Friday, February 08, 2008

Movie review - "The Catered Affair" (1956) **1/2

An attempt to combine Father of the Bride with Marty (working class mother is determined to give her daughter a big wedding whether she likes it or not) doesn't work, chiefly because of the basic idea: it is fun to see Spencer Tracy make a goose of himself because he can afford it, but it is not fun to see Bette Davis throw away her family’s money here. 

There is also Bette Davis’ performance, which is very much an acquired taste - in my opinion, she is horrible and ruins the fine work done by all other members of the cast.

The film was one of many adaptations of TV shows that performed disappointingly in the wake of Marty (The Bachelor Party , 12 Angry Men) and Hollywood cooled on TV as a source of movie ideas, and would not get as excited about the medium again until the spate of movies based on old TV shows in the 1990s.

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