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.

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???

camibear7 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!

Dick-42 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.