18 Interesting Vintage Photos of Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell in 'The Seven Year Itch' in 1954

The Seven Year Itch (1955) is a delightful, sophisticated and witty farce, using to the fullest extent the mordant humor of director Billy Wilder on the subject of sex. The 'seven year itch' refers to the urge to be unfaithful after seven years of matrimony, with a desire to satisfy one's sexual urges ('itches').

It was adapted from a Broadway play of the same name by George Axelrod, with Tom Ewell reprising his Broadway role. The film's entire story was an elaboration of the first scene in Wilder's directorial debut film The Major and the Minor (1942). Although the play was about an actual consummated affair, it was modified due to the Hays Code in force at the time, and many of the best lines from the play were cut.

The entertaining film is best known for the definitive performance of the radiant Marilyn Monroe with a little girl's giggly voice - basically portraying herself as a blonde bombshell, and known simply as The Girl. The film's promotional tease photographs packaged her as the sexually-endowed girl next door - an ideal fantasy figure. In the film, one indeed wonders whether Marilyn Monroe's character is an actual person or rather the living embodiment of the urban executive's wild imagination - a fantasy.

Below is a collection of publicity photos of Marilyn Monroe with co-star Tom Ewell for The Seven Year Itch taken by Frank Powolny in 1954.