The Reluctant Debutante (1958) Online

I can't add much to what has already been said of this delightful movie. But nobody has mentioned the costumes. It's astonishing to note that Balmain created the dresses for both Kay Kendall and Angela Lansbury. Nearly 50 years later, Kendall still looks ravishingly current in her haute couture day and evening wear. The magnificent red dress she wears in the first party scene is a perfect example and she had the stunning figure to enhance these wonderful costumes. Angela, who had a nifty figure herself, is a more full-figured woman. She's also playing a nasty bitch in this film, and her costumes reflect this aspect of her personality. Instead of looking chic, she looks dowdy.

Sandra Dee's costumes were created by MGM's Helen Rose. I didn't care for any of her daytime wear which was very much a product of the 50s, but it is with gowns that Rose's talent shines, and there's a lovely blue gown with tiny blue bows in the final scenes of this movie that you really notice, and Dee wears the dress like the prom queen she was.

Rex Harrison could wear stylish men's clothing with panache, and he does so here too.

I love this sophisticated movie, which I only discovered a few years ago. And the interior sets are equally beautiful.

I quite like this movie.

The story is written like a Restoration mistaken identity comedy (think Wycherly, Congreve or Farquahar) but without the low necklines and with much less bawdiness (yes, you may wonder what's left).

The lines given Saxon and Dee are pretty bad - and although Saxon does the best he can, I don't think Sandra Dee does an interesting job at all - she looks quite bored (if pretty). When they're on screen, this is incredibly dull.

Yet the adults, working with almost nothing, go all out and make this a pleasure -- you'll wish that the story were a variant of Unfaithfully Yours with Harrison or Kendall suspecting the other of infidelity and no children in sight.

Yet despite all,

• Minnelli makes the movie stunningly beautiful (you very much want to be there) with great rich colors, London shown in glorious sweeping color, and the movie goes swiftly with wonderful and amusing editing --

-- the costumes and sets are just so beautiful --

-- Rex Harrison is in as finely comic a mode (don't expect his Henry IV or wonderful Julius Caesar here) as he's ever been - and that is VERY high praise --

-- Kay Kendall is a moviegoer's dream - stunningly beautiful, an exquisite comedic touch, wonderful with either a line or a pratfall. In movies like this, Genevieve, Les Girls, she is an aristocratic Lucille Ball if you can imagine that - as giddy, as wildly inventive -- but haute.

-- Angela Lansbury takes a thankless part and really gets into it - and Lansbury is superb.

So, sure, the story is gossamer, there aren't many amusing lines, but the panache brought by the director, costume and set designers, Harrison, Kendall and Lansbury combine to make this quite enjoyable.

There's something to be said for a movie that you want to see again and again simply because you wish you were there. I own relatively few movies, but this is one.

This is my favorite comedy. Rex Harrison plays a man in London remarried to a strikingly lovely Kay Kendall. His daughter comes to live with them from America, played by Sandra Dee. She is just the right age for a "Coming Out Party", so her step-mom Kay Kendall sets about to get her ready and invite all the eligible bachelors.John Saxons plays a young man named David. Sandra meets John Saxon and likes him immediately. But a friend of Kay Kendall's Angela Lansbury who also has a daughter coming out, tells her what a terrible person John Saxon is. Angela Lansbury's own daughter likes the palace guard David.Sandra cannot stand him. John Saxon is as always the handsomest man in the movie with his smoldering good looks. He is a drummer who plays at these coming out parties.Sandra likes David ( John Saxon ) but there is another David who is one of the Palace guards.This other David looks like and acts like Edgar Bergen's dummy Mortimer Snerd. He is the classic bore. With two young men with the same name you can just imagine all the fun of mistaken identity and misunderstandings. Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are so hilarious as they go from party to party night after night, till they are not quite sure who's party they are at or why they are there. A laugh a minute. It all makes for loads of fun and laughs. Between going to all the parties Rex and Kay have to keep their eye on Sandra, which makes for more fun then I can relate. Sandra likes Saxon and sneaks out to see him. A wonderfully hilarious comedy~ Don't miss this movie. You will be glad you saw it. Go buy it because you are going to want to see it over and over again. I think I will slip my copy in the VCR now and enjoy this movie too. Enjoy!

