Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Aryana Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

mark.waltz "I want a divorce!" How many times have these words been spoken in haste and unthinking anger? For divorcing couple Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday, it's going to be a bitter one, and neither party will be able to get the other one off their mind. They each have flashbacks to happier times, alternating between smiling and scowling as they remember the past and what brought them to this point in their lives. A sudden chance encounter on the mambo dance floor ignites a spark again as they take over the floor with a dance that is both hysterically funny and sexy. There's interference by Lemmon's pal Jack Carson and her mother, with Lemmon distracted by the sultry but over analyzing Kim Novak, only on occasion utilizing that breathy speech pattern that became her trademark. It's a great way to get a film acting career off the ground.Thus is an adult comedy, one I didn't appreciate when I was in my 20's, but years later, seems smart and really on the money when it comes to describing adult relationships. Only four years older than Lemon, Ms. Holliday has a youthful quality that makes her seem ageless. Lemmon is a perfect leading man for her. It is a shame that they only made two films together. There's no "Phffft!" to their pairing.

Cristi_Ciopron One can say that this role set the direction of Lemmon's career—establishing him as an able lead in sex comedies. This one is a screwball of a very delicious finesse and elegance and sense of fun. The cast is above all expectations—Lemmon, keeping his character in a nuanced and subtle form. This early Lemmon recital is finely matched by the comedy's nature—a sharp and palatable one. More important—there is this timeless elegance that prevents the movie from being dated.You know what is does? It enhances the appetite for life and love. Some call this feel—good cinema. Each frame, each scene is somehow delicious and first—hand—a lot of talent displayed and intelligently used ,with a sort of an instinct for the good cinematography. It addresses an audience that was more apt to perceive the values of an urbane chic civilization. In this respect, it's not a bit phony. It doesn't pretend to be sophisticated and urban; it is.Mrs. Novak plays a stupid blonde. She has two very long scenes with Lemmon. Needless to say that she was amazingly beautiful in this film as well. In a few words, Phffft! (1954) has naturalness, flair, gusto, an enviable purity of line in its comic finesse. It is charming and surprisingly funny and good—natured. It's certainly better and more charming than many of the things Lemmon made later.Much of what's good is already there: Lemmon's bizarre laughter; the content and direction of the characters from his future comedies—the social class, men with money, that can afford drinks and fancy bars, etc.; the style—his refined vitality. All three actors (Lemmon,Mme. Judy Holliday,Mme. Novak) give this impression of vitality, of robustness and vitality.Elegant, sophisticated, Lemmon's character is created with an exquisite skill, and it's a stylistic achievement. The fact that, three decades later, his place was taken by W. Allen's characters as sophisticated male leads measures the entire gap between two lifestyles. (Not in the sense that W. Allen somehow continued Lemmon's line—he obviously did not—it would be grotesque and absurd to suggest that. On the contrary—what happened was that Lemmon's type was replaced with W. Allen's—that Lemmon's form of sophisticated urban comic was replaced ….) The times replaced Lemmon with W. Allen, with Gere and Cruise and H. Grant and others; the fact requires no comments. One subtly remarked that Lemmon's finesse reminds that of H. Fonda.Phffft! (1954) was made in '54—the year of It Should Happen to You (1954),and one year before Mister Roberts (1955) and My Sister Eileen (1955). Now for many movie buffs the '50s are the decade of the Actors' Studio stars—Dean, Brando, Newman, etc.. But the '50s meant also the rise of this fine actor;Lemmon is the other, cuter, nicer face of the '50s—and, paradoxically, maybe the more true one.In a list of screwball comedies, Phffft! (1954) wasn't even included; though it's, aesthetically, one of the most important achievements in this genre. I liked it more than Bell, Book and Candle (1958); and …but dare I say it? I liked it more than Some Like It Hot (1959). It's less mechanic, more charming, less perfect technically—but more inspired and gracious. It is discretely humane in a way that only these nonchalant comedies can afford being. It is genuine fun.It is particularly pleasing to see that such a comedy knows exactly what it sets itself up to—hence, the flawless taste and the purity of line. If you have an enormous appetite for quality comedies, this one comes as a treat. And everybody on set was obviously interested in doing his best. So you have competence allied to inspiration. It is unpretentious yet good cinema.Lemmon effortlessly (I assume) embodied the genuine hedonism and egoism of a certain social class in the aftermath of WW2. His character is usually basically nice yet egoist and hedonist in a profoundly selfish way. A little sly--boots ,also. Later, he deepened and explored this character and followed his fluctuations in the social history that followed the merry youthful '50s. Maybe it's the hedonism that defines him best. Like the demoniac side that Lemmon explored in a few humorous films, this egoistic side of his character established the behavior deployed in the many sex—comedies he made. It would not be exaggerated to say that this comedy is a document from a lost civilization. It showcases a certain image of the stylish '50s—it does so with charm and finesse.Early Lemmon recital ;it gains by finesse, naturalness and nonchalant charmPhffft! (1954) is a fantastically enjoyable film—and artistically and in every way more profound than the crap Hollywood is making today.It might make one love Judy Holliday if he did not already--or,to love her even more.

