One of a whole slew of movies made as the '50's kicked off for the second half, to cash in on/play catch-up with the rapidly emerging youth culture. By the time 'My Teenage Daughter' hit the big screen in the summer of 1956, no self respecting Ted was blathering on about 'jive'. The tidal wave of rock 'n' roll which had swept across the United States, initially with Bill Haley and the Comets, but more importantly, Elvis, was now taking Britain by storm.
Hanging around fashionable bars, Kenneth Haigh tries to act the hipster, but looks like he's in the middle of a dry run for 'Man at the Top'. Introducing respectable teenager Sylvia Syms to his world of black coffee, cigarettes, fast cars and late night parties, she seamlessly transforms from intellectual prude to intellectual rude girl, by-passing the optional acne along the way.
Syms' journalist mother (Anna Neagle) is the perfect candidate for a key role in the launch of a new magazine, aimed at 14 -18 year old readers. The brainchild of super cool, visionary editor, ....Wilfrid Hyde-White.....who no doubt endured numerous sleepless nights and endless days of brainstorming before deciding to call his new creation....'Teenage'.... WOW!
Neagle's affinity with the younger generation receives a severe jolt, several evenings later, when Syms sends shock waves of such magnitude through the family home that structural damage to the building was inevitable, by announcing her intention to attend a party, at.... HALF PAST NINE!
Haigh and Syms soon catch the attention of the boys in blue, hitting the front page of the evening paper, along with the shock of England losing three quick wickets, following a rain delay. Is Syms discovering to her cost, that despite Haigh's swanky car and hip friends, there's a lot less to him than meets the eye?
One dimensional doesn't even come close to capturing the contrived portrayal of Syms' delinquency by numbers fall from grace. Whilst the recurrent trendy song, 'Get With it' by The Ken -Tones owes more to The Andrews Sisters than rock 'n' roll.
Memorable, largely as Sylvia Syms ' screen debut and for offering a youthful fling to Julia Lockwood, Wanda Ventham and Arthur Mullard, seen briefly as a bouncer, all familiar faces on British T. V. from the 1960's and beyond.
