Tammy and the Bachelor

Directed by Joseph Pevney, Tammy and the Bachelor follows Debbie Reynolds’ title character as she falls for an older man (Leslie Nielsen’s Peter) after he crashes his plane near her home. Filmmaker Pevney, working from a screenplay by Oscar Brodney, delivers a watchable yet entirely forgettable romance that fares best in its entertaining first half, as the movie does, at the outset, boast an appealing focus on the tentative friendship between Tammy and Peter and, in a far more agreeable development, a recurring emphasis on Tammy’s fish-out-of-water exploits within Peter’s upper-crust home and neighborhood. And while the performers are personable enough, with this particularly true of Nielsen’s perpetually appealing turn, Tammy and the Bachelor progresses into a wheel-spinning final third that proves a serious test to one’s ongoing interest and patience (eg the sequence wherein Tammy pretends to be Peter’s great grandmother just goes on forever) – which, despite the inclusion of an agreeably upbeat finale, tarnishes the picture’s overall impact and cements its place as a passable endeavor that feels like it should be better.

**1/2 out of ****