A lot of fun.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I love that scene where the phony doctor and nurse keep upstaging each other while on TV. What a sparkling little comedy from two of the best comedic actors of the time —Holliday and Lemmon. Holliday is less pixilated than usual, but then she does play a TV writer. Lemmon also has fewer tics than usual, but that doesn't hamper the laughs at all. They play a married couple who divorce when he prefers reading second-rate Mickey Spillane to her. Of course, once divorced, they pine for each other following a series of comedic misadventures.That manic dance number alone is worth the price of admission. I just hope they did it in one take, otherwise get out the respirator. Then too the "whooshing" bed proves a great bit of comedic inspiration. Note how its whooshing back and forth becomes innuendo in that flashback scene where they first meet. And what a cutely appropriate final whoosh to the movie as a whole.A lot of credit should go to ace screenwriter Axelrod, who devises a series of amusing episodes where Nina (Holliday) and Robert (Lemmon) try to out-do one another in the I'm-so-over-you department. He grows a mustache and gets a sports car, while she does what any woman is expected to do—she gets a new wardrobe. Meanwhile, that expert performer Jack Carson lends first-rate actorly support but questionable best-friend advice; at the same time, Kim Novak gets into the swing with a vivacious party-girl performance.All in all, the set-ups wear well despite the years. Sure, it's only well done fluff. Still, I'm just sorry there weren't more Holliday-Lemmon pairings, since their styles blend so perfectly as this movie so humorously demonstrates.

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.

Almost all US sex comedies of the 50's & 60's are dated now by a quaint leering approach to sex & marriage, not to mention the costumes, hair, settings. But the remarriage theme will always be ripe for romantic comedy fun. Here, George Axelrod got his start. He later wrote screenplays for "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter," "Breakfast At Tiffany's," "Goodbye Charlie," and in a dark mood, "The Manchurian Candidate." His style is comparable to Preston Sturges, using wit to slice through the social conventions. Judy Holliday & Jack Lemmon were a wonderful match. Judy could play an "everywoman" to Jack's "everyman" as in "It Should Happen To You." She could surprise & bedevil him with her mix of ditzines & intelligence. Their comic timing together seems effortlessly perfect. This film should be remembered more fondly.

Awfully tired sex farce--made before sex farces actually got sexy--involving a New York lawyer and his inability to swing into the single life after divorcing his TV-writer wife. Written by the usually-reliable George Axelrod, film is beset with hammy humor and a lengthy flashback sequence foisted upon us in the first 12 minutes! Jack Lemmon (in only his second movie, both of which had him co-starring alongside Judy Holliday) is still rather green here, and he has trouble walking that fine line between tragedy and comedy. Holliday is forced, as is Jack Carson playing a wolf. Kim Novak, on the other hand, is perfect doing a Marilyn Monroe impersonation, brightening an otherwise stale bedroom opus. ** from ****