The Catered Affair [Wedding Breakfast] *** (1956, Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor) – Classic Movie Review 8154

Gifted writer Paddy Chayefsky followed his Marty and The Bachelor Party with another realistic ‘ordinary people’ TV play about Mrs Tom Hurley, a New York Bronx mother insisting on a big wedding with hundreds of guests for her daughter Jane to Ralph, who only want a small wedding with the immediate family and no reception. Jane’s parents are poor and her father Tom has been saving money to buy his own cab and now all that money is going towards a wedding that he, Jane or Ralph do not really want.

MGM turns The Catered Affair (1956) into this star vehicle for Bette Davis (replacing Thelma Ritter from the TV original). As adapted by distinguished novelist Gore Vidal, it is poignant, witty and amusingly down-to-earth.

Director Brooks ensures that it is resoundingly well played by his cast (a dowdy Davis as Aggie Hurley, Ernest Borgnine as her cab driver husband Tom, Debbie Reynolds as the bride Jane Hurley, Barry Fitzgerald as the uncle Jack Conlon and Rod Taylor as the groom Ralph Halloran).

The Catered Affair in not as famous or quite as good as its renowned predecessors, but it is still highly watchable and entertaining.

Also in the cast are Robert F Simon, Madge Kennedy, Dorothy Stickney, Carol Veazle, Joan Camden, Ray Stricklyn, Jay Adler, Dan Tobin, Paul Denton, Augusta Merighi and Mae Clarke.

The Catered Affair [Wedding Breakfast] runs 94 minutes, is shot by John Alton in black and white, is produced by Sam Zimbalist, and scored by André Previn.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8154

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