Charming and brutal

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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 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.

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!

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!