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My Teenage Daughter
My Teenage Daughter“A war widow bringing up her two
  daughters in peacetime London
  is horrified when her usually-obedient
  eldest child falls in with the wrong
  crowd and becomes insolent and
  uncontrollable, resulting in her arrest
  and threatening her mother’s career
  and romance in My Teenage Daughter...”

WORKING AS A PERSONAL ASSISTANT to a top magazine editor in London, Valerie Carr (Anna Neagle: Odette; Victoria The Great) has brought up her two children with the help of Aunt Bella (Josephine Fitzgerald) after losing her husband in the Second World War.

Living in a beautiful London house, Valerie's beloved daughters, 17-year-old Janet (Sylvia Syms, in an early and demanding serious role: The Queen; Victim) and 13-year-old Poppet (delightfully played by Julia Lockwood) are polite and well-behaved; but all that is to change when Janet, known as Jan, is invited by a well-to-do friend to a party at The Savoy.

“Exploring the tenuous
relationships
between mothers and
teenage daughters
and the minefield
of youthful romance,
the film is an appealing
period piece set in
the changing world after
the terrible and
uncertain Second World
War...”
Her friend Mark (Michael Meacham), a young farmer, is also invited but Jan meets the dashing Tony Ward Black (introducing Kenneth Haigh), the "Deb's Delight", who drives a Bentley and owns a jive club, and becomes infatuated with him.

Jan finds Tony exciting and is soon seeing him regularly, getting more and more involved; however, he is not in reality the wealthy young man she believes him to be. She begins to stay out late and to lock horns with her mother, who is concerned for her safety, and refuses to listen to reason.

Valerie has been promoted to Fiction Editor of a new magazine, Teen Age, and has also met the charming children's writer Hugh Manning (Norman Wooland). As they begin to get closer, Jan starts to get even more out of control and her relationship with her mother breaks down completely.

Inevitably the unthinkable happens and a rebellious Jan commits a traffic offence following which she is implicated in a suspected murder which threatens not only her mother's career but also Valerie's romance with Hugh. Can things ever be the same again, and will Valerie ever get her family back to the way things were?

My Teenage Daughter is one of the successful collaborations between British screen sweetheart Anna Neagle and her director-producer husband Herbert Wilcox (Odette; Irene).

Exploring the tenuous relationships between mothers and teenage daughters and the minefield of youthful romance, the film is an appealing period piece set in the changing world after the terror and uncertainty of the Second World War.

At the time we were seeing huge changes in music and youngsters were being urged to "get with it". Great to see actor and singer Jess Conrad (who also appeared in Cliff Richard's underrated first film, Serious Charge) in a minor role as a dancer.

My Teenage Daughter also features: Wilfred Hyde White as Sir Joseph; Helen Haye as Aunt Louisa Black; Wanda Ventham as Gina; Michael Shepley as Sir Henry; and Avice Landon as Barbara.

Musical Direction is by Stanley Black; Director of Photography is Max Greene; Story and Screenplay by Felicity Douglas; Produced and Directed by Herbert Wilcox.

* My Teenage Daughter is released on DVD in the UK as part of The British Film titles from Network Releasing on 6 October 2014. B&W | Catalogue Number: 7954220 | RRP: £9.99. Special Features: Image Gallery | Original Script PDF | Instant Play Facility.

The British Film collection was launched by Network Distributing in April 2013 as part of a five-year plan to release over 450 vintage British films through a deal with Studiocanal, one of Europe's leading distribution and production companies. Many of the films have never previously been available to own.

"Exploring the tenuous relationships between mothers and teenage daughters and the minefield of youthful romance, the film is an appealing period piece set in the changing world after the terrible and uncertain Second World War" — Maggie Woods