This is a cute movie, made funny by Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall. Both actors are superb in comedy, especially in this comedy. It's hard to believe Ms. Kendall would be gone a year later. According to Mr. Harrison's autobiography, he knew his wife was dying, but she did not know. This movie is a wonderful valentine Rex Harrison gave to his wife, Kay Kendall.

A few years earlier, Kay Kendall made a very funny movie, "Simon and Laura" with Peter Finch. Movie is not available on video, so watch for it on television.

I am not sure why this film isn't more famous, as it was a very entertaining romantic-comedy. Considering that it was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Rex Harrison, it can't help but be good. It's apparently good enough that the film was remade just a few years ago as WHAT A GIRL WANTS.

As the film begins, the cream of British society is readying itself for a long string of debutante balls--just as Rex Harrison's daughter from a previous marriage arrives from America (Sandra Dee). His new wife (played by his real-life wife, Kay Kendell) is having a disagreeable conversation with an annoying friend (Angela Lansbury) about these society dances when she feels compelled to announce that her step-daughter will be introduced to society at the next ball--even though the girl and her father have no interest in these stuffy affairs. But to please the step-mom, they go through with it. Unfortunately, Kay is pretty snobby and tries to arrange a marriage with an in-bred idiot and Sandra. At the same time, Kay is horrified that Sandra is falling for a lowly drummer with a lousy reputation (John Saxon). How all this is worked out to everyone's satisfaction is pretty funny and quite romantic. I think most of this is due to good writing and the nice gentle nature of the film. In fact, the longer I watched it, the more I liked it and found myself really being pulled into the story. It's a very good and often overlooked film--pity, as it really should be more widely seen.

As others have noted, the plot is pretty slight, but it's a charming film, thanks to the effortless performances of Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, and Angela Lansbury. The adults run away with this movie, rather like Beatrice and Benedick own 'Much Ado About Nothing,' even though Hero and Claudio are really the plot. The mile-a-minute dialogue between the older generation outshines the tame goings-on between Sandra Dee (who is completely adorable) and John Saxon (ditto). The reviewer who called Peter Meyers a Mortimer Snerd look-alike was spot on; he's so hilariously boring!

But to return to the exquisite Kay Kendall--her comic timing is superb and so is her dress sense! She looks totally fabulous in this film. It's terribly sad to see it and realize that she had not long to live. Film comedy lost a jewel in her.

According to the closing credits of 'What Every Girl Wants', 'The Reluctant Debutante' inspired that lamentable movie. Don't watch that; watch this!

I saw this one during its first-run release at the Beverly Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif. The CinemaScope projection there was top-notch, doing full justice to Minnelli's always creative use of the wide screen. Among MGM's A-list ingredients was the casting of Kay Kendall, whose elegance and comic verve made this confection as enjoyable as one could have hoped. How I wish she had lived to make many more screen memories. Her early death was a real loss. This title appears to be available on video only in a VHS version, which no doubt means that it is probably not letterboxed. "There oughta be a law!"

This is one of my very favourite movies. It is a lighthearted spoof on English upper-crust society. The cast including Sandra Dee, Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, Angela Lansbury and John Saxon is a very well chosen mix, with other extremely good performances from supporting actors. It's a brilliant Minelli film with wonderful colour, costuming and quick clever humour. It shows us London in the height of the social season in the splendour and snobbery of the debutante era, portrayed superbly throughout with deft one line quips at which Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are masters. It is good lighthearted entertainment, most probably more a chick flick, but I would recommend it to all. Hopefully it will be re-released.

A very amusing film, often hilarious, and unusually intelligent in every respect. Lansbury is a gem in an essentially despicable role. Harrison and Kendall are great, and other performances match.

Sandra Dee is adorable in an extremely unusual role for a British film, or one set in Britain. She portrays an INTELLIGENT American, or child of British parents who has spent time in the U.S. She commits no faux pas against British customs, does not denounce the nation or its people, does not claim that everything in America is better than anything in the U.K., and in general acts as an intelligent, decent, lovable person. Such roles, as portrayed by Mickey Rooney and nearly all others are an insult to American intelligence, and this picture deserves top ratings for this characterization, even if it didn't for its general overall entertainment value.

