The 1955 film featuring Marilyn Monroe’s famous subway-grate scene is The Seven Year Itch. In the image, Monroe’s character stands above a passing train, whose rush of air lifts her white dress. The moment became one of the most recognizable images in 20th-century popular culture.
Billy Wilder directed the romantic comedy, which was adapted from George Axelrod’s 1952 play. Monroe stars opposite Tom Ewell, who plays Richard Sherman, a married man whose fantasies about his attractive upstairs neighbor drive the story. The film’s title refers to the supposed tendency for marital dissatisfaction to appear after seven years.
The dress sequence was filmed first outside the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater in Manhattan, where a large crowd gathered, and later recreated on a soundstage. The outdoor footage generated enormous publicity, although the finished movie used material from both shoots. A common mix-up is to associate the image with one of Monroe’s other 1950s films, such as How to Marry a Millionaire or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.