David Allen "The Catered Affair" (1956) Is Wonderful....Acting, Writing, Direction...Wall-To-Wall Quality Thru and Thru!Bette Davis stated this movie was the best she ever did, and her favorite. I can see why.I'm a collateral relative of Bette's (also of 8 other famous movie actors, FYI), and have studied her career.She did this movie before the strange horror movies she did in the 1960's (e.g "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" etc.), way before she acted in "The Whales Of August" (1967) old ladies waiting to die movie with Lillian Gish, who was over 90 in 1987.But in 1956, Bette Davis wasn't yet doing freak, or unusually old age character movies. She was still normal. Depicted as married to Ernest Borgnine (a fellow Best Actor Academy Award winner), depicted as then young Debbie Reynolds' mother....letting Debbie know at the start of the movie that marriage is no joy ride (how true, how true....I was married 3 times.....well, the first week all 3 times as a joy ride, but after that...? Damn!)Bette Davis, Debbie Reynolds, Ernest Borgnine, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor, screenplay by Gore Vidal based on a Paddy Chaevsky play.....all presented only one year after Chaevsky's and Borgnine's triumph with "Marty" (1955) starring Ernest Borgnine, who won the Best Actor Academy Award for that movie.Both Gore Vidal and Ernest Borgnine passed away recently in 2012, almost 60 years after the 1956 "Catered Affair" movie was released.Wonderful Bette Davis is long gone by now, then young, sweet Debby Reynolds is now past age 80.......These incredible people were part of s simple black and white movie about working class Irish-Americans in NYC in the early 1950's worth seeing and worth thinking about.Movies like this one, based on stage plays, show off good acting and thoughtful ideas.....gimmicky visuals and other eye candy are not the main thing......the actors and the writing, and the ideas of the gifted authors (Chaevsky and Vidal here) carry the whole thing, with the help of understated but still highly skilled direction (Richard Brooks directed this movie, and did a great job).My breath is taken away.SEE this old movie, Americans and others living in 2012 and beyond.It sets a standard almost never achieved in the present era. It was done, created in a Golden Age now past by people mostly angels by now, or soon to be.----------------------------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for movie credits, biography, and recent (2012) photos of Tex Allen. Email Tex Allen at TexAllen@Rocketmail.ComSee other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments (paste this address into your URL Browser)

rbrb This is a very poignant and impressive movie, which stands the test of time.And glad to see some of the main performers are still with us despite the fact the picture is over 50 years old. The film is about a family struggling financially and the head of the household has to decide whether to forgo getting a share in his own taxi cab or use what limited resources he has for his daughter's wedding. In my view the gnawing hardship and consequences of lack of money has rarely ever been so honestly portrayed as it is here; the writing in the film is super and there are first class performances from every single player. The actress in the part of the one to be the maid of honor is sensational. 8/10.

bkoganbing 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.

MarieGabrielle Although this is a bit dated, the actors make this film a must see. It is realistic and well-done. Bette Davis gives her all, and is sympathetic as an Irish immigrant who wants the best (and biggest) wedding for her only daughter (well-portrayed by a very young Debbie Reynolds).Written by Paddy Chayefsky, this film covers the subject of weddings so much better than for example "Father of the Bride" (unnecessary rantings and fussing over nothing). In this family a wedding is a big deal, because they have little money.Ernest Borgnine is effectual as the blue collar cab driver, worried about his wife's increasing expenses, reception hall, limousines even (!.) Borgnine is sympathetic and believable as your average Joe, wanting the best for his daughter but unable to afford it. The focus is not even on the young couple, more so on the parents and what wishes and hopes they have had for their children.A supreme performance by Davis as a disappointed woman, who ultimately conveys the story of a mothers love and concern for her daughter. The wedding was more for her, Borgnine points out; think about me I am your husband. She eventually relents and uses funds to help him buy his own taxi service. A relevant and touching story. 9/10.