'The Reluctant Debutante' had a lot going for it, with talented actors like Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall and Angela Lansbury and a fine director in Vincente Minnelli. Also like comedy and romance and there are fine examples of both individually and both together.

Of which 'The Reluctant Debutante' is one of them. It is not without its imperfections. The story is thin which makes some of the middle act sluggish and repetitious. Some of Sandra Dee and John Saxon's lines are clunky and not a patch on the adults' material. John Saxon has his bland and wooden moments and Peter Myers is a bore. With all that being said, a huge amount of 'The Reluctant Debutante' works and incredibly well. Sandra Dee is a pert and charming presence and her chemistry with Saxon has its sweet moments. The adult supporting cast are much more impressive though.

Especially Kay Kendall (who died far too young a year later with much more to give), who is exquisite in every sense, comic timing, looks, everything. Rex Harrison delivers a lot of delicious lines with deft ease, with a flair for knowing comic timing and nuance. The film is actually worth seeing for their performances and irresistible chemistry alone. Angela Lansbury makes a thankless role interesting. Minnelli delivers on creating grand spectacle and gorgeous visuals, and paces everything that helps bring believability to the romantic and particularly comedic elements.

Scripting here is generally very good, at its best excellent. The comedic elements are delightfully witty and sophisticated and the romantic elements radiate with charm. There is a great deal of energy too. Lush music score too, with some great use of songs, the Cole Porter hits and "The Boy Next Door" are particular bonbons.

Visually, 'The Reluctant Debutante' looks wonderful. It's beautifully photographed, with opulently designed sets, gorgeous colours that pop out at you and especially those to die for costumes.

Overall, immensely charming and entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I guess there's a little bit of "I Love Lucy" in every domestic comedy. How could there not be with such limited material. In this instance, Rex Harrison is married to Kay Kendall. Sandra Dee is Harrison's American daughter by his first wife. Dee visits the couple in London and Kendall decides on a coming out party for her during the season. (Evidently these cotillions or whatever they are have a "season", like grouse, because they all seem to come in a rush.) The problem is that, at one of the parties, Dee meets the darkly handsome young John Saxon and they fall for each other. Saxon is evidently nothing more than a bongo player in the band -- hardly suitable for the daughter of Lord and Lady Broadbent.

The story adheres to all the conventional values of the period. By the end, when Dee and Saxon finally have their embrace unfettered by the conditions of social class, he turns out to be the new Duke of Positano. It would hardly do for him to be nothing more than an itinerant drummer.

But the film is a success, in that it's usually funny and sometimes funny as hell. (There's a weak spot in the middle, with eavesdroppers falling farcically in and out of the kitchen.) It's from a play but writer Epstein and director Vincente Minelli have effectively opened it up. Your attention is politely directed to the virtually wordless ten-minute montage in which Harrison and Kendall are forced to attend party after party, each indistinguishable from the other. Everyone dashes around in tuxedos and evening gowns, chattering madly, while Harrison -- fiercely bored but still extremely polite -- heads towards the champagne. The parties keep him up until early in the morning and he suffers from daily hangovers and lack of sleep. Harrison is so confused that at one party, instead of Lord and Lady Broadbent, he has himself announced as "Broad and Bently Laidlaw" or something. Americans of a certain class have their coming out parties too, from the planning of which fathers are ordinarily excluded. One such father, asked about his feeling towards cotillions, put his head in his hands and moaned that they were hideous check-signing ceremonies. (That's not in the movie; it's in a documentary.)

Dee and Saxon are a little flat, especially John Saxon, although they both look the part. Saxon is a mannequin but Dee at least has her slight shoulders to emphasize her bust, and that fruity voice suggestive of Bayonne. The rest of the cast are superb. Kay Kendall is the elegantly beautiful but dizzy step mother, always anxious, always confused, and with a nose that could serve as a ship's prow. Rex Harrison is superb in this light comedy. He's able to turn a scene with no dialog -- something as simple as Saxon following him into the men's room -- into a ludic gem.

