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LIGHTHEADED The Pleasure of His Company has a pleasant nothingness emitting throughout, with Fred Astaire as a world-traveling bon vivant having a good time opposite Lilli Palmer, who knows how not to get upstaged. As divorced parents of soon-to-be married Debbie Reynolds, they’ve still got it for each other; if made today, the movie would have them hitting the sheets for one blissful farewell pump. Palmer is more delightful than you might guess or remember she could be—you can see the glee in her eyes when she’s quarreling with Fred, and if it’s true she had some trouble keeping up with his energy when the obligatory dancing commences, her smile while in his arms, twirling cheek to cheek, seems genuinely affectionate. Lilli’s always been a pretty woman but her vivacity here enhances the attractiveness, and she makes the accent work most agreeably. (And agreeable too as the one who plugs Sophia Loren in 1965’s Operation Crossbow.) Reynolds is a little too old for the part, too overwhelmed by semipermanent absentee Daddy Long Legs and inadequate during the frowning, boo-hoo scenes. The cordial, yellow-gray haired Charles Ruggles once again does his slightly soused Colonel Sanders routine; Gary Merrill as the exasperated second husband; and Tab Hunter, in a bad hair cut, imitating Rock Hudson. George Seaton directs the Samuel Taylor script, based on his and Cornelia Otis Skinner’s smash Broadway romp, in which she played Lilli’s part. Filmed in Spherical at moderate expense in 1960 and released a year later, the use of CinemaScope and more San Fran locales would have helped a lot. Text COPYRIGHT © 2005 RALPH BENNER All Rights Reserved.
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