The Pleasure Of His Company (1961)
Grade: 42
The sugary stepdaughter (Debbie Reynolds) of a wealthy businessman is to be married. She lives in a mansion with her mother (Lilli Palmer) and stepfather (Gary Merrill). She adores her real father (Fred Astaire), whom she does not remember, and wants him to appear at her wedding to give her away.
Astaire is a hedonistic world traveller. He speaks many languages fluently, and is sufficiently famous that his daughter has been able to keep a scrapbook of newspaper articles and photos of his adventures. While superficially charming, he is self-centered to the point where he regards his external environment (including other people) as mere objects to be manipulated for his own pleasure.
Astaire arrives at the mansion and makes himself at home, rearranging the furniture and changing the wedding plans, infuriating Merrill. The mother, having married and divorced Astaire, is immune to his charm, but for Reynolds, her father is still the greatest. Reynolds maternal grandfather has also visited and, amused with the bickering between Astaire, Merrill and Palmer, decides to stay at the mansion until after the wedding.
There are lots of long conversations and arguments between the primary characters throughout the movie. These grow tedious and repetitious. Everyone excepts Reynolds drinks and smokes constantly.
Astaire gives Reynolds a tour of the town, filling her pretty head with his prattle as if wooing her. On one occasion, her fiance (Tab Hunter) is obliged to come along, and steams with resentment at Astaire's high-handed behavior. Hunter and Reynolds get into such a row over Astaire that Reynolds' parents have to smooth things over.
Now the question is, will Astaire succeed in keeping Reynolds from marrying Hunter? On the day of the wedding rehearsal, Astaire falls from a horse while impressing Reynolds, and shows up at the church in a sling. He triggers another long-winded argument between the betrothed couple.
Reynolds wants to postpone the wedding to tend to Astaire's injury. Curiously, Astaire has a change of heart, does not want sympathy, and is able to reconcile the couple. After the wedding, the stepfather has something new to worry about: he discovers that Astaire has two flight reservations to Japan and concludes that Astaire is taking his ex-wife with him. But it turns out that Astaire is just taking Toy, who is the family servant and a grating stereotype.
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