Wonderful character development!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

In this movie, writer Paddy Chayefsky (Marty, Middle of the Night) teams up with director Richard Brooks with the result being a very realistic and heart warming movie about a mother, played by Bette Davis, who gets caught up in her daughter's wedding and feels guilty unless she can turn it into an expensive, "catered affair". As with other movies, Chayefsky skilfully handles a family in conflict. For Davis, as Mrs. Aggie Hurley, it is an unusual role as the housewife and mother of an Irish Catholic family. The1950's setting of New York City's working class borough of the Bronx is well portrayed with its tenements, bridges and grocery markets. The strong cast includes Debbie Reynolds as her daughter Jane, Ernest Borgnine as her husband Tom, Rod Taylor as Jane's fiancé Ralph Halloran and Barry Fitzgerald as uncle Joe Conlon. The small walk-up apartment becomes the setting for family infighting over the size, cost, invitation list and other contentions associated with the wedding. While the circumstances have changed since the 1950's, we can easily imagine this scenario and the social pressures playing out. While Davis initially goes along with the daughter's idea of a small, family wedding, she finds it impossible to resist a more grand event with guests, food, entertainment, rented hall, music, etc. This flies in the face of her husband's plans for his own taxi business, which he has put his life savings towards. Aggie's ambitious wedding plans will eat up all his hard earned money. Neither the daughter or son in law really want it, much less the expense involved. Davis and Borgnine are forced to assess their own marriage and come to terms with a family that is suddenly taking on a new focus. I've always liked Ernest Borgnine although here he seems young compared to Davis. Barry Fitzgerald plays his usual role as the reliable Irish stand-in. Debbie Reynolds gives an excellent performance trying to be the sensible one keeping things from spiralling out of control. Rod Taylor seems a bit out of place in this early movie but he and Reynolds together have great chemistry as the young couple trying to navigate through the family battle. A fine and pleasantly simple movie that still has appeal, I was pleased to catch it on TCM.

I had seen this movie mentioned here and there for years, but neither the title nor the cast list suggested to me that I would enjoy it. (Ive never been that big a fan of either Ernest Borgnine or Bette Davis, although I knew they were fine actors; and putting sweet young Debbie Reynolds in the same scenes with them did not seem promising.) Finally someone whose taste I respected recommended it, so I gave it a try. What a delight! A subtle, intelligent script, with a cast that absolutely did it justice. None of the characters are perfect; none are terrible; and above all, none are simple. What is remarkable to me is the complexity and depth of the characters that is revealed without any one of them ever explaining him- or herself any more articulately than real people do. It took fine writing (Chayevsky may have done this better than anyone else), fine directing, and fine acting all around to accomplish this. Somehow it escapes being distinctly melodramatic, "gritty," bleak, or even particularly sentimental - while at the same time avoiding being too light, or too witty. It is just eminently watchable.

Very good drama about a poor husband and wife (Ernest Borgnine and Bette Davis) who live in a cheap apartment in the Bronx and learn that their only daughter (Debbie Reynolds) is going to be getting married and wants only a very small wedding. Borgnine is all for going the cheap route, as he is a struggling cab driver who's recently trying to scrape together enough cash to buy his own cab and can't see the point in throwing away all his savings on one dinner for strangers; but Davis wants her girl to have a large affair, but mostly to make up for her own miserable wedding and lousy marriage. There are some powerfully charged emotional scenes, and both Davis and Borgnine are very good. Anyone who has ever prepared for a wedding will still be able to relate to much of the craziness that goes on. This is well directed by Richard Brooks, who keeps things moving nicely. Barry Fitzgerald is also a plus as Bette's older bachelor brother who lives in the apartment and might not even be invited to the wedding. ***1/2 out of ****

Back in '56, i saw "the catered affair" but remembered nothing about it, so it was with deep anticipation last night when i saw it on TCM. I have not enjoyed a film more than this one. First of all, the professionalism of the four main actors shines through; all the more when one realizes that the part of a lower middle- class Irish-American Bronx couple of the fifties is not one that one associates with Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine, a superb actor of Italian background, takes on the part of an Irish-American cabbie with no trouble at all. Davis, whom i have always associated with parts as scheming southern belles, or rich women with some sort of evil agenda, carries off her part superbly, even though the Irish accent is not too discernible. The Irish temperament is very discernible. Miss Reynolds, here again an anomaly, a musical star taking on a straight dramatic role...no problem. Fitzgerald, well, here we have him acting an avuncular part that no one would be surprised by. it's easy to see Mickaleen O'Flynn or Fr. Fitzgibbon from earlier parts...no change. It's not surprising that this was miss Davis's favorite film; her crying scene was worth the Oscar by itself. I appreciated local on-site locations showing the Bronx courthouse with the old Yankee Stadium, replete with the original light stands in the background and the Bronx Concourse hotel (i had my own wedding reception there). The church shown appears to be St Raymond's on Tremont ave. a tremendously entertaining film that runs the gamut of all emotions; some laughs, some tears.