Despedida de soltero

"Look Back In Anger," which came out on film a year after this, is a far more famous and influential work. Yet it doesn't hold up. The charter of Jimmy Potter, the original angry young man, seems extremely disagreeable. That film is beautifully acted.

"The Bachelor Party," on the other hand, though a far lesser work, does not seem dated. Oh sure: The money is different. The approach to women is antithetical to Women's Liberation. But it's a nice little movie.

Of the Paddy Chayevsky movies from this time, I would rate "The Catered Affair" as the best. Next would come this. Then would be the feted "Marty," which is extremely dated.

Don Murray makes a highly likable main character. The other men are good too. The women don't register so well. And in particular, the gifted Carolyn Jones's role has not held up well: She plays a character called The Existentialist. Murray meets her at a Beatnik party in Greenwich Village -- and a highly improbable one, at that. She doesn't seem Bohemian. She seems like a garden variety kvetch.

But it's an easy movie to like and one I would recommend.

(It seems to me a precursor to the John Cassavetes buddy movies that were to begin a few years later.)

Delbert Mann directed another Paddy Chayefsky script(he wrote "Marty", which Mann directed) about five office workers and friends who celebrate the forthcoming marriage of one of them(played by Philip Abbott) Charlie Samson(played by Don Murray) is the thoughtful one of the group, whose wife(played by Patricia Smith) is expecting a baby, putting more stress on him. He will come to appreciate his family more after an eventful night, with angst-ridden Walter(played by E.G. Marshal) stable Kenneth(played by Larry Blyden) and the loud but lonely bachelor(played by Jack Warden). Carolyn Jones costars as a beautiful but lonely existentialist. Well-written and acted film about family life and self-determination has somehow been overlooked by time, since it has yet to be released on DVD for some reason; until then, VHS will have to do!

Remember in the 1955 film, "Marty," a group of guys keep asking, "So, what are we going to do tonight?" That film as well as this one was directed by Delbert Mann with the writing done by Paddy Chayefsky. In "Bachelor Party" the guys really don't seem to know again what they're going to be doing.

Despite excellent performances by Don Murray, E.G. Marshall, Larry Blyden and Nancy Marchand, this film stagnates. I was almost getting dizzy from the constant subway rides. It was great seeing what the New York subways looked like in the 1950s but enough was enough.

When several guys in an office plan a bachelor party for a nervous to-be-groom, nicely done by Philip Abbott, it becomes an evening of self-examination.

I was waiting for a burst out scene but unfortunately that never came.

Much has been made about Carolyn Jones's brief supporting Oscar nomination bid. As far as I'm concerned, it was much ado about nothing. Patricia Smith, as Don Murray's wife, and Nancy Marchand, as the sister-in-law, gave far better performances as an anxious-to-be mother and sister-in-law whose husband, a doctor, has been cheating on her.

Jack Warden epitomizes the care-free bachelor whose main purpose in life is to chase after women. His life is quite empty as we see at the end of the film. Larry Blyden, who left us way too early, depicts the stay-at-home type who quickly realizes that this "party" is a mistake and that he belongs home. Marshall does a complete turn in acting as the asthmatic member of the group who has to relocate to Arizona if he wants to survive.

The film conveys the frustrations of every day life. Someone should have told the film makers about the frustrations in this film as well.

This is basically a story of five buddies who miss the freedom of their youth. We might have less legal and moral restrictions 65 years later but the story is still basically the same.

Good script, good performances and Carolyn Jones will leave you wanting much more. I don't get the complaints about the ending. I don't want to give any spoilers so I won't go into detail.

A "slice of life" drama centered around a bachelor party. Don Murray plays a newly married, not very happily married, man. His vague dissatisfaction with his marriage is tested as he wander into Greenwich Village (nicely filmed on location)and compares himself to his friends--an older, struggling married man, the bridegroom, the confirmed bachelor. Will he stray or not? The movie is depressing, far less uplifting than Marty. But good performances from Murray, Jack Warden and Carolyn Jones.