The Seven Year Itch (1955) | |
Plot Synopsis (continued)
Then after turning the lights back on, he fantasizes about everything that will happen with her, as he plays a recording of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. In an amorous fantasy, the Girl appears coming down a staircase with a slinky strapless, sparkling black and gold evening gown and black gloves, flourishing a long cigarette holder. He imagines himself at the piano in an elegant red dressing gown, distinguishedly gray at the temples, lighted candelabra on the piano. He greets her with an affected accent. She is overwhelmed and swept away by the music:
With imaginary thoughts of conquest, he stops the music and in a suave manner takes her in his arms and kisses her, embracing her on the piano bench. And then the doorbell rings and he is awakened from his fantasy and the mood is interrupted, especially since it is only the slovenly, T-shirted janitor Mr. Kruhulik (Robert Strauss) who has come to pick up the bedroom rugs for cleaning, arranged by Helen. Refusing to let him take the rugs until later, Sherman learns that Kruhulik will also become a "summer bachelor" the next day, but disapproves of his crass expectations for freedom: "He's got four kids. Something happens to people in this town in the summer. It's disgraceful." Rushing to the door when the buzzer sounds, he slips on the roller skate once again, toppling himself and his bucket of ice cubes. The blonde arrives at his door, wearing tight pink slacks and a matching pink blouse. He offers her a drink, and then mentions that he lives alone, explaining away the roller skate he is holding by telling her that it is adjustable and that he likes to roller skate. The Girl is receptive to a drink: "I drink like a fish..." She doesn't know what a martini is (gin and vermouth), but lets him make her a big tall one. Then, she tells him how the Kaufmann's upstairs apartment is not air-conditioned. She stands in front of his air conditioner, removing her belt and raising her pink blouse to let the cool air blow on her bare midriff, while artlessly and empty-headedly relating what happened to her the previous day in her hot apartment:
The Girl, with more physical assets than brains, tells him that she had previously lived in a women's club and discloses why she was asked to leave:
No longer a model, she is now an actress, doing Dazzledent Toothpaste Hour TV commercials every other week:
She innocently muses about her fleeting fame on TV:
On her 22nd birthday only a few days earlier, she bought a bottle of champagne to elegantly drink by herself in the bathtub. But because she couldn't get the bottle open, it still sits in her refrigerator with her undies and potato chips. She rushes upstairs to get the bottle to share with him. While she is gone, he sneaks a look at her U.S. Camera photograph he discovers in a book on his shelf and fends off another phone call from his wife. When the Girl returns with the champagne, she has changed into a seductive white dress with loose criss-cross straps, explaining:
Clumsily getting his finger stuck in the bottle's opening, she accidentally discovers that he is married, but is relieved - nothing can get "drastic" with a married man:
When he proposes playing a recording of Rachmaninoff, she admits that she doesn't know anything about music:
She is not swept away by Rachmaninoff as he had fantasized earlier. He wishes to recreate his fantasy: "Shhh. Don't talk. Don't fight it. Relax. Go limp...Let it sweep over you." As he moves down for a kiss, she sits upright: "You know, I've got the biggest thing for Eddie Fisher," and reaches into the potato chip bag. Sherman reminds her of his sexual fantasy: "Very frequently, people go all to pieces listening to this...It quakes them, it shakes them, it makes them goose-pimply all over." The Girl dips her potato chip in his champagne glass, remarking: "Hey, did you ever try dunking a potato chip in champagne? It's real crazy. Here...Isn't that crazy?" When he realizes that Rachmaninoff wasn't such a good idea, she reassures him:
In a memorable sequence, he begins playing Chopsticks on the piano and she joins him on the piano bench, banging and singing out the tune with him in a child-like manner. Exuberantly during their duet, she exclaims: "I don't know about Rachmaninoff and this shakes you and quakes you stuff, but this really gets me...and how...I can feel the goose pimples...Don't stop. Don't stop." After a few vigorous renditions, he stops and approaches her with a romantic accent: "Because now I'm going to take you in my arms and kiss you, very quickly and very hard." They fall backwards off the piano bench, leaving him sprawled over her. Realizing what he has said, he pleads that it was all a mistake:
Flustered, upset, and thinking he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, the next day at work, he asks his boss Mr. Brady (Donald MacBride) for a two week vacation so he can join his wife and child in the country. But he is refused - it's the publisher's busiest season and his boss isn't very sympathetic to his plight. Sherman imagines he has indeed been transformed into Dorian Gray:
In Chapter 6 of the Brubaker manuscript, Sherman reads about a phenomenon which is particularly applicable to himself - the tendency and urge of middle-aged men married for seven years to seek infidelity and extra-marital adventures - "the seven year itch." Later that afternoon, psychiatrist Dr. Brubaker (Oscar Homolka), whose book he is publishing, arrives for an appointment. The title of his manuscript has been renamed "Of Sex and Violence," and the premise of the book has also been revised - a middle-aged man terrorizes a young girl. Sherman seeks a bargain for counseling he feels he sorely needs:
In a counseling session held in his office, Sherman stretches back and explains how he is in serious trouble because he attempted to terrorize a young lady on a precarious piano bench. He fears he is afflicted with the Seven Year Itch. Dr. Brubaker takes notes and advises: "If something itches, my dear sir, the natural tendency is to scratch." Sherman is concerned that she will spread the word around that he perversely terrorized her. |