The Second Time Around

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. 1 1/2 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.

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