PHFFFT
US, 1954, 88 Minutes, Black and White.
Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Jack Carson, Kim Novak.
Directed by Mark Robson.
Phffft is supposed to be a spelling for the sound of a marriage breaking up. It comes from the columnist Walter Winchell. This was one of several comedies made by Judy Holliday in the first part of the 50s. She had made an impact in Adam's Rib and won the Oscar for Born Yesterday. She made very entertaining comedies like It Should Happen To You, also with Jack Lemmon, The Marrying Kind. This was one of Jack Lemmon's earliest films. It indicates his skill in comedy and drama. He was to win the Oscar for Mr. Roberts in 1955 and Save The Tiger in 1973. The screenplay was written by George Axelrod, a writer director with a special skill in portraying the battle of the sexes for example at this time The Seven Year Itch. Later he wrote such films as How To Murder Your Wife, The Secret Life of an American Wife, Lord Love a Duck. Direction is by Mark Robson, who has tried his hand at all kinds of films from drama, comedy, to soap opera.
1. The look and tone and sound of the title? How arresting? Getting audience curiosity? The visualising it from the newspaper and Walter Winchell's column? What tone did it give to the film?
2. The film as an example of American domestic comedy of the 50s? Farce elements, quips, the wry look at love and marriage? Themes of divorce, marriage, the battle of the sexes, true love? Irony, sentiment?
3. Black and white photography, the visual presentation of fashionable domestic American behaviour?
4. The comedy effect of the opening: the two at home, reading, interior monologue compared with exterior speech? The marital break-up situation? The response to their declaration of needing a divorce? The irony of Nina in Reno and her reaction to the divorce? Robert and his celebration? The irony of their meeting in the New York restaurant - Nina with her mother, Robert with Charlie? The humour and irony of how divorcees ought to behave? (The satire in the Reno discussion of Nina and the taxi driver with the analogy of divorce with marriage?)
5. The flashback technique and the significance of the memories, the build-up of the courtship and marriage?
6. Jack Lemmon's style as Robert? The average American hero, his Navy work, his legal practice, his skill with taxation, the initial encounter with Nina and telling her the truth, dinner, the return to her home, the irony in the courtship with discussion about taxation and money? The humour of Nina's bed and its sound? The courtship and marriage? Money as the focus for the marriage and the dual income tax return? Robert's success and the marriage not working?
7. The contrast with Judy Holliday's style as Nina? The dumb blond routines, the comedienne with the nervous laugh but strengths and presence? Her writing, interviewing the Navy, her response to Robert's diagnosis of her character from her accounts? Her response to the courtship? Her explanation of herself, her independence, her mother? The humour of the spring out bed? Marrying Robert, her success, especially with the radio programmes (and the film's humorous irony about the cliches of such programmes?)
8. What happened that the marriage was a failure? What did each of them do, not do?
9. Robert's attempts to marry again, the attractive blonde played by Kim Novak, their discussions, outings, the squash game with the psychiatrist and Robert trying harder? The humorous encounter of meeting Nina at the dance and the enjoyment of the dance together ? how much was communicated about their feelings and rapport during that dance? His missing Nina, leaving his visitor to challenge Charlie? The attempt by saying it was taxes day? The rejection by Nina? How inevitable was it that they would reunite?
10. Nina and her coping with the divorce, dates especially with the actor who was so romantic and then revealed himself as wanting his part enlarged in the drama? Charlie and his advice? Nina's mother and her pushing her? Her response to taxation day and her delight after the dancing? Their clash? How inevitable was it from Nina's point-of-view that they would reunite?
11. Themes of love in marriage, absence and hearts growing fonder, the point of the remarriage?
12. How could ordinary married audiences identify with the comedy, the drama, the attitudes of husband and wife, the ironies of the marriage relationship, the humorous aspects of marriage?
