The Reluctant Debutante (1958) - Rotten Tomatoes

The Reluctant Debutante (1958)

TOMATOMETER

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AUDIENCE SCORE

76%

Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.

The Reluctant Debutante Photos

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Movie Info

The Reluctant Debutante is a vintage example of the sort of elegant, witty "polite" comedy that Hollywood used to pull off so well. Real-life husband and wife Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are cast as newly wed Jimmy and Sheila Broadbent, two of London's more attractive aristocrats. Jimmy has a daughter, Jane (Sandra Dee), from a previous marriage; though the girl is dead set against it, Jimmy insists that Jane make her society debut in London. Daddy wants his darling daughter to meet the "right" kind of husband, but she's more interested in handsome-but-shady American musician David Parkson (John Saxon). Little does anyone know that David, secretly a titled millionaire, is actually the prize catch of the season. The matchless Kay Kendall manages to walk away with the picture, though she's given a run for her money by fifth-billed Angela Lansbury. The Reluctant Debutante was based on the play by William Douglas Home. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Cast

Sandra Dee
as Jane Broadbent
Rex Harrison
as Jimmy Broadbent
Kay Kendall
as Sheila Broadbent
John Saxon
as David Parkson
Angela Lansbury
as Mabel Claremont
Peter Myers
as David Fenner
Diane Clare
as Clarissa Claremont
Sheila Raynor
as Maid
Ambrosine Phillpotts
as Secretary
Charles Cullum
as English Colonel
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Critic Reviews for The Reluctant Debutante

All Critics (4)

A vintage drawing-room comedy that's flimsy, lacks any edge and plays out as an exercise in high style Brit comedy.

May 14, 2007 | Rating: C+ | Full Review…

Pedestrian Minneli comedy headlining Rex Harrison.

May 9, 2007 | Rating: 3/5

Minnelli's comedy about the British upper class is one of his least successful films due to incongruous casting of all-American Sandra Dee as the daughter of Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall.

April 25, 2007 | Rating: C | Full Review…

Visually creative comedy-love story.

August 26, 2006 | Full Review…
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Audience Reviews for The Reluctant Debutante

½

Kay and Rex sparkle like the sun, hard to believe she was dying while this was being made. Angela Lansbury provides solid support and John Saxon and Sandra Dee made a handsome couple, but it is really Kay Kendall's movie all the way.

jay nixon
jay nixon

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