The Pleasure Seekers (1964)

*Contains spoilers*In "The Pleasure Seekers," three young American women, played by Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley, and Pamela Tiffin, share an apartment in Madrid in 1964. Notice how each of their bedroom doors are lined up in a row, and just happen to open onto one huge living room, making it so convenient for the filmmakers to film the girls scooting in and out of each others' rooms. Ann Margret, whose character speaks virtually no Spanish, actually works, and supports herself, as a night club singer! When Carol Lynley is en route to the airport to pick up Pamela Tiffin, and her taxi is involved in an accident, she just happens to be spotted by Pamela Tiffin who is in another taxi!When Pamela Tiffin goes to a museum, she is picked up by Tony Franciosa (struggling to play a Spaniard), whose character just happens to have had an affair with Carol Lynley! And why is Tony Franciosa even in this film? Imagine if his role of a Spanish heartthrob had been played by Francisco Rabal. That is, if Rabal would have been willing to appear in such garbage. At the finish, we're expected to believe that Franciosa is ready to give up his sex addiction and marry - and remain faithful to - the sweet virgin Pamela Tiffin.Carol Lynley plays a sarcastic, pseudo-sophisticated and pseudo-jaded "bad girl" - the most fully-developed character in the film - but she does it in such a way as to annoy the living daylights out of the viewer, and Gardner McKay looks as if he were struggling with some kind of eye infection throughout the making of the film. A particularly sickening line: Franciosa's mother says to Pamela Tiffin: "Why you're American! How charming!" Is it really "charming" to be an American?The horrors of Spain under Franco are unseen throughout the entire film.Ann-Margret, however, is sexy, beautiful, and undeniably talented; the music is good, the lyrics are clever, and some of the scenery and photography is impressive.

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.

This is a must see movie. Although it has been over 20 years since I have seen it, I remember it well. This is a movie that makes you feel good. You will laugh and you will cry. Of course the music is GREAT. How could it be anything else with Ann-Margret singing. I don't know that it has been released, but it is a MUST buy movie if/when it does become available.

Swivel sticks in sexy drinks, tinkly lounge music, bachelorette pads, the bossa-nova, Ann-Margret: all touchstones of the 1960s, all included here as three American honeys prowl for lovers in Madrid. Not particularly witty, and not very useful as a travelogue (there's an extended stop at a Spanish art museum, yet most of the overall action takes place indoors); however, the breathless beauties (A-M, Pamela Tiffin and the cynical, jaded Carol Lynley) are worth-watching, as are Gene Tierney (in a small but commendable part) and rock-solid Brian Keith (always a pleasure, even when he's a maybe-playboy). It's a decent, if talk-heavy piece of fluff, a remake of "Three Coins in the Fountain" with songs, and good watching on a rainy afternoon. Finally available on DVD April 2014. *** from ****