The Reluctant Debutante (1958)

Touches You

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

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.

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.

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.

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!