El padre de la novia

For those who like a light comedy diversion, this was pretty good stuff. Spencer Tracy is excellent as a "father of the bride" and he gives us a good idea of what it's like to have a daughter married off. Of course, Hollywood exaggerates a bit, and not everyone's daughter looks like Elizabeth Taylor, but that's what made this fun and, I think, a hit movie.

It must have been a good story and pretty successful for a re-make to be made 40 years later, starring Steve Martin. I watched both versions and would select this one over the re- make. As in most cases, there were more values and family togetherness in the classic-era movies than what Hollywood usually shows today. Nothing against Martin, but it was too difficult trying to top Tracy's performance in here.

This version actually was honored quite a bit, up for a handful of Academy Awards including "Best Picture." I don't remember this movie being THAT good, but everyone's sense of humor is different. Also, not being a father it was hard for me to relate to the mom and dad's predicaments here. Tracy and Joan Bennett played the parents. However, married friends of mine who saw this movie all loved it.

Obviously, some of this is very dated and a little unrealistic. Any father who still sees his daughter as someone in pigtails and tomboyish when she looks like Taylor ain't paying attention! Then again, maybe all dads see their daughters as little girls, no matter what age.

We see something else employed in this film you don't see anymore: someone talking directly to the camera as Tracy does here. I kind of like that. Daffy Duck did that, with hilarious results. So did Groucho Mark. It made us, the audience, feel we were involved with wedding, too.

All in all, still a good film which holds up reasonably well if you can look at it as a farce, and a comment with weddings - something that will never change!

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!

FATHER OF THE BRIDE tells the tale of how the once perfectly serene Banks household, led by genial would-be patriarch Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy), deals with the trials and tribulations that come with the wedding of the family's sweet daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) to her earnest suitor Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor). Pretty much anything that can cause a father's hair to gather even more grey streaks happens in the run-up to this wedding--first, the bills (as indicated in the tagline to the film) start pouring in... then he realises that his wife Ellie (a Joan Bennett almost unrecognisable from her role as Amy March in 1933's LITTLE WOMEN) never got the church wedding she wanted, so he gives in and splashes out for Kay. The guest lists swell beyond his expectations and financial means; the caterer belittles the planned menu *and* the Buckley home; and Kay fights with Buckley and (temporarily, but hair-raisingly) calls off the wedding. In fact, amidst the mess and chaos of the actual wedding itself, the father of the bride doesn't even get to kiss the bride goodbye.

All this might seem mighty familiar to anyone who's seen a 1991 film which, oddly enough, bears the same title, but stars Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and (in a hilarious turn as the effete wedding coordinator) Martin Short instead. The film is, of course, a remake, retaining a great deal of the original 1950 film's dialogue and situations, while updating it for modern times and developing the relationship of the characters further. For example, the two Banks brothers are eliminated for a younger baby brother for Annie (no longer Kay), played by Kieran Culkin. As I recall, the relationship between father and daughter is also better fleshed-out in the remake, as is that between the patriarch and matriarch of the family.

However, even though the 1991 remake is one of the most credible remakes of a classic film ever (I would willingly watch the remake--not something I can say for several other similarly presumptuous films), there are still some areas in which it falls far short of the original. Almost all of these areas have to do with the fact that the remake is lacking its own Spencer Tracy--it is his grasp of the role that makes the original film worth seeing to begin with; otherwise one could just as easily watch the remake and not lose very much in the translation. While Steve Martin does a great job as the title character, Spencer Tracy does a *defining* job. Diane Keaton just about every other scene from Martin (as does Kieran Culkin); Spencer Tracy dominates all the scenes he's in. He plays his role perfectly, with just the right amount of frustration, genuine bemusement, and abiding adoration for his only daughter.

One scene early on in the film captures exactly what Tracy contributes to his role (as he does to all his others): Stanley lies restless in bed, unable to sleep for worrying over Kay's announcement of her intent to marry Buckley. When he wakes Ellie up and starts complaining, watch Tracy as he keeps listing the different things there are to be worried about--he keeps fidgeting on the bed, almost lying back and then snapping upright again when a new horrifying thought enters his mind. The entire scene just rings of truth and you realise just what a great actor Spencer Tracy is, even in slight fare like FATHER OF THE BRIDE.

In the end, although FATHER OF THE BRIDE has a clever script and a generally good supporting cast (Taylor appears beautiful but rather blank most of the time), it is held together by the commanding performance given by Spencer Tracy, and for that reason, becomes a film worth watching. It might also be worth your while to catch the remake, if you haven't already. Both films are sweet and utterly likeable, and a fun way to spend an evening. :)

"Father of the Bride" is a mainly delightful family comedy which benefits from a strong central performance...

One night at dinner, daughter Kay casually announces her engagement... Father and mother react on cue...

Following practically all the events of Edward Streeter's charming novel, the Oscar-Nominated screenplay is a series of comic and warm set pieces: the loving father asks his daughter to invite his future son-in-law for dinner; girl's parents meet boy's parents; prospective bride quarrels with prospective groom... The vignettes are applied with the light Minnelli touch at its most charming, and they are acted with captivating nonchalance by the incomparable Spencer Tracy in the title role and by the beautiful performances of Joan Bennett, Liz Taylor, and Don Taylor…

As the complaining middle class father, thoughtful to his daughter's welfare and watchful as to the distributing of his money, Tracy is incredibly amusing... Torn by jealousy, Tracy is all good-natured father exhausted by the complete weight of the problems leading up to the happy day...

But it's an ensemble show, and as the typical spoiled daughter of a typical mid-American bourgeois, Elizabeth has one of her joyful screen moments, altering and urging her beloved ones with such gentle, persuasive, winning, and gracious manners

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.