The Pleasure Seekers (1964)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The men of colorfully picturesque Madrid are in for a treat when three of America's finest looking women - redhead Ann-Margret (as Fran Hobson), blonde Carol Lynley (as Maggie Williams), and brunette Pamela Tiffin (as Susie Higgins) - arrive with romance on their minds. One look at these three, and you know attracting men isn't going to be a problem. They have trouble remembering the Spanish word for "No!" and hook up with a tall, dark, and handsome trio - respectively, the lucky males turn out to be André Lawrence (as Andrés Briones), Gardner McKay (as Pete McCoy), and Tony Franciosa (as Emilio Lacayo).Veterans Brian Keith and Gene Tierney get lost in all the youthful attractiveness.Now, you probably know about Ann-Margret, who does not disappoint - she even has a bikini dance. But, Ms. Lynley and Ms. Tiffin - both good-looking women, but perhaps known more as actresses than sex symbols - assume much of the same "sex kitten" posturing. So, "The Pleasure Seekers" is really a triple header. The trio takes turns wearing pink, and know how to move inside their "baby doll" bed clothes. The contest is to see who can give the most arousing performance, and you're the winner. This must be the epitome of feminine sexiness in the mid-sixties. Probably, there was a plot somewhere - and a few songs, too.I need a shower...***** The Pleasure Seekers (12/25/64) Jean Negulesco ~ Ann-Margret, Carol Lynley, Pamela Tiffin, Anthony Franciosa

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.

When the one thing that nearly everyone agrees on about a film is the nice Technicolor, you know there's not a lot to offer otherwise. "The Pleasure Seekers is a somewhat typical early '60s romp -- maybe with the idea of men and women bedding down for the night thrown around quite freely -- but this, after all, is Europe! It's Madrid!Yes, it's Spain, where at least a couple of Franco's concentration camps were still in business a few years before the making of this film. It's a cinch that the stuff involving wild hip swingin' Ann-Margaret and a passel of Latin lovers was filmed in Hollywood, and not the Spain of the 1960s. Newspaper publishers still faced a good police grilling for running ads for two-piece swimsuits; Madrinellos would appreciate three American women cruising the town, but Francisco and Dona Carmen wouldn't have found it amusing at all.Still, the movie shows that you can have loads of laughs and love in a country run by a fascist dictator, which really exposes it for the false froth it was then and remains today. It was a tired old formula plugged in to give everyone the idea that Spain under Franco wasn't so bad and, for three footloose and fancy American gals, it couldn't be beat. Just don't pay any attention to the Guardia in the leather hats busting into a door down the street.

The hair, the clothes, the accents, the song and dance numbers by Ann-Margret -- really, what's not to love in this film? Yeah, it's silly, yeah, it's little outdated in gender relations, but who cares? The styling is excellent, Ann-Margret sings her heart out, and the guys are cute. I wanted to buy this DVD the first time I saw the film, but haven't been able to find it for sale anywhere. Please, powers that be, make this film available for sale!!!!!!