A TOUCH OF CLASS 1973lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-touch-of-class-1973.html

A Touch of Class is one of my favorite comedies. But like The Women, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Cactus Flower, oralmost anything written by Neil Simon; it’s a comedy I’m only able to still enjoy if I disregard contemporarysensibilities (both comedic and social), and simply allow it to remain a time-piece firmly ensconced within the bubbleof the era in which it was made.

Glenda Jackson as Vickie Allessio

George Segal as Steve Blackburn

Director/writer Melvin Frank’s A Touch of Class is a perfectly amiable, very watchable, and, upon occasion,absolutely hilarious, romantic comedy about adultery from the era of the sexual revolution. It boasts fine leadingperformances from then-darlings of the cinema Glenda Jackson and George Segal; a jaunty musical score; crisp,comedy-friendly photography; some nice views of scenic London and Spain; and quite a lot of funny bicker-banter,oil/vinegar chemistry between the two leads.That being said, it is also a rather ordinary, schticky, sometimes broadly played, middle-brow comedy thoroughlylacking in the kind of wit or distinction that would justify its having won Glenda Jackson her second Best ActressOscar (and a Golden Globe), or explain how it managed to snag four other Oscar nominations, including one for

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Best Picture, shutting out such (in my opinion, far worthier) possible contenders as: Last Tango in Paris, PaperMoon, The Last Detail, The Way We Were, The Long Goodbye, Mean Streets, and Sleeper.

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs A Touch of Class makes explicit its intent to be a frankly comedic update of thecoy adultery melodramas of the past by having Steve and Vickie fall to pieces

watching David Lean's 1946 film, Brief Encounter on TV. Brief Encounter tells thestory of two married people who embark upon an ill-fated love affair.

George Segal is an insurance adjuster, Glenda Jackson, a fashion designer (“stealer” as she calls it). Both reside inLondon, he: 11 years wed with two children, she: three years wed - now divorced, also with two children. After a“cute meet” and several coincidental run-ins, the two embark upon a no-strings-attached affair that gets off to arocky start, grows passionate, then becomes complicated when lust turns into love. How funny you find Segal’ssitcom-y attempts to lead a double life depend a great deal on how amusing you find the script (serviceable), howcharming you find the leads (considerable), or hilarious the concept of ceaseless lying and deception as thecornerstones of familial harmony (not very).

As Glenda Jackson's two children, Edward Kemp and Lisa Vanderpump appearonscreen for about as long as it took for you to read this. George Segal's

children fare even worse. A Touch of Class wants us to believe the bond of family(held together by ceaseless lying) triumphs over homewrecking, but George

Segal's Steve Blackburn is such an absentee dad, he makes Ryan O'Neal looklike Father of the Year.

The uninitiated, drawn to A Touch of Class by its Academy Award pedigree or Glenda Jackson’s reputation, are aptto come away from it entertained, but undoubtedly bewildered and scratching their heads, wondering what wasbeing put in the water back in 1973 to result in a movie that plays out like an extended episode of Love, AmericanStyle being so widely lauded by critics (although Pauline Kael is said to have walked out on it). I confess, uponrevisiting this film, it’s a question I even have to ask myself. And this from the guy who, when it was released, saw ATouch of Class more times than he can count, and considered it one of the funniest comedies he’d seen sinceWhat’s Up, Doc?.

Part of this may have to do with changing tastes in comedy. For reasons I’m at a loss to explain, some types ofcomedy are timeless, while others age rather badly. I saw A Touch of Class when I was 16 years old, and my only

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guess as to why I fell in love with its bed-hopping clichés is that they weren't yet clichés to me. Another explanationfor the film’s success, one I fully recall, is that at the time, America was deep in the throes of a brief but passionateinfatuation with Glenda Jackson.

