Cinema: The Second Time Around

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Debbie Rides Again

(20th Century—Fox). Debbie Reynolds, who at 29 is known in show business as the world's oldest teenager, first found fame at 16, when she became a drum majorette at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, Calif. Friends say she doesn't look a day older; enemies say she doesn't act a day older. But in twelve years and 26 films the little lady—she stands 5 ft. 1½ in., weighs 100 Ibs.—has developed, by sheer work and sheer nylons, into an effective hoofer and a get-by ballad-belter. And in recent films she has emerged as a competent utility comedienne, a half-fast Hutton, a pingpong Ball with lots of bounce.

In Second Time Around, with Director Vincent Sherman to spur her flair for foolery, Debbie corrals a herd of yaks in what might otherwise have proved just one more way-in western. She plays a young "widder lady" from back East who arrives in Arizona, signs on as a ranch hand and runs through the tenderfoot routine—but in style. When she climbs up one side of a horse, she falls down the other. When she tries to wrangle a calf, she ends up flat on her face in the barnyard muck. When she shingles a roof, she rolls off the edge, lands sitting on a pig, rides wildly off into the sunset.

Having dealt with the livestock, Debbie promptly takes on some other critters: a passel of outlaws, a crooked sheriff (Ken Scott) and a charming cardsharp (Steve Forrest) whose favorite game is stud. Elected sheriff, she soon has the bad guys where they belong, and the charmer where she wants him—making proposals instead of propositions.

Intellectually, such comedy is as plain as beans on a plate. Physically, it is as intricate as tumbling, and few girls have the muscles or the timing for the job. Onetime Drum Majorette Reynolds has both. She makes falling off a horse look as easy as falling off a horse.