The Pleasure of His Company *** (1961, Fred Astaire, Lilli Palmer, Debbie Reynolds, Tab Hunter, Gary Merrill, Charles Ruggles) – Classic Movie Review 9382

Director George Seaton’s fairly civilised and sophisticated 1961 comedy The Pleasure of His Company stars Fred Astaire as debonair, man-about-town Biddeford ‘Pogo’ Poole, who comes home for the marriage of his long neglected daughter, San Francisco debutante Jessica Poole, (Debbie Reynolds), to hunky Napa Valley cattle rancher Roger Henderson (Tab Hunter) and proceeds to charm her and his ex-wife Katharine (Lilli Palmer), who is now wed to rich James Dougherty (Gary Merrill).

The Pleasure of His Company is a rather stagy and flabby version of a Broadway hit, originally co-written by  Samuel A Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner, but the top-notch cast (especially also Charles Ruggles as grandpa) make the most of the funny lines in Taylor’s screenplay for his ‘rueful comedy’.

William Perlberg – George Seaton Productions [the Perlsea Company] provides a handsome production, designed by Tambi Larsen and Hal Pereira, and shot in Technicolor by Robert Burks, and there is smart direction by Seaton.

Ace Hollywood costumier and the film’s costume designer Edith Head appears as a couturier Dress Designer. She is the winner of eight Oscars, though sadly not for this film.

Also in the cast are Harold Fong, Elvia Allman, Eleanor Audley, Whitey Hughes, Ruth Rickaby and Marion Thompson.

The title song by Alfred Newman (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics), plus a tiny spot of dancing choreographed by Astaire and Hermes Pan, make you wish it was actually a musical. ‘Lover’ (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) is sung briefly by Astaire and danced by Astaire and Lilli Palmer.

The original Broadway production opened at the Longacre Theater in New York on 22 October 1958 and ran for 474 performances.

It is released by Paramount Pictures.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr toured in The Pleasure of His Company on stage several times, including tours in the US in 1970–72 and in a 1977 production that went to Australia and London.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9382

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