The direction and performances would carry this frothy comedy of mix ups even if the sometimes sparkling dialog did not.

I love this film... So does my wife, we love it together. love love love. Rex Harison is very dry, with always brilliant delivery a little Henry Higgins'esquire on occasion but funnier in my opinion this time round. Kay Kendall's Sheila is astonishing and full of wonder for her snobbery, competitive instincts and neurosis. She makes me hoot.

The foolish David Fenner is infuriatingly silly yet gold to watch.

The music captures the feel of the 50's beautifully, with an almost Cliff Richard like quality... Actually my wife is disputing that comment, it's much more American than Cliff in her opinion. It's jazzy. jazz jazz jazz. Big band. It makes me want to dance every time I see it. One of my favourite quotes from Sheila whilst dancing... "mmmmm, this song drives me out of my mind"

You can watch this film over and over, we have been for the last 15 years and it doesn't get old at all. Watch it with different friends and they will love you for it. That's what we do. love love love.

Entrancing comedy driven by the captivating team of Rex Harrison and the divine Kay Kendall. Both masters of comic timing they make the slight plot of unexpectedly having to present Sandra Dee, Rex's very American daughter, into British high society highly entertaining. Hard to believe that Kay was dying of leukemia while this was being made and would only complete one more picture before her premature death at 33 the next year. She looks sensational, vibrant and full of life, and gowned and jeweled in an amazing array of stunning fashions. Rex is terrific, he often came across as a pompous ass on screen, which worked perfectly for My Fair Lady but otherwise could be off putting, but here he is bemused and full of wry detachment.

The supporting cast is sprinkled with funny performances. Sandra Dee is pert, sweet and amusingly frustrated as the object of Kay's misguided good will and John Saxon is darkly handsome and quite engaging. The two became good friends during the filming of this and remained so for the rest of Sandra's life. He was one of the few people she would see after she became a recluse.

Angela Lansbury is delightful as the loquacious flibbertigibbet cousin of Kay reminding those who only know her from Murder, She Wrote that she is an expert comedienne as well. The entire cast is wonderful but it is really Kay Kendall's movie all the way.

I saw this film with my family at Radio City Music Hall in 1958, the year of the film's release and it took the house down. The entire audience burst into applause at the film's conclusion. What simple days those were. Alas, I miss the great days of movies so much I haven't been in a movie theater in 30 years. Thirty years ago people were nice. Not any more. People in movie theaters are just as rude as they are everywhere else. To escape in such a simple delight as this film is all I can do these days aside from my daily solitude which I refer to as ZEN and which occupies most of my time. But occasionally along comes a delightful film like this and I am flooded with happy memories of my youth when everything came up roses. I have such fond memories of Kay Kendall not just in this film but also in Les Girls which was just as marvelous. She was a treasure, taken much too soon.

Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Copyright 1958 by Loew's Inc. An Avon Production for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 14 August 1958 (ran 5 weeks). London opening at the Empire, Leicester Square: 26 December 1958. U.K. general release: 1 February 1959. Australian release: 26 March 1959. 8,617 feet. 95 minutes. No DVD available at present.

COMMENT: This most British of British plays was a rousing success everywhere, thanks presumably to its extremely popular cast. The Broadway presentation, directed by Cyril Ritchard, starred Wilfrid Hyde White, Adrianne Allen, John Merivale and Anna Massey in the roles played in the film by Harrison, Kendall, Saxon and Dee.

In the movie version, the first two acts are wonderfully funny, but proceedings are let down badly in the Gilbertian third act by the insipid acting of Saxon and Dee. Fortunately, not even this vital lack of support deters Harrison and Kendall. Indeed Harrison has the sort of role he was born to play – and he makes the charismatic most of all his delightfully witty lines and deft throwaways. His timing is absolutely brilliant. Kay Kendall is almost equally admirable as his fatuous snob of a wife. Angela Lansbury and Peter Myers are also well up to the amusing demands of their roles.

Miss Dee, on the other hand, seems to have missed the point of the play's satire entirely and does nothing more than alternatively bubble over with either froth or dejection, thus forcing the other players to carry the whole burden of the comedy. She doesn't help in any way at all.

