Like many other musical films produced in the wake of The Sound of Music's overwhelming success, Half a Sixpence was a resounding commercial failure. Even on Broadway, the material had been received very coolly; what had made the production work was its star and Onna White's exhausting choreography. The film version keeps star Tommy Steele, but replaces White with Gillian Lynne, whose work is fine, but nothing special. The story is exceptionally slight and overly predictable, and the weak dialogue doesn't help. The score is pleasant but not strong enough to overcome problems with the script, which places a tremendous burden on Steele and director George Sidney. Steele is consistent throughout, but Sidney's work varies wildly from sequence to sequence, and sometimes from frame to frame; there's an uncertainty in the cinematographic look of the film, with a helter-skelter use of soft focuses and gimmicks (altered-pace motion, etc.). However, several segments work very well, especially the Regatta, which is extremely well edited, and the subsequent dinner scene, which makes a clichéd situation seem somewhat fresh. Steele is good, although he doesn't have the commanding presence onscreen that one assumes he had live; his performance is a little too stagebound and a little too calculated. As Ann, Julia Foster is charming and very appealing, and Grover Dale's too-few dance moments are worth seeing. Sets and costumes are excellent, although they sometimes are diminished by inappropriate lighting.