Eine glückliche Scheidung

One reason Judy Holliday fans (of which I am one) are so fervent in their love for the comedienne is that she had mastered timing. In comedy, timing is everything.

Phffft! is an excellent vehicle for Judy to work her magic. The story is pedestrian and the one-liners range from cute to tired. But, in Holliday's capable hands the material takes on new life. Watch her delivery, her pauses, her expressions. All pitch-perfect.

Jack Lemmon is fantastic as well. In this and "It Should Happen To You" he and Judy display a great on-screen comic chemistry. They play off each other very well. Lemmon handles his own scenes in his classic style as well. He was truly a joy to watch.

The film also benefits from excellent support by Jack Carson as Lemmon's best friend/bad influence. Kim Novak makes, I believe, her first major appearance in this movie and does well. She's not as polished as she will later be but her appeal is still quite evident.

For me, the movie gets better with repeated viewings. Always a good sign. The mambo scene between Judy and Jack alone is worth the price of admission! Ole!

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.

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.

The four stars make a marvelous quadrangle, and the physical comedy is great. My one disappointment is Richard Quine's direction. Lemmon must've liked him because they did at least 3 movies together, but he always seems to be trying to unexplicably extract pathos out of screwball situations, and this technique quickly wears thin. That aside, still a lot of fun.

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.