Warning to Wantons

Warning to Wantons is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Donald Wilson and starring Harold Warrender, Anne Vernon and David Tomlinson. The screenplay, written by art historian James Laver and the director, was based upon Mary Mitchell's 1934 novel A Warning to Wantons.

A young woman escapes her strict convent school and enters high society, where she has the time of her life.

Credited

Uncredited

It was the first of four films produced by Donald Wilson using prefabricated sets to keep costs down. Filming took six weeks. The film was one of the four of David Rawnsley's films that used his "independent frame" technique, a form of back projection.

Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture compels its audience to take far too much on trust. The staging is spectacular, but this is insufficient compensation for the many inconsistencies in treatment and presentation. It is therefore small wonder that the players, try as they may, failto raise many laughs, touch thee heart or deliver its heavily veiled warning to wild young females. Almost completely baffled ourselves, we fear to contemplate ihe ninepennies' reactions."

Picturegoer wrote: "I found it all highly diverting, if a bit slow after the first half. Sonia. Holm seems too stolidly English as Maria for the play's setting, but Harold Warrender is a delight as the man with a long list of amorous conquests to his credit – or discredit. As Max David Tomlinson is gauchely naive, as only he knows. I hope that during the year we shall have as many more comedies as amusing as this one."

Picture Show wrote: "Heavy-handed handling of what should have been a gay, whimsical trifle, results in this being a pedestrian sort of warning. It is quite well acted, but the fanciful story is a little too confusing."