The film that immortalised the most famous image of Marilyn Monroe – standing over a subway vent with her dress flying up – The Seven Year Itch follows married man Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) who is tempted to infidelity by ‘The Girl’ (Monroe) while his wife is away for the summer. Ewell reprised his role from the George Axelrod stage play from which Billy Wilder’s film was adapted. A smash hit on its release in 1955, The Seven Year Itch offers contemporary audiences both a classic Hollywood comedy romp and a thought-provoking time capsule of 1950s gender roles – as well as the mid-20th-century production codes that prohibited Wilder from depicting an actual affair. ‘From the moment she steps into the picture… the famous screen star with the silver-blond tresses and the ingenuously wide-eyed stare emanates one suggestion… Miss Monroe clearly plays the title role’ – The New York Times, 1955 Held in the NFSA collection.