The Second Time Around ** (1961, Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse, Thelma Ritter) – Classic Movie Review 12,700

The mild but gently amusing 1961 comedy Western film The Second Time Around stars Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse, and Thelma Ritter. Debbie and Thelma are the hit turns as the new town sheriff and the local rancher. 

‘Debbie’s on the wackiest husband-hunt that ever sent he-men running for cover!’

Director Vincent Sherman’s mild but gently amusing 1961 American CinemaScope and De Luxe colour comedy Western film The Second Time Around is based on the 1951 novel Star in the West by Richard Emery Roberts, and stars Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse, and Thelma Ritter.

The Second Time Around is a timid but pleasant enough Western comedy with the happy thought that love is more wonderful the second time around. Ah, yes, as the song goes: ‘Love is lovelier the second time around, Just as wonderful with both feet on the ground.’

Debbie Reynolds plays the young city widow Lucretia ‘Lu’ Rogers who heads off from 1911 New York City to a small Arizona town to start over again, leaving her children with her mother-in-law. She is stranded when the job she is expecting falls through, her new employer having inconveniently died, but rancher Aggie Gates (Thelma Ritter) comes to the rescue and tries her out with a job as a ranch hand.

So what’s a girl to do but become sheriff and get courted by both rancher Pat Collins (Andy Griffith) and gambler Dan Jones (Steve Forrest)?

The stars plus Thelma Ritter and Juliet Prowse (as Forrest’s saloon dancer girlfriend) turn this cosy, uncosmic material into modestly amusing fluff. Debbie and Thelma are the hit turns, working well together, and it is a fair showcase for their special talents.

The cast are Debbie Reynolds as Lucretia Rogers, Steve Forrest as Dan Jones, Andy Griffith as Pat Collins, Juliet Prowse as Rena Mitchell, Thelma Ritter as Aggie Gates, Ken Scott as Sheriff Burns, Isobel Elsom as Mrs Rogers, Rodolfo Acosta as Rodriguez, Timothy Carey as Bonner, Tom Greenway as Deputy Shack, Eleanor Audley as Mrs Trask, Blossom Rock [Marie Blake] as Mrs. Vera Collins, Jack Orrison as Editor, Pilar Arcos, Leonard Baker, Nicky Blair, Margie Duncan, Tom Fadden, Jimmy Garrett, Duane Grey, Chester Hayes, Tex Lambert, Pat Moran, Norman Pabst, John Paxton, Lisa Pons, Buddy Roosevelt, Charles Seel, Tracy Stratford, Felipe Turich, and Joe Yrigoyen.

Debbie and Thelma again starred together a year later in How The West Was Won (1962). Ritter’s character is named Aggie/Agatha in both movies.

It is produced by Jack Cummings, the son of Ida Mayer Cummings, sister of MGM boss Louis B Mayer. After Mayer died, Cummings signed a deal in June 1958 with 20th Century Fox.

Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald (August 21, 1895 – January 14, 1978), also known as Blossom Rock, Marie Blake or Blossom MacDonald, is probably best remembered as Grandmama in The Addams Family. Jeanette MacDonald is her younger sister.

The song ‘The Second Time Around’, with words by Sammy Cahn and music by Jimmy Van Heusen’ was introduced in the 1960 film High Time, sung by Bing Crosby, but it is especially associated with Frank Sinatra, who recorded it for Reprise Records on December 21, 1960.[

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,700

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Debbie and Tab Hunter.