Alas, if anything, Saxon is even worse. Like Miss Dee, he seems to have totally missed the Gilbertian overtones of his role. Instead he plays his character perfectly straight. In a sense, he's less on the ball than Miss Dee. She's just a hopeless bit of Hollywood fluff. On the other hand, Saxon gives the impression that he is deliberately mishandling his role in order to maintain his clean-cut, boy-next- door image. That he could enact other roles, is shown later in his career.

I have watched this film so many times that I know the dialogue verbatim. Of course, it is not a significant film in the history of cinema, but good luck finding many as charming. For one thing, the cast is amazingly attractive with Kay Kendall off the charts. She is so beautiful and stylish and her comic timing is glorious. The scene with she and husband, Rex Harrison trying to spy on their daughter is priceless and their chemistry is palpable. I find that she died only a short time later and that is really depressing. She was so lovely and funny; modern actresses would suffer by comparison. Only someone like Kate Winslet is anywhere near her league.

My wife and I saw the Reluctant Debutante at the Stanford Theater here in Palo Alto. It was a fantastic environment for a great movie. We weren't sure what to expect although we knew it was a classic. This was a very funny movie! Highly recommended!

Essentially, this is a plot that could BARELY fill a half-hour sit-com and is stretched so thin, it leaves one begging for something/anything, perhaps a commercial about an apple or a clam. The comedy devices are routine cliches that should have been well away from the set standards of the man who gave us "Meet Me In St. Louis". Sandra Dee is lovely to look at but unfortunately, the non-stop mouth of Angela Lansbury and the tiresome, repeat TIRESOME efforts of Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are just too much to bear. The only thing really funny at all, was the goofy Peter Myers as David Fenner and his wacky obsession with motoring directions. Diane Clare, as Lansbury's daughter Clarissa, was charming as well. It was a merciful feeling when the picture finally ended and I found myself asking WHY on earth was this film ever made???

The inimitable Kay Kendall steals this film along with Rex Harrison her husband, Angela Lansbury, and also with John Saxon & Sandra Dee. With the traditional MGM production values, Cinemascope, and a story line you cant help going along with, this is a film that deserves a better video presentation than it has received. One of the truly special film treats and possibly amongst each of the star' most winning performances. A treat.

"The Reluctant Debutante" is a very good comedy of manners. Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall get top billing in a nice cast of young and "mature" stars of the day. The battle of manners plays out between Kendall and Angela Lansbury. These two are terrific in their rival- friend-rival relationship. Lansbury's Mabel Claremont is a far cry from the Jessica Fletcher of the long-running TV series (1984-96), "Murder She Wrote." The very talented Lansbury here is the noisy, butting-in, social busybody of London society. Kendall's Sheila Broadbent is a take charge, social butterfly who wants to get her stepdaughter lined up with the right man. The stepdaughter is Jane Broadbent (Sandra Dee) just arrived from the U.S., whom Sheila has never met, and her father hasn't seen in many years.

All of this takes place in, around and because of "the season." In London, that means the coming out of 17-year-old girls through a grueling, seemingly endless round of debutante balls. Overseeing all of the wackiness that takes place, and suffering through long nights that end at wee hours of the morning, when he'd like to catch "a little nap before the office," is Rex Harrison as Jimmy Broadbent.

Jimmy and Sheila didn't know what to expect of Jane. What will she look like? Her last photo was two years old and young. girls can change a lot in two years. Sheila wonders if Jane will like her. How will they get along? With all of this, Sheila hasn't even thought about Jane coming out in London society. But when they see the very attractive Jane, and run into Mabel Claremont and her daughter, Clarissa, Sheila announces that Jane too, will be coming out.

Saxon plays David Parkson, and Peter Myers does a smashing job as David Fenner. He is a very funny overly snobbish sounding and acting eligible bachelor/suitor. All of the cast are fine. The film is a little slow getting started, but the comedy ramps up in the last half.

This is a good film to show the comedy talents of all three mature leads. Harrison and Kendall were married at the time. It was her first and only marriage. She made only one more film after this and died a year later of leukemia. She was just 33 years old. In her short career, she was in 30 films and TV series. After a slow start in the 1940s, her star rose in the 1950s. She moved from TV series in 1951 to the silver screen. She won a Golden Globe for "Les Girls" of 1958.

