# The Mating Game
**The Mating Game** is a 1959 American romantic comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring [Debbie Reynolds](https://www.edgepedia.org/debbie-reynolds), Tony Randall, and Paul Douglas, produced by [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) Written by William Roberts, it is a very loose adaptation of the 1958 British novel *The Darling Buds of May* by H. E. Bates, transplanted from Kent, England to rural Maryland.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATING-GAME?cxt=filmography) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game) The title has also been used for other works, including a 2021 BBC nature documentary series narrated by [David Attenborough](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-attenborough), a 1972 West End farce by Robin Hawdon, and a 2025 paranormal romance novel by Lana Ferguson.[4](https://silverbackfilms.tv/shows/the-mating-game/) • [5](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/2433/the-mating-game) • [6](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lana-ferguson/the-mating-game/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | April 29, 1959 (United States); the AFI Catalog's details page lists a March 1959 release date[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mating_game) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) |
| Director / writer | George Marshall; screenplay by William Roberts, from H. E. Bates's novel *The Darling Buds of May* (1958)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) |
| Cast | Debbie Reynolds (Mariette Larkin), Tony Randall (Lorenzo Charlton), Paul Douglas (Sidney "Pop" Larkin), Una Merkel (Ma Larkin), Fred Clark (Oliver Kelsey)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) |
| Runtime / format | 96–97 minutes, CinemaScope, Metrocolor, 8,655 feet on 11 reels[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATING-GAME?cxt=filmography) |
| Title song | "The Mating Game," music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, sung by Reynolds over the opening credits[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) |
| Box office | $3,925,000 worldwide[8](https://www.thetvdb.com/movies/the-mating-game) |
| Douglas's last film | Paul Douglas (1907–1959) died of a heart attack on 11 September 1959, a few months after the release[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In a rural area outside Baltimore, Maryland, the affable farmer Sidney "Pop" Larkin borrows his wealthy neighbor Wendell Burnshaw's prize-winning hog to mate with his sow and cheerfully promises Burnshaw the pick of the litter. Outraged, Burnshaw has his lawyer look into the Larkins' tax filings, and the [Internal Revenue Service](https://www.edgepedia.org/internal-revenue-service) district chief Oliver Kelsey learns that Pop has never filed a return. Kelsey assigns his best investigator, Lorenzo Charlton, to the case.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATING-GAME?cxt=filmography)
The Larkins, who trade for everything they need and never buy or sell anything, keep no financial books, so Charlton's audit stalls. Pop welcomes the agent, whom the family nicknames "Charlie," into their home, and the family's hospitality, home-brewed drink, and the charm of the eldest daughter Mariette gradually loosen him up. Pop and Ma decide Charlton is just the sort of man Mariette should marry, and Charlton, attracted to Mariette and increasingly fond of the family, looks for a way to ease their tax burden, to the dismay of his superiors.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053054/plotsummary/) • [10](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/mating-game)
A TIME review of the May 1959 release described the comic set pieces: Pop overwhelms the auditor with irrelevant information and a Maryland crab salad, two of Mariette's grade-school brothers remove the engine from his car as a free "ring job," and a drink called the Laughing Hyena (one part vermouth, two parts gin, three parts whisky) leaves Charlton waking in Mariette's bed, staring at the camera in horror.[11](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C865922-2%2C00.html)
## Production
MGM filmed the picture at its Culver City studios from late September to early November 1958, with a single location day in [Hidden Valley](https://www.edgepedia.org/hidden-valley), California.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATING-GAME?cxt=filmography) • [12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053054/locations/) Robert Bronner was the cinematographer, Jeff Alexander composed the score, Helen Rose designed the costumes, and John McSweeney Jr. edited.[13](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATINGGAME?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=6&sid=3b0be435-2179-4b6b-b73c-21b074e98e89&sr=0.122118734) Philip Barry Jr. produced.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957)
**Casting background.** [Tony Randall](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-randall) came to the film on the heels of television success on *Mr. Peepers* and had played only one previous film lead, in *Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?* (1957); later in 1959 he appeared in *Pillow Talk*. Debbie Reynolds had scored a hit in the backwoods romantic comedy *Tammy and the Bachelor* (1957), which made her a logical choice for the transplanted rural heroine. [Una Merkel](https://www.edgepedia.org/una-merkel), who played Ma Larkin, had teamed with Reynolds twice before, on *I Love Melvin* (1953) and *Bundle of Joy* (1956).[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game)
The film was made during one of the most difficult periods of Reynolds's life, shortly before she filed for divorce from [Eddie Fisher](https://www.edgepedia.org/eddie-fisher); TCM's [Frank Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-miller) called her performance a testament to her professionalism. Alarmed at her weight loss during production, director George Marshall brought a blender to the set and made her milkshakes.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game)
