Un mariage du tonnerre

Paddy Chayefsky wrote this second ode to the Bronx to follow up what he had received in acclaim from Marty. Though The Catered Affair did not win all the awards that Marty did, it certainly is a well done film with a lot of merit on its own.

The Jewish Chayefsky certainly was a good observer of the other cultures where he grew up. Marty was about an Italian butcher who starts to find romance late in his life. The Catered Affair is about a young Irish couple getting married and the effect a big wedding is having on the family finances and structure.

Ernest Borgnine switches quite easily from working class Bronx Italian to working class Bronx Irish. He barely makes enough to support a wife, two surviving children and a brother-in-law, Barry Fitzgerald who lives with them. One son was killed during World War II.

Bette Davis was at her most drab on the screen, but that's not to say she was not great. Richard Brooks put a tight rein on all her Betteisms and got a fabulous performance out of her as the Bronx housewife who wants to live vicariously through a big wedding for daughter Debbie Reynolds. It's been a hard life for her and the family and she wants a little glamor in it.

Rod Taylor and Debbie Reynolds are an appealing young couple and Robert F. Simon and Madge Kennedy do fine as Taylor's parents. The best part of A Catered Affair is Barry Fitzgerald and Dorothy Stickney as the woman who woos him away from free loading on his sister. Davis and Borgnine certainly had a challenge just to keep the whole picture from being stolen by Barry Fitzgerald in what was really his last great part.

A few people have compared The Catered Affair with Father of the Bride and the problems that upper middle class lawyer Spencer Tracy faces as compared to lower middle class cab driver Ernest Borgnine faces in giving their daughters an expensive wedding. It's that other Bronx family of the same era, the fabulous and illegally rich Corleones that beggars comparison. I look at that wedding scene that from The Godfather and the lavishness that was bestowed on Talia Shire's wedding and who wouldn't want a wedding like that. But I have a feeling that Reynolds and Taylor will make it last, a lot more than the much married Connie Corleone did.

I did so like looking at the Bronx in the Fifties where at least some establishing shots were done. The first time I was in the Bronx was for my first Yankee game. It's changed a lot now, but a place like Morris Park for the Italians and Woodlawn for the Irish still has the flavor of the areas where the Hurleys and Hallorans of The Catered Affair and the Pilettis from Marty lived and worked.

And if you like seeing the New York of your childhood, The Catered Affair is a film to enjoy.

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 ****

I enjoyed this movie very much. It seems like it was originally done as a television drama and ended up being released theatrically. The cast, screenwriter and director are all top of the line and they all did very good work in this little seen movie. I believed in each character and the drama is not overdone at all.

I happened upon A Catered Affair on TCM recently by chance upon hearing the channels announcement it was written by Paddy Chayefsky; I was knocked out by Network, so I gave this one a chance. I recommend you do too. Wow! This film is real, gritty, poignant. It demands your intelligent attention, as every moment counts. I agree with Wayne Malin's overall review here, but would rate Debbie Reynolds performance more highly. I experienced her portrayal as a true rendering of a vulnerable, sensitive young woman coming of age. We empathize with the characters, who are given due weight throughout the story's development. We care and see the motivations of each person as they struggle to come to terms with complex issues that overwhelm them. Layers of competing interests collide with depth and resonance. Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine are magnificent, as are the supporting actors, most notably the grooms father and the brides best friend/maid of honor. As far as the ending, I found it a bit more believable than Mr Malin; the mom is faced with the realization that she's always had generations of family around her, who are all now leaving. She is about to live the rest of her life with the husband she has denegrated all their married life, the circumstances of which make us empathize with her meanness. Mom is faced with unwanted choices placed upon her. Instead of blaming others for her fate, a lifetime habit, she must choose either to leave the marriage, live in misery and loneliness which she now suspects has been somewhat self imposed, or admit some things about herself and open up a little, allowing for the possibility of some joy between them in their remaining years.

An unjustly neglected "kitchen sink" movie from the fifties, with fine performances by all and intriguing New York locations.

Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine portray the very much working-class parents of a young woman who is about to get married, and just wants a quick ceremony with no reception. But the mother, guilty about "not giving her daughter anything" over the years, pushes for an expensive "catered affair" that her husband cannot afford, and would use money he planned to devote to buying a taxicab license.

Davis' brassy performance has received the most attention, but Borgnine's subtle, nuanced portrayal of the father is what really sustains this movie. Barry Fitzgerald provides comic relief as a "oirish" uncle. Altogether a charming and touching film that is very much a slice of life of NYC in the fifties. Like the other Chayefsky scripts of this era, it explores themes that would have been unpalatable or mawkish for any other writer.