … She was committed to these parts as though they were real people, not cardboard cutouts.”

Another relevant quote, I think, comes from Peter Bogdonavich – and I think of Seven year Itch when I read this:

The year before her much-speculated-over death at thirty-six (rumors of presidential involvement, etc.), playwright Clifford Odets told me that she used to come over to his house and talk, but that the only times she seemed to him really comfortable were when she was with his two young children and their large poodle. She relaxed with them, felt no threat. With everyone else, Odets said, she seemed nervous, intimidated, frightened. When I repeated to Miller this remark about her with children and animals, he said, “Well, they didn’t sneer at her.”

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4 Responses to Life-size icon in a white dress

  1. Ceci says:

    “Marilyn comes out of it smelling like a rose, even though the movie seems determined to humiliate her.”

    That is so spot-on, Sheila! I have watched this film innumerable times (as you can imagine, haha!) and usually my view gets a little blurred; I become somewhat blind to “details” like the stupid treatment Marilyn’s character gets in this film. She brings such sweetness and dignity to it. But then, maybe the fact that I can overlook the dirtiness of the film is the best indication that Marilyn did a great performance in it.

  2. red says:

    Ceci – Yeah, she’s so funny in it!! So ridiculous, and (this is key, I think): OBLIVIOUS to the fact that she is being sneered at. I mean, the scene on the subway grate is so silly – but why it works is it because it really seems like she is unaware the effect she has on others … and she just needs to cool off.

    She REFUSES to be shamed … does that make sense? I don’t know how she does it – it’s like a jujitsu move.

    Didn’t Wilder end up having a problem with Tom Ewell in his role?? I can’t remember – but I think I read an interview with him from near the end of his life where he said he wasn’t happy with Ewell’s performance.

  3. Kristen says:

    “Me jujitsu, too!”

    Sorry, this is lovely.

  4. red says:

    Me jujitsu too!!! HA!!!!

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