Phffft (1954) - film review

After eight years of marital ups and downs, Nina and Robert Tracey finally realise that they are unsuited as a couple and decide to get a divorce.  At the insistence of her mother, Nina begins dating other men, including the star of the TV soap that she writes for, only to be disappointed.  Meanwhile, Robert takes lessons from his womanising friend Charlie Nelson and is soon trying to bed the beautiful temptress Janis.  Unfortunately, lovely as she may be, Janis isn’t what Robert needs and he knows that there is only woman in his life, Nina...

Having appeared successfully together in It Should Happen to You (1954), Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon are reunited for another frothy comedy-romance, this time one that was inspired by the Broadway play The Seven Year Itch.  (Columbia had originally intended adapting the play but could not purchase the rights whilst it was still running.)   Although many of the situations and jokes are painfully predictable, the combined talent of Holliday and Lemmon, two of the greatest comic performers of the day, makes this an enjoyably funny divertissement, best remembered for the scene in which its two stars dance (or, rather, massacre) the mambo.

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