Vater der Braut

When I watch either this version or the Steve Martin version of Father of the Bride, I always think of my poor brother now. He's the father of girls 21 and 19 so he will have to deal with what Spencer Tracy did twice.

This film was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's big moneymakers at the tail end of Louis B. Mayer's reign. It certainly has a theme, one that we can all identify with. 55 years after Father of the Bride came out, fathers all over the world will be overwhelmed by weddings. It will be so 100 years from now.

Twelve years after he won his second Oscar in Boystown, Spencer Tracy got an Oscar nomination for Stanley Banks, beleaguered and harried father of one of the most beautiful brides ever to grace the screen. It's on his performance, narrated in flashback by him, that the whole film rises or falls. Of course Tracy never let an audience down.

By coincidence the publicity surrounding Elizabeth Taylor's first marriage came as this film was being made and released. Sad that Liz Taylor never settled down to a stable marriage with a loving, faithful husband as Kay Banks did with Buckley Dunstan. But she sure is a bride for all seasons.

Of course the wedding, the planning, the cost, the disruption to the lives of the Banks household is the film. Who of us who dealt with having a wedding didn't have to deal with a snooty caterer? A formal announcement party that Tracy puts on and can't enjoy because he's stuck behind a jerry-built bar in his kitchen? A wedding rehearsal that can't seem to come off? Universal and timeless themes.

Joan Bennett registers well as the patient and loyal mother of the bride who has to deal with both her husband and daughter losing their minds to pre-wedding jitters. Moroni Olsen and Billie Burke and their son, Don Taylor, do just fine as the groom's side. And Leo G. Carroll is the wedding caterer from snob city. Maybe Clifton Webb could have done it better, if MGM could have afforded him, but Carroll is just fine.

My favorite moment in Father of the Bride is in the midst of all the chaos, Tracy looks at the older of Taylor's two brothers, Tom Irish, and tells him with great relief that when he gets married, his only contribution to the wedding will be him. My brother has to go through two daughters before he can say that to my nephew.

My favourite performance of Spencer Tracy's from all the work he did in thirty-seven years in the movies - here he plays harassed father Stanley Banks struggling to cope with the comedy of his daughter Kay's wedding. Kay is played by the young and beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, who had just been married for the first time in real life; and her intended is played by Don Taylor, an actor I haven't seen in anything else, and can't really remember doing anything of interest in this. The family is completed by Joan Bennett as Tracy's wife, and Rusty (later Russ) Tamblyn as their youngest child.

Although the movie does play up the comic potential of the wedding situation - the dad dreams of losing his trousers as he walks down the aisle, for example - it also has moments of poignancy, especially in the last few sequences where the parents dance together in the post-party mess of their once-pristine house. This kind of thing puts the movie above the ordinary, and is exactly what was missing in the Steve Martin remake years later.

And don't let me forget Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the groom's parents - really funny!

A middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income lawyer has his domestic tranquillity destroyed when his 20-year-old daughter announces that she is going to get married. Stanley Barnes, nominal head of the Barnes household, finds himself increasingly marginalised as the wedding approaches.

Tracy underplays Stanley and judges his performance beautifully. He is the staid old dinosaur at the centre of the hubbub. Whereas Steve Martin in the 1991 version played the father as a manic plunger into other people's swimming-pools, Tracy can raise a laugh by lying motionless in bed, staring into space.

Stanley's wife Ellie is played by Joan Bennett, and hers is the comedy of manners, manoeuvring through the various social minefields which she encounters. She restrains Stanley from yelling in front of the domestic help, harbours doubts about Kay and Buckley (unlike Diane Keaton's character in the remake) and gets nervous and embarrassed in front of the in-laws. It is touching for us to learn that she regrets not having had a white wedding of her own, and this gives her a credible motivation for the spendfest which follows.

This film is surer of itself than is the remake, at least in part because in 1950 the social demarcations were clearer and more solidly-grounded. The Barnes family lives in a bourgeois community in which the 'rules' are universally understood. There has to be an engagement party, and a formal visit to the in-laws. These procedural steps en route to the wedding are unquestioned. In the 1991 version, the notion of 'being middle class' has expanded and grown nebulous. The in-laws are simply richer, not socially superior. The milestones towards the marriage are fumbled for - no-one is comfortable with the protocol. Even the man-to-man talk feels inappropriate.

Interestingly, Stanley is able to get away with being a garrulous bore. Martin strives for the viewer's sympathy, whereas Tracy is assured enough to let his character have shortcomings. He does not need to swing from ballustrades to get laughs, because he has enough presence and authority simply to be what he is, and to allow the humour to arise out of the situation.

Tracy can, however, mime with the best of them. The slightly-too-short waistcoat is great fun, and his silent reactions to the bust-up and reconciliation are marvellous. The film contains lots of goodies, like the expressionist nightmare or the quiet moment when Tracy is alone with the floral displays, seemingly hemmed-in by the frippery of the wedding. Director Minnelli is a master at ensemble 'babble' scenes, and this film has some good ones.

Verdict - light comedy, supremely well-crafted

This is Spencer Tracy's movie all the way, and that was a good choice. He is excellent as the eponymous, point-of-view character and narrator. He is a bit past his prime as a romantic lead, so being the father character fit him well. Elizabeth Taylor's part was not really all that large, but her beauty was undeniable.

This film's release date is 1950, which brings to mind (to me) that it was only five years removed from the war, tough times for everyone, but this goes unmentioned in the film. Perhaps audiences then did not care to be reminded too much of wounds so fresh.

So, while not at all an uproarious comedy, it carried a wry wit throughout. Pretty good film.

Delightful MGM comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age. It's going to be a great wedding if can Dad survive it. But every time he thinks he's paid the last expense another one arrives. Sure, he's a prosperous attorney, still the plans just keep growing and growing, as do his humorous frustrations. But then, who wants to disappoint sweetly loving daughter Kay (Taylor), even if her intended, Buckley (Don Taylor), wants to spend their honeymoon in the sub-Arctic for salmon fishing! Now there's every girl's post- matrimonial dream. Good thing Mom (Bennett) furnishes solid family support as the wedding plans totter along.

All in all, the flick's a Tracy showcase. His brand of grouchy humor is perfect for the beseiged Dad; after all, will his patience give out before his wallet does. It's an 18-year old Taylor as the bouncy ingenue, some distance from her feisty, more mature roles, but awesomely pretty nonetheless. And get a load of that over-whelming crowd stampeding the wedding reception - will Dad survive. Good thing it's the stalwart Tracy. I guess my only reservation is that weird dream sequence that just drops into the middle part, too surreal and off-putting, to combine with the humorous flow. Good thing it soon passes.

Overall, I think the movie captures the spirit of the times when post-war prosperity was overtaking Depression era thrift as Dad struggles to adjust to expanding expectations. So catch up with it if you can. It's Tracy at his gruffly humorous best.