The Pleasure of His Company

The Pleasure Of His Company finds Fred Astaire playing a jet setting, globe trotting playboy who has come to see his daughter by one of his marriages get married. Astaire's first wife was Lilli Palmer and she's raised their daughter Debbie Reynolds with her second husband Gary Merrill. But now Astaire has come to assert his fatherly prerogatives.

He asserts more than that as Reynolds is completely fascinated by him, the father she never knew. But his mere presence and abundance of charm is completely upsetting everyone else around including Tab Hunter whom she met in college. He's a rather plain spoken individual who was an All American in college and now has a ranch. When his prize bull gets sick and he has to go home and tend him before the wedding he leaves Astaie an open field and he moves in for the kill.

All this is rather amusing to Palmer's father Charlie Ruggles who just sits back and enjoys the conflict. Ruggles was the only one of the Broadway cast to do the movie version. The Pleasure Of His Company ran for 474 performances during the 1958-59 season and author Cornelia Otis Skinner played the Lilli Palmer role. Skinner no doubt cast the rest of the Broadway production with Cyril Ritchard, Dolores Hart, Walter Abel, and George Peppard playing the parts that Astaire, Reynolds, Merrill, and Hunter play on screen.

Skinner's collaborator on the play Sam Taylor did the screenplay and transformed it well from a two act play only the setting of the living room of the house on stage. He utilized the city of San Francisco quite well in his endeavor.

As for the work itself the dialog is exquisite, sophisticated, and elegant and The Pleasure Of His Company has a cast to match. One you'll enjoy.