The Reluctant Debutante

Vincente Minnelli's 1958 film adapts William Douglas Home's play and is set during one of the last debutante seasons in London society. Jane, an American teenager visiting her father, is pushed into that arrangement by her stepmother, whose only concern is introducing her to the right families. Jane is interested in a drummer. What is interesting is that the tradition it depicts really was ending: the formal presentation of debutantes at court in Britain was abolished in 1958, so the film describes an arrangement passing into history at the moment of its making. Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall were married in real life and their rapport is the best thing in it; Kendall died two years later. Minnelli's use of colour and space gives visual richness to a confined story. Who it's for: viewers interested in classic Hollywood drawing-room comedy and Minnelli's work. Who it's not for: anyone expecting class criticism, or who will find the stage-derived density of dialogue excessive.