Albeit by way of a terrible wig, audiences were pleased to see BBC's Elizabeth Rlet her hair down

After gaining the attention of American audiences with her Best Actress Oscar win for Women in Love (1969),Jackson was a prolific onscreen presence throughout the decade, going on to appear in many highly acclaimedfilms: The Music Lovers, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Hedda, The Maids, Mary Queen of Scots, The RomanticEnglishwoman, and The Nelson Affair .

She was literally the Meryl Streep of her day. And, much in the way critics and audiences in the '80s longed to seeStreep drop her accents and somber façade for lighter fare like Postcards from the Edge or Death Becomes Her;'70s audiences were thrilled to discover that Glenda Jackson, the intense, neurotic heroine of so many Ken Russellmelodramas, possessed a real flair for comedy.

George Segal appeared in a staggering number of films, both comedic anddramatic, between 1970s Where's Poppa? and the flop 1979 re-teaming with

Glenda Jackson, Lost & Found. Although he played essentially the exact samecharacter in all of his comedies, nobody did bemused fluster better.

My rave recommendation of this film to my partner (followed by his subsequent, “Meh!” reaction) clarified for methat A Touch of Class has, for the first-timer, a couple of things working against it. And from highly unlikely sources,to boot. One is its title. A Touch of Class suggests a witty, sophisticated comedy of the sort that once starred MyrnaLoy and William Powell. But as many critics couldn't resist noting at the time, a more apt title for A Touch ofClass would be A Touch of Crass, what with the screenplay's over-reliance on profanity and smirky sex jokes forlaughs.

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Given how Jackson's character makes reference at one point to author EdithWharton's The House of Mirth, I'm rather inclined to think the film's title A Touch

of Class, is used in irony; like Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Secondly, and this is an odd one, I think it does A Touch of Class no favors that it’s a 1973 Best Picture nominee,and that it stars one of the preeminent actresses of her time in her Academy Award-winning role. Why is thisproblem? Principally, because it sets the viewer up for a film far superior to the one they’re ultimately given. I trulyenjoy this movie a great deal, but even in all my rabid Glenda Jackson fandom there’s no way I consider hers anOscar-worthy performance, nor this film Best Picture material. I'm convinced my partner's reaction to A Touch ofClass would have been far more favorable had he come to it expecting an unexceptional, lightweight, early '70scomedy that's amusing if not laugh-out-loud funny. The latter being rare as hen's teeth today.

Any points A Touch of Class gains in giving Jackson's character a gay malesecretary (Michael Elwin, r.), are soon lost by having his every appearance serveas some kind of sight gag. (Even Jayne Mansfield would say this apartment is too

pink.)

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILMWhat works best in A Touch of Class and what makes it a film I literally never tire of watching, is the marvelous“opposites attract” chemistry between Glenda Jackson and George Segal. And while they don't exactly make usforget Tracy & Hepburn, the two play delightfully antagonistic foils before their romance starts to gel. Jackson's slow,boiling rages so compliment Segal's edgy exasperation that their frequent sparring and bickering scenes cracklewith the spark and energy of a well-matched tennis game. Jackson, with her crystal clear diction and mellifluousvoice, has it all over Segal for hilariously sarcastic jeremiads, but she doesn't have Segal's gift for physical comedy.George Segal is a joy to watch, and he has the rubbery face (and enormous head) to pull off a veritable lexicon ofcomic double takes and reaction shots.

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Jackson's flinty British calm contrasts amusingly with Segal's neurotic Americanexcitability

PERFORMANCESA Touch of Class is essentially a two-character piece, so it’s great that Jackson and Segal are so enjoyable towatch. That is, inasmuch as Melvin Frank and Jack Rose’s farcical, gag-filled screenplay pauses long enough togive these talented actors enough breathing room to flesh out their characters (Frank and Rose, both in their 60s atthe time, got their start writing Bob Hope movies). George Segal coasts a bit on charm alone (and if you don’t findhim charming, the blithely immoral character he plays is sure to grate) but Jackson is a revelation. She doeswonders with a character not given much more than “typically British” as a personality trait.

