StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

DKosty123 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.

TheLittleSongbird '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

Dunham16 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.

Rick Hasley 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???