La notte dello scapolo

THE BACHELOR PARTY is adapted from Paddy Chayefsky's TV play and is a watered down version of other Chayefsky stories about lonely men and the lives they live--even when married.

It's downbeat all the way, beginning with an office scene where an obnoxious JACK WARDEN monopolizes office routine with his loud personal calls as he arranges for the evening's bachelor party. Reluctantly, happily married DON MURRAY agrees to attend, giving himself a night off from night school studies, although his reluctance is partly due to the fact that his wife is expecting their first child. LARRY BLYDEN just wants a night out with the boys and PHILIP ABBOTT is the soon to be groom, a "Marty" type of guy, shy with the gals, who reveals during the course of the evening that he's not ready for marriage.

The talk is natural, the dialog is very much Chayefsky's gift for simple folks expressing themselves in ways we can all relate to--and yet, the film lacks pace and shows its origin--a TV play that is character driven but not open enough for the screen.

CAROLYN JONES has a brief party scene that she plays well as an "existentialist" mouthing gibberish and for some reason she got an Oscar nomination for what is almost a bit role. Unbelievable.

Summing up: A disappointment, noteworthy only for the sincerity of all the performances with DON MURRAY especially likable and straightforward in his portrayal of the conflicted husband.

"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.)

Please don't think I'm exaggerating when I call this movie a "must see." Other reviews have called this film depressing. I agree, but for entirely different reasons. The depressing part comes in realizing that there seems to be no room for the sort of superb writing and spot-on flawless performances in a mature drama such as we have offered to us by THE BACHELOR PARTY.

The reason for the scarcity of wonderful films like this owes to the movie's origin as a TV-play, at a time when the young medium was still showing outstanding pieces written by writers like the author of this screenplay, Paddy Chayefsky.

I once read an interview with King Vidor, discussing his amazing 1928 classic, THE CROWD. He said that there were people that he didn't care for in his life, but that he didn't have any actual "villains." His goal was to make a movie that, like life, was free from external fiends and instead was peopled with characters that had some internal obstacles over which they must prevail. That's the sort of thing that Chayefsky so brilliantly captured in THE BACHELOR PARTY. Each character had some missing or broken part with which they struggled. Some seem to triumph over their problems. Some might eventually. Some, well, let's simply say they have a long road ahead.

It was great to see E.G. Marshall and Jack Warden together again after seeing them in another movie from the same year (1957) - 12 ANGRY MEN. It was wonderful to see Philip Abbot as the nervous groom. Folks of a certain age will mostly recall him from dozens of guest-star appearances on popular TV shows. I didn't realize that Larry Blyden, who I mostly remember from classic game shows like "Match Game," "What's My Line?" "Password" and "To Tell the Truth" was also such an accomplished actor. The lead, Don Murray, isn't as highly regarded today and what a pity that is. I can't recall a Don Murray performance that I didn't like. Check out BUS STOP (1956), A HAT FULL OF RAIN (1957), HOODLUM PRIEST (1961), BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL (1964) and THE BORGIA STICK (1967) to get an idea of what this remarkable performer is capable of doing. And finally, in small roles, it was fun to see a pre-"Addams Family" Carolyn Jones in a part that bagged her a Best Supporting Actress nomination and Nancy Marchand as a friend or the main character's wife. Many of you know her as the mother from hell to Tony Soprano.

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.

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.