A Touch of Class (1973)
Directed by Melvin Frank

Film Review

A Touch of Class has not worn as well as some romantic comedies of the 1970s but it still manages to entertain with its acute and subtly ironic dissection of an extramarital affair involving an uptight English woman and a go-getter American.  This is the film that won Glenda Jackson her second Best Actress Oscar, her first being for her breakthrough role in Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969).  In a part worthy of her talents (and one that reveals a surprising flair for comedy), Jackson plays the independent modern woman to a tee, putting to shame all those spineless floozies that most film directors were wont to drape across their films in the 1970s.  As the quintessential American charmer, George Segal sparks off the film's leading lady so well that you can't help wondering why a long-running television spin-off didn't result from this film.  Although the humour is downplayed for much of the film, director Melvin Frank pushes things towards outright farce in a few places, with some memorably funny results.  The film's bittersweet final act provides the perfect denouement for this sophisticated rom-com, an underrated if slightly faded classic of British cinema.

Film Synopsis

Vicky Allessio is an English dress designer, a happily divorced mother of two.  Steve Blackburn is an American insurance broker, happily married with two children.  When they meet in a London park, Steve does not create the best of impressions but a second chance meeting ends with Vicky accepting invitation to tea.  Lunch follows, and then the invitation to bed, but Vicky refuses to make love in a grubby hotel bedroom.  They agree to take a holiday together in Spain, both wanting nothing more than one long round of no-strings lovemaking.  The holiday proves to be a disaster, but after falling out Steve and Vicky make up and decide to meet up on a regular basis at a pied-à-terre in London.  Despite their best efforts, they cannot help falling in love...