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
The Two Sisters (novel) The Two Sisters (novel) The Two Sisters was the first novel published by English author H. E. Bates in 1926. It was his first novel, though he had published a one-act play "The Last Bread" earlier that year.The book was inspired by one of his midnight walks, which took him to the small village of Farndish in Bedfordshire. There, late at night, he saw a light burning in a cottage window and it was this that triggered the story. It was written when Bates was only 19 living in Rushden and working as a warehouse clerk. It was rejected by