Phffft! **** (1954, Jack Lemmon, Judy Holliday, Jack Carson, Kim Novak) – Classic Movie Review 5,088

The sparky, surprisingly sexy, 1954 bedroom farce film Phffft! stars funny Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday as a couple who marry and then split up and divorce after eight years of marriage. It’s kind of the seven-year-itch.

Director Mark Robson’s sparky, surprisingly sexy, 1954 bedroom farce comedy romance film Phffft! stars on-form funny Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday as Robert and Nina Tracey, a couple who marry and then split up and divorce after eight years of marriage. It’s kind of the seven-year-itch.

Lemmon’s Robert grows a moustache, buys a sports car and has a fling with the sexy Janis (Kim Novak, just 21). Holliday’s Nina takes dancing lessons and steps out with smug TV star Charlie Nelson (Jack Carson). Somehow, all this makes the couple want to reunite.

George Axelrod adapts his unproduced source play Phfft: Chronicle of a Happy Divorce into a screenplay that gets spot-on precision comedy playing from the ultra-pleasing cast, who give the lightweight lines a comic lift. A snappier pace from director Robson would have made it even funnier, but it is still most enjoyable, and runs a compact 88 minutes.

Also in the cast are Luella Gear, Donald Curtis, Merry Anders, Donald Randolph, Harry Cheshire, Eugene Borden, Charles Heard, Tom Kingston, Fay Baker, Jimmie Dodd, George Hill and Geraldine Hall.

Kim Novak won the 1955 Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Her last film so far is Liebestraum (1991). She is best remembered for Vertigo, Picnic, The Man with the Golden Arm and Bell, Book and Candle.

Lemmon called it ‘a good film – almost a very good film.’

Lemmon was previously teamed with Holliday that year in his debut film It Should Happen To You.

The advertising thought it should explain the title: ‘It’s not a word… It’s the sound of romance on the rocks!’ The title comes from Walter Winchell’s syndicated newspaper gossip column, in which he described celebrity couple’s marriage break-ups as ‘phffft’.

The script is based on Axelrod’s follow-up play to his The Seven Year Itch that he withdrew just before its production. Axelrod recalled: ‘I was in the process of getting a divorce from my first wife. I said the play wasn’t good enough and called it off. On the day this was announced, Harry Cohn, head of Columbia, called to say it would make a great movie for Judy Holliday.’

But Axelrod said there was a problem, the director: ‘I had a sweet, dear, darling man, Mark Robson, who hadn’t a clue how to do comedy. Not a clue.’ Harry Cohn thought there was a problem too, the co-star. He decided to cast Kim Novak after seeing her in Pushover but regretted it: ‘I figured, working alongside of Judy, some of the talent, some of the magic might rub off, right? Nothing.’

The cast are Judy Holliday as Nina Tracey, Jack Lemmon as Robert Tracey, Jack Carson as Charlie Nelson, Kim Novak as Janis, Luella Gear as Mrs. Edith Chapman, Donald Randolph as Dr Van Kessel, Donald Curtis as Rick Vidal, Arny Freeman as Nina’s language teacher, Eddie Searles as Tommy, Merry Anders as Marsha, Mylee Andreason as Robert’s dance teacher, Sally Mansfield as Miss Comstock, Joyce Jameson as Secretary, Bess Flowers as Nightclub Dance Extra, Jimmie Dodd as Cab Driver, Shirlee Allard as Secretary, Wendy Howard as Artist’s Model, and Charlotte Lawrence as Radio Actress, Luella Gear, Donald Curtis, Donald Randolph, Harry Cheshire, Eugene Borden, Charles Heard, Tom Kingston, Fay Baker, George Hill and Geraldine Hall.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,088

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