The Pleasure of His Company 1961

What a pleasure... and it's all yours!

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6.1 / 10   9 vote(s)
Comedy

Biddeford "Pogo" Poole, an urbane charmer, has been absent for most of the life of his daughter, Jessica, but he pops up again as she prepares to marry a California rancher. Though Pogo's ex-wife remains unimpressed, Jessica quickly falls for her father's charismatic offensive. Soon, however, his reappearance causes complications for the bride-to-be, and she must decide whether or not to go ahead with the wedding.

Release Date 1961-06-01
Runtime 1h 55m
Director George Seaton
Producers William Perlberg, Gordon Cornell Layne
Writers Cornelia Otis Skinner, Samuel A. Taylor, Samuel A. Taylor

There is something of the "Philadelphia Story" (1940) about this film. Debbie Reynolds is "Jessica" a San Francisco sophisticate who is about to marry hunky Texan cattleman "Roger" (Tab Hunter). Their wedding is all set when her absentee father "Pogo" (Fred Astaire) turns up and chaos ensues. His ex-wife - her mother - "Katharine" (Lili Palmer) and her new husband "James" (Gary Merrill) are soon at the end of their tethers and it seems that only their cook "Mrs. Mooney" (Elvia Allman) will put up with his annoying and selfish antics. Around an hour in I actually felt sorry for poor old "Roger": tempers are fraying; "Pogo" seems to have it in for him and his dreams of a perfect wedding appear to be going the way of the dodo. Pre-wedding jitters or the Machiavellian scheming of his soon-to-be father-in-law? There are moments when this is funny - and Reynolds goes at it was enthusiasm and gusto, but after a while I found the joke started to wear a bit thin, and there was a subtle, but definite, nastiness that seemed to creep in to try and string out the story for almost half an hour longer than it ought to have been. I imagine this would have worked far better on stage, the slightly episodic nature of the story would probably work better there offering a better avenue for the punchlines the are frequent, but not always very strong. I also found George Seaton made a bit too much use of Alfred Newman's rather dominating score, too. It's enjoyable enough, but with a cast of this calibre I was expecting something just a bit better.

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