This was the first pairing of John Saxon and Sandra Dee. They would make three films together, all good movies.

One of the funniest scenes is when Jimmy and Sheila hide in the kitchen to keep an eye on Jane and David. Another funny thing may not have been intentional – the strange flat where the Broadbents live. It looks like a tunnel off the living room to the bedroom section, and with a side door to the kitchen. In the end, Jimmy finds a way to save Sheila from the egg on her face.

Here are some favorite lines from this film. For more dialog humor, check the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the film.

Sheila, "Jimmy, if she brings him up here for a drink, she'll know we've been waiting up for her." Jimmy, "And so we have." Sheila, "But, darling, she musn't. Psychologically, it's wrong to let her see we're worried. You see, even if she isn't interested in David Parkson, she thinks we'd be against it if she was, she will be." Jimmy, "She was, she will be?" Sheila, "No, darling, she mustn't know. We must wait up for her, don't you see?" Jimmy, "But, Jane…" Sheila, "No, no, darling, in the kitchen."

Sheila, "Now go in the kitchen." Jimmy, "The kitchen…?" Sheila, "To see if you can hear me." Jimmy, "But I can hear you from here." Sheila, "Oh, Jimmy, do try and understand. We're hiding in the kitchen. We have to know what's going on. Now run along."

Jimmy, "My permission? I'm a married man. My wife and I make joint decisions." David Parkson, "Then tell her about Brenda Bassington." Jimmy, "She wouldn't believe it." David, "Do you?" Jimmy, "Yes." David, "Well, then." Jimmy, "Well, that has nothing to do with it. Truth doesn't mean the same to a woman that it does to a man. To them, it's what they want to believe, regardless of the facts…"

Sheila, "Jimmy?" Jimmy, "Shhh. Later, darling." As they begin to dance, he kisses her tenderly.

Kay Kendall is not old enough to be Sandra Dee's mom, so she is cast as Dee's Step-mom. That is a change from the play. Rex Harrison(Jimmy Broadbent) is a delight as Dee's father. John Saxon (David Parkinson) is great as the drummer who becomes smitten with Jane Broadbent (Dee). Meanwhile the stepmother Sheila Broadbent(Kendall) hears the lips wagging with rumors about David (Saxon) encounter with a young woman which are total lies.

This turns out to be a case of father knowing best and step mother being an embarrassment. She hears the lips wagging and does nothing to find out about David who her daughter is falling in love with. Even worse David Fenner (Peter Myers) is who step mom chooses for her step-daughter. He is a womanizer of the first order and much too old for either Dee or the step-mother. This is the source of the comedy.

Angela Lansbury (Mabel Claremont) is marvelous in a role as an older woman who helps the lips wagging and gets involved slightly in the plot. The thing Angela at age 33 has a great figure and is more attractive than Kendall who is actually a year younger than her in real life. In one scene, Lansbury comes out in a beautiful gown highlighting her figure and almost steals the scene with her looks.

William Douglas-Home play is converted by the author into a screen play. In 2003 this was remade as "What A Girl Wants" starring Amanda Bynes. Bynes is a beautiful woman now, but the remake falls far short of this 1958 version. Colin Firth and the cast in that remake just do not have what this one has, and since the remake was made 10 years after William Douglas-Home's death, the script just is not updated well enough to make it work as well.

Sometimes, it is better to watch the original. That is the case here. This is a very enjoyable film.

Jimmy Broadbent (Harrison), who has a daughter Jane (Dee) by first wife, an American, is now married to fellow Britisher Sheila (Kendall). When the comely Jane comes to live with them in London, Sheila is so jealous of her friend Mabel's (Angela Lansbury) braggadocio about introducing daughter Clarissa (Diane Clare) to society that she decides to hold a debutante ball for Jane, who is less than thrilled with the idea.

What follows is an often amusing, sometimes boring, comedic exposé of the British society of the time, beautifully rendered by Director Vincente Minnelli, cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg, Art Director Jean d'Eaubonne (because of Harrison's tax troubles, Pandro S. Berman had to produce it in Paris), and Costume Designer Helen Rose.

