The Pleasure Seekers

When servicemen of the sixties were polled over who was their favorite female star, Ann-Margret was it. To them, she must have been a tantalizing tease with big, red hair, and when she shook her head, it looked like it was on fire. She must have kept them pretty happy with those moves of hers. The camera always seemed fixated on her gyrating behind. She was irrepressible; even if you knew better, you couldn't take your eyes off her. (Elvis Presley at one point fretted that she might steal "Viva Las Vegas" right out from under him.)

In "The Pleasure Seekers" she plays Fran Hobson, a sometimes-working singer/dancer holed up in Madrid who, between gigs, passed the time dreaming of landing Mr. Right. He comes in the form of a young Spaniard doctor (Andre Lawrence) whose own dream is to render medical service to the poor, a dream which doesn't include a wife. He changes his mind, of course. What man in a uniform wouldn't?

Hers is not the most interesting romantic entanglement. That one belongs to nifty Carol Lynley as Maggie Williams who harbors impure designs on her boss (Brian Keith) only to be publicly humiliated for them by his wife (a not-so-well-aged Gene Tierney). Lynley ends up with Gardner McKay (whom I would confuse with Richard Beymer if I wasn't paying attention).

"The Pleasure Seekers" belongs to a long tradition of movies with three single women in the leads seeking husbands as far back as I can remember as the 1932 release "Three On A Match" with Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, and Bette Davis. With this one, director Jean Negulesco is actually remaking his 1954 "Three Coins In A Fountain" which won the Academy Award for best song. The musical efforts in this movie by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen are respectable enough. How could you not like Ann-Margret serenading the object of her desire with "Something to think about" or her bouncing her way through "Everything Makes Music When You're In Love" in a tight bikini?

With my favorite Italian actor in the whole wide world Vito Scotti as the girls' next-door neighbor; Anthony Franciosa; and ditzy Pamela Tiffin to round out the sublet. By the looks of the leads, you'd think they were cast for their hair color. Negulesco might have called this one "The Blonde, the Brunette, and Big Red."

I liked this one, too. Beautiful locations and great stars! I was a kid when this came out, but it was neat to see a movie about young women who weren't all in a "Bachelor in Paradise" situation. You know, just old men with young girls! (Although, I guess Maggie had to figure her way out of a similar situation! Didn't we all?)

Oh well, Madrid was beautiful! I loved Ann-Magret singing "The Pleasure Seekers" and the end song when she sings "your standing there and your grinning, like you don't know you not winning and all the time we're beginning the next time" (It just came to me- its called "The Next Time!)

I did wish that Pamela Tiffin's character's wasn't so dumb- but then, all of her characters in films were dumb.

Granted ---this movie is sooo 60's! But, I thought it was a fun film. Granted, there was a mad attempt to recapture the 50's here (DID NOT WORK)---but it was easy on the eyes and entertaining----PLUS Ann-Margret was indeed Ravishing! ---especially in that PINK ruffled dress singing the title tune! Worked For Me!!!

Although some consider this a remake of Three Coins In The Fountain and Jean Negulescu directed both films, The Pleasure Seekers takes a decidedly less serious tack. The three women in The Pleasure Seekers are quite a bit younger than the trio in the first film and their romantic problems are similar, but not as critical.

The three girls are Carol Lynley who works for an American wire service in Madrid, entertainer Ann-Margret, and Pamela Tiffin who is fresh off the boat and fresh off the farm so to speak who is bunking in with them temporarily. And all three have their romantic flings that look like they're going to go belly up, but in the end seem to work out.

Lynley's is the most complex and the most interesting. She's the girl Friday of her boss Brian Keith who would like to make the association personal as well as professional. But he's slightly married to Gene Tierney. And on the other end is Gardner McKay another reporter who's interested in Lynley also, but Keith is harassing him, not because of that but because McKay is ruining his career with his late night carousing. It's what inevitably happens when personal and professional lives get mixed.

Tiffin who usually was the wide eyed innocent in her salad days gets zeroed in on by Anthony Franciosa who plays a no account count who just wants into her pants. But she falls in love and if you don't know how this works out, you haven't been to too many films. Franciosa who is a favorite of mine is the best in the film.

Ann-Margret accidentally gets run into by Dr. Andre Lawrence on his motor scooter. He's from the country who is in town to raise money for his clinic. Ann-Margret would like to help, but Lawrence is a macho guy and help from a woman in the culture he was raised would be looked down on. Stupid, but that's how they say it is. This is the weakest part of the film, though Ann-Margret gets some nice musical numbers.

If you watched Three Coins In The Fountain you know how this one comes out. The Pleasure Seekers has no air of sadness over it that the other film has with Clifton Webb's terminal illness. The location cinematography around Madrid is nice to see and certainly stimulated tourism which I'm sure was Francisco Franco's idea in letting the American film company shoot a movie in his capital. There is not one scintilla of a hint of any dictatorship in The Pleasure Seekers.

Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn wrote some not too memorable songs for this film and it actually got an Oscar nomination for musical scoring for Alfred Newman.

I was in Madrid in 2001 and it looks pretty much the same as it did in 1964. The scenery and the girls are real pretty, how can you go wrong.

I so enjoy teasing a friend of mine about his long-time and, let's face it, abject adoration of the Swedish bombshell, Ms. A-M. This one was shown on American Movie Classics recently, "formatted" (Why do they bother?!?), which reduces one's visual pleasure by approximately 50%! But even without a forty-foot wide screen to celebrate her astonishingly talented assets, Annie is something to behold. When she waggles that tush...well, it's no wonder she performs almost all of her musical numbers indoors on studio sets. The censorious Spanish would have had her arrested! It rivals "Viva! Las Vegas" as her finest hour!

As an artifact of times long gone, this is still fairly enjoyable. Today's young ingenues seem like such tired-out, world weary ladies of the evening compared to the virginal Miss Tiffin, the ambitious Miss Lynley and the incomparable Miss Margret. (Eat your heart out, J. Lo!) And with Brian Keith and Gene Tierney on hand to attest that those beyond their thirties could still care for each other (though it takes the scriptwriters until about the final sequence to maneuver them to that realization), one can regretfully observe that we've come a long way from the bright and beautiful early Sixties, and there's not much to crow about on that score.