This should go down easy - widescreen, colour, nice settings and stars. But something about it is off.
Fred Astaire is fine, I guess, as the playboy who comes home to attend his daughter's wedding. And he becomes convinced that his daughte is wasting her life.
The dad is a deadbeat who hasn't been part of his daughter's life at all. This could have been easily covered - he sent her lots of presents, they were close, he'd been away for a year or so... As it is he's got no right to say a comment about his daughter. The film kind of acknowledges that. But still...
They've got Astaire's character talking in pidgin English to Palmer's Chinese servat which is awful. Astaire clearly did some looping and his voice is all articulate and that got on my nerves.
Debbue Reynolds is too old for her part. She smiles and all that but she just seems like she's lived life.
Tab Hunter is fine. I like that he wasn't controlling just a bit of a hick.
There's no chemistry between Astaire and Reynolds, or Astair and Lili Palmer (his ex)... they never seem like Reynolds' parents. Imagine if Ginger Rogers had played the role!
One laugh. When Astair goes "sex isn't eveyrthing" and the old guy goes "so they keep telling me".
No one seems to work, not really.
Maybe I was grumpy. But this was... oh whatever.
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