DIRECTOR: Melvin Frank
“A Touch of Class” (1973) is a British romantic comedy about a married American man and a divorced British woman who begin a casual affair that unexpectedly turns into love, only to collapse under the weight of reality.
The year is 1973. The setting is London, and we have Glenda Jackson and George Segal in Melvin Frank’s déclassée “A Touch of Class,” another movie that nobody sees today because the bloom has faded from the rose (Jackson’s Oscar for Best Actress was utterly undeserved and the worst of that year’s five choices –Joanne Woodward’s and Ellen Burnstyn’s reaction to her being named the winner is priceless).
Jackson’s character works in the garment industry, so we are on “Fairy Alert.” And, wouldn’t you know it, one of them does descend on her office just as Segal is visiting. He’s got a swishy fairy attitude, which he unwisely unleashes on Jackson as he minces around her desk. His name is Cecil, and he is played, believe it or not, in an uncredited part by Benedict Cumberbatch’s dad, Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch, who is known professionally as Timothy Carlton. Jackson wonders why a particular document is not typed. The dialogue is as follows:
You know I only type with one finger and (pause), I’ve hurt it
CECIL, SOMEHOW MANAGING TO DELIVER SIBILANTS WHERE THERE AREN’T ANY!
Don’t tell me how!
JACKSON, DRIPPING CONTEMPT, CONFIRMING THAT HER CHARACTER HAS ALSO DISCOVERED THE JOYS OF DIGITAL ANAL STIMULATION
