Phffft Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Phffft Blu-ray Movie Review

The Eight Year Itch?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 30, 2020

Kim Novak was something of an “it girl” for Columbia when this film came out, which is why she, rather than marquee stars Judy Holliday (at the time of this film’s release in 1954, a relatively recent Academy Award winner for Best Actress in Born Yesterday) and/or Jack Lemmon (himself just on the cusp of winning his first Academy Award for Mister Roberts in the Best Supporting Actor category in 1955), is front and center in the film’s trailer (presented on this Blu-ray disc as a supplement, as detailed below). Miss Novak takes a page from the Lauren Bacall book of putting your lips together and blowing by giving prospective audience members a quick guide as to how to pronounce Phffft!, finally winking seductively and cooing, “Don’t say it — see it!” Novak is definitely consigned to a supporting role in this film ( however you want to pronounce it), in a rather charming, freewheeling performance as a young woman named Janis, who is set up on a blind date with recently divorced Robert Tracey (Jack Lemmon), still nursing hurt feelings from his break up after eight years of marriage with (now) ex-wife Nina (Judy Holliday).

Bob (as he's known) and Nina are shown enjoying some questionable marital bliss early in the film, with each self contained within their own private worlds, and with Nina almost breaking the fourth wall as she rehearses how she wants to tell Bob she's going to ask for a divorce. When she finally blurts her plan out, Bob responds not with the surprise Nina was obviously hoping for, but with relief and a statement that he had been thinking of asking Nina for a divorce for over six months, something that sends Nina into something of a defiant rage that divorce is her idea. A quick segue to Reno shows Nina with divorce papers in hand, and Reno being Reno, a whole host of people congratulating her on her new "state of affairs" as if she had just gotten married.

In what is kind of a patently prescient version of one of Lemmon's most famous films from the 1960s, The Odd Couple, Bob ends up moving in with his buddy Charlie Nelson (Jack Carson), and rather quickly indulges in a flashback documenting how he met Nina, whom he obviously still has feelings for. That gives at least a little background on the couple, including the fact that Bob was a Navy attorney and Nina a well known writer scripting a radio (and later, television) soap opera. The film almost immediately segues back to the present day, to find Bob and Nina in their respective figurative and literal corners of a restaurant, where they run into each other unexpectedly.

Those who pay attention to little things like writing credits may well recognize the name of Phffft!'s scenarist George Axelrod. Axelrod had a slew of impressive screenwriting credits to his name, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Manchurian Candidate and another well remembered film featuring Jack Lemmon experiencing marriage problems, How to Murder Your Wife. But at the time of Phffft!'s production and release, it was Axelrod's skill as a playwright that had probably pretty significantly greased the wheels for this outing. Axelrod was responsible for what was then still an SRO hit on Broadway, The Seven Year Itch, and because Axelrod's contract stipulated that a film adaptation could not premiere until after the stage version had closed, someone at Columbia must have realized they could maybe take a bite of the same apple (so to speak), and an unproduced play by Axelrod became the basis for this film.

There is a bit of the same plot that would be so memorably filmed with Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe (debuting more or less a year after this film), including an awkward husband (and/or ex-husband) trying to forge a relationship with a younger, hipper female. The film version of The Seven Year Itch kind of eliminated any sense of real impropriety (the stage version was much bolder in that regard), but even so, the fact that Phffft! deals with a wife (and/or ex-wife) who's still very much present makes this a different formulation, and in fact as alluded to above, the focus is pretty steadily on Nina and Bob rather than any of the supporting characters, including Janis and Charlie. As an aside, there is one kind of almost subliminal connection between the two properties, though. In The Seven Year Itch, the Ewell character is a purveyor of what might be called "pulp fiction", and one of the running gags in Phffft! involves Bob repeatedly reading a racy passage from a dimestore paperback with a suggestive cover.

Phffft Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Phffft! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is not one of the top tier transfers we've seen from the typically reliable folks at Sony-Columbia, and this has a somewhat "dupey" look throughout, at least in terms of a pretty heavy grain field, even if contrast is generally very secure, with nice blacks and well modulated gray scale. Detail levels are certainly acceptable but rarely really impressive, though some things like the brocaded pattern on the Tracey couch generally look precise. There's recurrent if typically quite minor signs of age related wear and tear, including scratches, nicks, dirt and a few other blemishes. Grain, while heavy, resolves without any problems. There's one kind of peculiar moment with Nina walking down a hallway after getting her divorce that looks just slightly anamorphically stretched for some reason. My score is 3.25.

Phffft Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Phffft! features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix which suffices perfectly well for the film's dialogue. Some of the cues can sound a bit boxy and even muffled, including the opening theme, but a brief moment of Janis singing and dancing in a club sounds fine. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation. Optional subtitles in English and French are available.

Phffft Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:29) as mentioned above kind of interestingly focuses on Kim Novak.

Phffft Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's some occasionally witty banter on hand in Phffft! and the star quartet is certainly engaging and charismatic (I especially liked Novak, who seems a good deal fresher and more spontaneous here than she did in some of her later 1950s films). But this just doesn't have the sexual tension of The Seven Year Itch, and it's probably too vignette driven to ever really attain much narrative momentum. Video is a little rough looking at times, but audio is generally fine, for those who are considering a purchase.