In the original play Arnold Schulman wrote, the main character was a Jewish guy named Sidney (originally played on Broadway by Paul Douglas). The title comes from the Yiddish expression, "Ich darf es vi a loch in kop," to wit, "I need it like a hole in the head."
shareThank you! There were so many scenes where I kept thinking, "This has more of a Yiddish tempo, not Italian!"
Were the characters' names/ethnicities swapped around to line up with Sinatra's heritage? The whole rhythm, the entire structure of the dialog is about as authentically Italian as Chico Marx. dolceri ac dolcere