A Touch Of Class (1973)

A chance meeting between a married American (George Segal) living in London and a British divorcee (Glenda Jackson) begins as an affair but becomes complicated when love enters the picture. Directed by Melvin Frank (THE COURT JESTER), this pedestrian "adult" romcom is probably most remembered today for Glenda Jackson's inexplicable Oscar win for best actress. Oh, it's sophisticated and fairly intelligent but it's also contrived. Naturally, Segal is given a nagging wife (Hildegard Neil) so the adultery can seem more sympathetic and while we see Jackson with her two children at the beginning, we never see them for the rest of the movie so we're not reminded that she's a mother although I couldn't help but think of the enormous babysitting tab she was running up while she sets up housekeeping and cooks Coq Au Vin suppers for her lover. Segal is an old hand at this type of thing but while Jackson proved she could do comedy with her hilarious cameo in THE BOY FRIEND, here she's rather brittle. Deadpan deliveries are one thing but some of her line readings are downright flat. With Paul Sorvino and K. Callan.