User reviews

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Aside from the script being hopelessly outdated, Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall really got in my nerves with their constant blathering in their posh upper class accents- I could totally see Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman spoofing this movie with Roddy McDowell and Vicky Lawrence in support. Especially irritating was the date rapist twit, who also happens to be a captain of the guards?!!! Nice portrayal of HRH military, yuck!

'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

Too TOO AWful for WORDS darling. How DOES anyone care for such positively AWFUL drivel, dear.

Seriously this is dreadful. Sandra Dee looks like a child playing dress-up, Rex Harrison spends his time smooching cheeks and getting drunk and Kay Kendall is entirely forgettable. I just don't get it.

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!

Jane Broadbent (Sandra Dee) has come to stay with her father Jimmy (Rex Harrison) in London for the summer. Her stepmother Sheila (Kay Kendall) insists on introducing her into society and interfering. Jane is taken with American drummer David Parkson (John Saxon) who has a bad reputation while she's being pursued by David Fenner who is perfect on paper. Nosy socialite Mabel Claremont (Angela Lansbury) is a family friend and has her own daughter Clarissa.

Fenner is too over-the-top as the British upper class twit. I would suggest dialing it back a couple of notches. David and Jimmy have a good meet-cute. I wouldn't mind transferring the drum talk over to Jane. This is rather light fare. The drama is not the most dramatic. It's closer to sitcom. The only true villain is Mabel and her goals are aligned with Jane. The only possible stake is whether Jimmy would get frustrated with social status obsessed Sheila. There's no way Jane would ever end up with Fenner.

While coronavirus-isolated, I've been watching a number of old movies that I've never seen before, and I decided to watch this one. On the one hand, "The Reluctant Debutante" is pretty dated, and the emphasis on high society feels like overkill. But I see that Sandra Dee plays the same role here that she played the following year in "A Summer Place": a rich girl feeling disenchanted with her family's haughty lifestyle and falling for a "lesser" man, much to her family's chagrin. It reminded me a bit of "Dirty Dancing". Quite frankly I find Dee's movies more profound than anything in which Doris Day starred (i.e., Sandra Dee's movies had an element of sexuality, while Doris Day was always the eternal virgin).

So, while there was a long way to go before cinema gave audiences something like "Diary of a Mad Housewife", one can sense the younger generation trying to break away from the older generation's mores. "A Summer Place" went so far as to look at how effed up the parents' generation in the '50s was, albeit in a soap opera manner; it was sort of a forerunner to "The Graduate" in that sense.

But most importantly about Sandra Dee, she was more than the cute teeny-bopper that the studios cast her as. In an interview, she said that she figured out that the execs only considered her a piece of property, and early on she had developed anorexia nervosa. San Francisco's Castro Theater held a retrospective of her movies in the 1990s, and she attended as guest of honor; who else but the gay community was going to embrace her?

Overall I do recommend the movie. In addition to finding Sandra Dee hot in some of those gowns, I gotta praise John Saxon's performance. He shows the same flair that he did in "Enter the Dragon"* and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". As for Rex Harrison, he came across as a typical old-school actor, so he didn't really catch my attention. I also wonder what Kay Kendall would've done had she lived longer.

Worth seeing.

*It would've been neat if Sandra Dee had ever co-starred with Bruce Lee. Such a movie would've been the textbook definition of super-awesome.

Directed by Minelli, "The Reluctant Debutante" is about a young American girl named Jane (Sandra Dee) who visits her father, who is a banker in London. There, she meets his second wife, who decides Jane should debut (or "come out") during the season, which is a succession of debutante balls. It is 1958, and this will be the last season, as decreed by Queen Elizabeth.

This film represents a series of firsts and lasts.

The father, Jimmy, is played by Rex Harrison. His wife, Sheila, is played by Harrison's actual wife, Kay Kendall. This will be Kendall's last film.

This is actually Sandra Dee's second appearance in a film. Her fresh-faced persona is understandable, as she is only about 15 in this appearance, due to lying about her age.

Jane is disappointed with the romantic prospects of the season when she realizes the young man who seems most available is David Fenner (Peter Myers), a guardsman who is a dull "drip"; his main interest seems to be the best way to negotiate the London roadways.

But then David Parkson (John Saxon) enters the picture. Jane has chemistry with this American drummer almost immediately. There are a few clever moments due to the confusion of the two Davids.

In the era when the squeaky-clean image of Doris Day is of greatest appeal, Sandra Dee fits in well, like a Disney princess come alive. She is the image of the perfect debutante, on the cusp of womanhood, discovering love.

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.

Add sumptuous sets, expensive clothes and beautiful people and you have beautiful images. If those sets are luxurious London mansions, the clothes are ball gowns for the season, and the pretty faces are those of Sandra Dee and John Saxon, things promise to be unbearably overdone and cheesy.

The theme is one of those alarming assumptions of sophistication full of lively and supposedly witty characters, full of money, extravagance and malice; third-rate stuff meant to be a routinized version of the kind of second-rate comedies Noel Coward was making 30 years before. The result is a reactionary classism even in the 50s, overflowing with clichés in its hour and a half duration.

If the director is Vincent Minnelli the result can be expected to be somewhat less cheesy, and the images really nice and elegant. It is not the case, he is so delighted in that world where ugliness is a crime and poverty, if it existed, would be tactless, the images are so rosy and the treatment is so syrupy, there is so little detachment and criticism, it causes at least a blush.

Kay Kendall and Angela Lansbury are amusing, despite the hackneyedness of their characters (a pair of harpies who want to hunt the best match for their respective daughters). But Kay Kendall seems to know all too well what is expected of her, and she exaggerates even her over-the-top persona. Naturally the husband puts in some down to earth common sense, and since it also has to be fun, we got him drunk a few times. The youngsters: there is an aristocratic but ugly and boring one, who ends up showing himself to be an insatiable stalker; but of course Sandra Dee falls in love with the young drummer, handsome and intelligent, although with a not very recommendable reputation, who apparently has no money, but there is no doubt has a lot of class...in the end we know that he is also an aristocrat. Sandra Dee is supposed to be everything that the film can demand from a young American girl with high-class English blood in her veins: young, pretty, with airs of modernity, independent and without prejudice. The truth is that she is as unbearable as her beau.

Vincente Minelli made a couple of great masterpieces, several good movies, and a few clunkers like this. The result is of an unbearable mannerism. After watching this movie you will avoid Marble Arch.

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.

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!"

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.

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!