Much of the comedy stems from misunderstandings - Kendall's Sheila is deliciously confused -mostly due to the fact that both of Jane's would-be suitors are named David: the debonair Italian-American drummer Parkson (played by John Saxon), with a questionable reputation, and the monotonous Brit Fenner (Peter Myers), a Palace Guard. Clarissa adores David Fenner, but he prefers the bright virginal American, whom he pursues with repugnant abandon despite Mabel's scheming and Jane's repeated rejections.

The film's best scenes are between Harrison and Saxon, whose characters come to an understanding in part because of Jimmy's insight and then knowledge of Parkson's past and, subsequently, his future. It is weakest in the middle, when the repetitious high society debutante ball season is overplayed to emphasize the exhaustive nature of it. The bedroom door staging near the end approaches being overdone as well, but the movie is saved by Jimmy's manipulation of his wife, whom he silences with a kiss at its close.

As this was the only film that Rex Harrison and wife number 3 Kay Kendall made together during their marriage this was special to Harrison and he said so in his memoirs. Watching it though I think it would have really suited David Niven.

Playing the title role of The Reluctante Debutante is Sandra Dee who has to guard her virtue most zealously here. She's the daughter of Rex Harrison by his marriage to his American first wife and she's over in Europe visiting dad and new wife Kay Kendall. Since she's of age what better to do than bring her out in society though Dee as the title says is not that eager.

At least until the men start crowding around her like John Saxon who plays drums in the band performing at the society ball where they play danceable standards that the old folks can enjoy as well as new stuff like Rock Around The Clock. There's also this upper class society twit Peter Myers that Kendall favors as a suitable match.

In parts that require them to be charming and little else Harrison and Kendall seem to be enjoying their work. Hanging over them was Kendall's leukemia which made slow steady progression over a few years. Sandra Dee doesn't drip sweet virginity, she's positively saturates the screen with it. As for Saxon he's got a big surprise for all the snotty society folks like Kendall's friend Angela Lansbury also debuting her daughter in society.

The Reluctant Debutante is pleasant viewing for all concerned.

The seven character play is a romantic comedy of the London social season of 1958 seen through the eyes of an American girl swept into it while visiting her dad in London. Four of the seven cast in this second movie version of the story among several which preceded and followed are familiar to American movie goers - Angela Lansbury, Sandra Dee, Rex Harrison and John Saxon the other three including Kay Kendall in the lead role more familiar to British movie goers. Its strongest feature is the expansion of a seven character play on a single set in the play which was once often staged in American summer stock revivals in theaters across the country is its cinemascope view of technicolor London among the scenes Whitehall and several grand ballrooms. The movie is largely a technicolor expansive setting featuring a massive cast mostly in long shots of London scenes. In some cases the scenes in which some or all of the seven characters talk as if on a stage set to say all the lines of the play is not often the strongest aspect of the film. In the original play only the character of David Fenner was the generic slapstick physical comic character played here for the second time in a motion picture by Peter Myers. In the movie in which Rex Harrison and the lead, Kay Kendall use a larger sound scope and physical movement scope than they might when saying the same lines onstage in a revival of the play now and then not work as well as they might on the more intimate single set of the play. Sandra Dee, Angela Lansbury and John Saxon seem more at ease saying their lines in the movie exactly as they might onstage in the revival of the play.

I agree with the other reviewers about this movie being lovely to look at, and Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are indeed very funny, but I was astounded at what the 17 year old Sandra Dee got up to! Drinking sherry (sherry?! was that the usual cafe drink for teenagers then?) like she'd been doing it all her life, staying out until 5 in the morning, smoking, and at the end of it all deciding to marry a guy she'd only seen a couple of times! And ridiculously, her father (Harrison) is totally nonchallant about it all.

I know that in a lot of these old movies people got married after only knowing each other a couple of days or weeks, but a 17 year old? It beggars belief, and became annoying. What was the point of making the daughter a teenager if everone was going to behave as if she was 30?

A somewhat funny movie, but Sandra Dee is obnoxious rather than endearing, in my opinion