## From novel to screen
H. E. Bates's *The Darling Buds of May* (1958), the first of five books about the Larkins, follows an eccentric English farm family living outside the British socio-political system. When MGM filmed it, the studio moved the story to America and turned the Kent farm family into hillbillies who never pay taxes because they never buy or sell anything. TIME's reviewer called the result a film that "crudely tramples" among the "riotously ribald" novel and reduces it to a "nice, safe, bring-the-whole-family outing in the postcard pastures of Maryland."[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game) • [11](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C865922-2%2C00.html)
Bates's story later returned to England in a more faithful form: the ITV television series *The Darling Buds of May* (1991–1993), which drew on all three Larkin novels and cast the young [Catherine Zeta-Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/catherine-zeta-jones) in the role Reynolds played.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game)
## Reception
The film received generally decent reviews. Bosley Crowther of *The New York Times* compared Reynolds favorably to the French star [Brigitte Bardot](https://www.edgepedia.org/brigitte-bardot) and particularly praised Randall's drunk scene after Charlton is treated to too much of Pop's home-made whiskey.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game) TIME was less kind, faulting George Marshall for playing the film "at a speed less suitable to a romantic comedy than to a board of chess," while conceding that Randall did "a pretty slick job as a straight-face comic."[11](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C865922-2%2C00.html) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer score of 54 percent from three critics, with later reviews calling it a "noisy but good-humored comedy" and a "dated bucolic romantic comedy, with a few funny moments."[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mating_game) IMDb users rate it 6.9 out of 10 from about 2,000 votes.[14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053054/)
Reynolds and MGM were pleased enough with the results to re-team actress and director three more times, on *The Gazebo* (1959), *It Started with a Kiss* (1959), and *How the West Was Won* (1962).[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game) The film was Paul Douglas's last feature; he died of a heart attack on 11 September 1959, a few months after its release.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957)
## Music
The title song, "The Mating Game," with music by [Charles Strouse](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-strouse) and lyrics by Lee Adams, is sung by Reynolds over the opening credits; the film also features [Cole Porter](https://www.edgepedia.org/cole-porter)'s "I've Got You Under My Skin," sung by Randall in a drunken scene.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957) • [15](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/305) Reynolds recorded songs from the film for MGM, including "Canoodlin' Rag," released on an EP in 1959.[16](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mail/Record-Mail-1959-09.pdf)
## Other works titled The Mating Game
The name has been reused several times. *The Mating Game* (2021) is a five-part BBC nature documentary series from Silverback Films, narrated by David Attenborough, about animal mating strategies across five habitats, filmed in 8K.[4](https://silverbackfilms.tv/shows/the-mating-game/) *The Mating Game* is also a full-length farce by Robin Hawdon, first presented at the [Apollo Theatre](https://www.edgepedia.org/apollo-theatre) in London's West End on July 14, 1972, set in a Mayfair apartment full of misbehaving automated gadgets.[5](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/2433/the-mating-game) In sociology, Ellen Lamont's book *The Mating Game: How Gender Still Shapes How We Date* (University of California Press) examines how people of diverse sexualities date and form relationships.[17](https://content.ucpress.edu/catalogs/univ_california_press_s20_intl_lo.pdf) Lana Ferguson's paranormal romance novel *The Mating Game*, about two wolf shifters, was published by Berkley on December 2, 2025.[6](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lana-ferguson/the-mating-game/)
## References
1. [The Mating Game (1959), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/52957)
2. [The Mating Game, AFI Catalog filmography entry](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATING-GAME?cxt=filmography)
3. [Frank Miller, "The Mating Game," TCM article (2004)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/80132/the-mating-game)
4. [The Mating Game, Silverback Films](https://silverbackfilms.tv/shows/the-mating-game/)
5. [The Mating Game, Concord Theatricals](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/2433/the-mating-game)
6. [The Mating Game by Lana Ferguson, Kirkus Reviews](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lana-ferguson/the-mating-game/)
7. [The Mating Game, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mating_game)
8. [The Mating Game, TheTVDB](https://www.thetvdb.com/movies/the-mating-game)
9. [The Mating Game (1959) plot summaries, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053054/plotsummary/)
10. [The Mating Game, Encyclopedia.com (VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever)](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/mating-game)
11. ["Cinema: The New Pictures," TIME, May 25, 1959](https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C865922-2%2C00.html)
12. [The Mating Game (1959) filming locations, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053054/locations/)
13. [The Mating Game production credits, AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52957-THE-MATINGGAME?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=6&sid=3b0be435-2179-4b6b-b73c-21b074e98e89&sr=0.122118734)
14. [The Mating Game (1959), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053054/)
15. [Watch The Mating Game, TCM](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/305)
16. [Record Mail, September 1959](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mail/Record-Mail-1959-09.pdf)
17. [Ellen Lamont, The Mating Game: How Gender Still Shapes How We Date, University of California Press](https://content.ucpress.edu/catalogs/univ_california_press_s20_intl_lo.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1950s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license