Cover of "A Touch of Class"

Cover of A Touch of Class

The 1973 romantic comedy, A Touch of Class, is too mendacious to be good.  There is much about the extramarital union of Steve (George Segal) and Vicki (Glenda Jackson) that seems unlikely, including their early hotel-room wrangling, which is in fact worse than unlikely.  It’s bizarre and ill-fitting.

Although there is little romantic charm in Glenda Jackson, her acting is delightfully successful, as is that of Segal and others in the cast.  Directed and co-written by Melvin Frank, Class is intermittently funny, not to mention devoid of intercourse scenes and nudity.  And yet, truth be told, the film wants to be lighthearted or nonchalant about sexual perversion of more than one kind.  It isn’t, quite, but it wants to be.  Hence I say it has no more than touch of class.