The Mating Game (film) The Mating Game (film) The Mating Game (1959) is an MGM Metrocolor film in CinemaScope directed by George Marshall, and starring Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall and Paul Douglas in his final film role. Reynolds sings the title song during the opening credits. The film was written by William Roberts very loosely based on a British novel, "The Darling Buds of May" by H. E. Bates, which was later adapted into a more faithful 1991–93 British miniseries, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role that Debbie Reynolds plays in the film. The film has been featured on Turner Classic Movies, and was
Josephine White Bates Josephine White Bates Josephine White Bates (8 July 1862 – 1934) was a Canadian-born American author who preferred to use her married name Mrs. E. Lindon Bates. She was the author of "A. Blind Lead", 1886; "Bunch-Grass Stories", 1892; and "Mercury Poisoning in the Industries of New York City and Vicinity", 1912. Josephine White was born 8 July 1862 at Portage du Faur, near Ottawa, Canada, the daughter of George E. and Mary White. She was a student in Lake Forest, Illinois, and at the Lake Forest College, 1876-80. She married Lindon Wallace Bates (born 1858), a hydraulic engineer, of