theowinthrop It is not the greatest comedy in the world, nor the greatest film of either it's two stars (nor it's two lead supporting players), nor the best film it's two stars made together, nor the best film script of George Axelrod. But PHFFFT is a good comedy about marriage and divorce, and in it's point of view resembles a film made a decade earlier in England called VACATION FROM MARRIAGE, about how their experiences in World War II separately rejuvenate the love and affection in Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr's doldrum like marriage. Fortunately Jack Lemmon and Judy Holiday don't need anything so desperate.Lemmon is a former naval officer who is a tax lawyer and has met Holiday, an employee of a major network, in the waning days of World War II. They start dating, and end up marrying just at the point that his career in the Navy ends (and he hooks up in a good law firm) and her career zooms as the author of a major radio soap opera (which in 1954 was still quite a big thing). But as they are both prospering in their careers, they tend to drift a bit apart. We see Lemmon (after dinner with Holiday) getting sexual excitement reading a "Mickey Spillaine" type novel (how Ensign Pulver would have understood that), and a slow simmering Judy watching him for some kind of action towards her. Finally she asks him for a divorce. Surprisingly he agrees, as he feels there is nothing left in their marriage at this point.She gets a divorce very quickly (by the way - small note - her taxi driver taking her away from the courthouse is Jimmy Dodd of the Mickey Mouse Club fame: this is the first time I have seen him in anything except the Mickey Mouse Club). But soon Judy (under the wing of her mother, Luella Gear) finds she is not finding any fulfillment in her new freedom. Her first date is with an actor from her soap opera, who instead of romancing her starts discussing writing a rival character (actually the central character!) out of some of the scripts. Her attempts at foreign language studies (she is planning a trip to France) does not work. And her mother's redecoration (a round bed) is not really great.But Jack is not doing well either. Setting up with his old navy buddy, Jack Carson (mentally I compared their relatively easy relationship to Jack's classic problems with Walter Matthau in later films), and finding that Carson's solutions are not all great. He wants Jack to jump back into the dating game - and volunteers Kim Novak for that. Novak is playing her part like a clone (except in terms of hair style) to Marilyn Monroe. She has the wide eyed naiveté mixed with a large dollop of common sense about what she is around for. But it is a clone performance, and one welcome later performances of Novak in both comedy (BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE) and drama (VERTIGO) to see what she would turn out to be capable of doing.Jack does lighten up - he first buys a sporty little Austin to drive around in, and he does take dance lessons (as does Judy). The latter leads to the real highlight of the film: when both arrive at a night spot with dates, end up on the dance floor doing the rumba and the mambo, and managing to transform their dancing into a momentary charge of sexual attraction between them. From that point one realizes it is only a matter of time before they return together.Carson has one major scene as well. He decides (erroneously, as it turns out) that since Jack and Judy are divorced, he can date Judy. As this is an Axelrod script, there is a bit of THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH here, as Carson tells Judy of his noticing "types" who are dating. It reminds one of Tom Ewell talking or thinking of sexual problems or matters in the other film.It is a neat little time capsule in many ways. Made today, the sexual aspect would be more outspoken, but it was made in the quieter (perhaps too quieter) Eisenhower Era. Even the title is a bit of a time capsule artifact: "Phffft" (pronounced with a bit of air in the voice as "fitt") was a term used by Walter Winchell in his gossip column to say that a loving celebrity couple was splitting. It's brief, final sound (like a rip or a whistle of air) suggested that these romances were brief things. But who remembers Winchell these days - his columns are useful in doing research for books on old celebrities. Still the movie itself was a nice romantic comedy, and worth watching.

marcslope It's sort of like "The Awful Truth" as re-imagined by a '50s screenwriter with a smutty mind: Married couple divorce, try other partners, reunite. The high-school-boy-giggling-about-sex tone gets pretty heavy, but try to overlook that, because the film has so much to recommend it: New York location filming, early Kim Novak in a small part, and most of all, Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. Was there ever a greater romantic comedy team? She's hysterically funny and amazingly touching at the same time, and he partners her perfectly. They're even sexy together -- it's not a quality you usually associate with either actor. Watch the "mambo" sequence, with their shifting feelings about each other played out in dance: a classic scene.I'd rate these two over even Tracy and Hepburn. How sad that they made only two movies together.