The Seven Year Itch

Billy Wilder’s New York farce turns a summer night into a full-blown moral inconvenience. Richard Sherman, home alone in the city, finds his routine upended by The Girl, whose ivory Travilla halter dress and later subway dress become part of the film’s easy, airless glamour. She appears first in the warm spill of the sidewalk after a late screening, then again in Richard’s apartment, still carrying the after-hours glow of the walk home and the Lexington Avenue grate incident. The clothes are clean and precise; the situation is not.