If my enjoyment of Breakfast at Tiffany's is ruined every time Mickey Rooney'sMr. Yunioshi shows up, so it is with A Touch of Class and the irksome and

cloddish "ubiquitous best friend" character played by Paul Sorvino. Each time heshows up I race for the fast-forward button on my remote.

It amuses me to have read several online reviews that state Glenda Jackson’s character is a feminist. She may verywell be, but since no mention is made, expressly or covertly, of Jackson’s Vickie Allessio actually being a feminist, Ican only take this to mean that young audiences raised on the female masochists typical of today’s rom-coms(Katherine Heigl, Jennifer Anniston, Drew Barrymore, Sarah Jessica Parker) can only envision smart, articulatewomen who speak up for themselves, know their own minds, and have their own opinions, as a feminists. Ah, wereonly more romantic comedies populated with feminists, then.

THE STUFF OF FANTASYA Touch of Class is a deliberate throwback to the sex comedies of old with its updated gimmick being the ability totell the story with the freedoms afforded by the “new permissiveness” of the '70s. While this certainly makes forraunchier language and a less coy approach to the adulterous couplings, it also affords a few awkward moments asthe old clashes with the new in unexpected (and sometimes unintentionally funny) ways.

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The effortless gravitas Glenda Jackson brings to A Touch of Class significantlycompensates for the film's wobbly gender politics which include a rape joke; ahomey, constantly cooking mistress; and several cheating husbands but not a

single cheating wife.

European films have always been able to combine nudity and comedy, but here inthe States, nudity tends to stifle laughter. So, as incongruous as it is for a pair ofheated lovers off on an illicit tryst in the free-love '70s, out pop a pair of his and

hers pajamas suitable to a Doris Day/ Rock Hudson movie.

Traditional gender roles are adhered to pretty stringently throughout, but everynow and then an unexpected curve is thrown, such as in this scene where a

squeamish Steve clings to Vickie at a bullfight

THE STUFF OF DREAMSI began this post stating how much more I enjoy A Touch of Class when I don’t try to apply modern sensibilities to

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what is now a 40-year-old film. Not always an easy thing, but something classic film lovers frequently have to dowhen faced with outmoded attitudes about sex, race, and gender in otherwise terrific films. I'm not exactly captivatedby the idea of a film that depicts serial adultery as just another charming personality quirk in boyish, middle-agedmen (in fact, as a gay man denied marriage rights in many states, it galls a bit to think of how films like this tend toundervalue and take for granted such a gift...even if it's just for escapist laughs); but it speaks well of the overall tidyprofessionalism of A Touch of Class that none of these things really occur to you until after the film is over.

Of course, my chief fondness for this film lies with Glenda Jackson, one of the absolute best of the slew ofintelligent, interesting actresses that seemed to flourish in the '70s, only to disappear come the blockbuster 80s. Inthis, her first motion picture comedy (if one doesn't count a priceless unbilled cameo in Ken Russell's The BoyFriend) she revealed a heretofore untapped comic gift later put to good use in several films, most notably, HouseCalls (1977), Nasty Habits (1977) and Robert Altman's little seen, H.E.A.L.T.H. (1980). There isn't a single momentin A Touch of Class where she doesn't dominate the screen with her lively, fully committed performance. And whileit'll always be my personal belief that Ellen Burstyn should have won the Oscar that year for The Exorcist, in reality,could ANY acting award granted Glenda Jackson ever be considered undeserved?

Four-time Oscar nominee, two-time winner. When Jackson retired from acting in 1992 to become a Member ofParliament, film lost a true original. A versatile, intriguing, and very classy actress.

*Addendum - After 23-years in Parliament, Glenda Jackson returned to acting at age 79. In 2016 she enjoyed atriumphant return to the stage starring as King Lear at London's Old Vic Theater.

Copyright © Ken Anderson

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