I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

From my favorite movies..

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Bette Davis perhaps the best actress that Hollywood ever produced pared with one of the best and most under-appreciated actors of all time Ernest Borgnine are man and wife in the wonderful small story about a mother wanting to throw a big wedding for her only daughter that they really can't afford. Borgnine a cab driver who has saved for years to buy his own cab sees his life savings along with his dreams being sunk into the wedding. Debbie Reynolds as the daughter who never wanted a big wedding feels caught in the middle. This movie is a must see for any fans of the cast and of classic Hollywood. Davis, never afraid to play as she later put it "a frump" and is what sets her apart from other Hollywood female actors who once played glamorous parts early in their careers is particularly good in this roll. This paring with Borgnine is what makes this movie a classic.

This is definitely a film for adult eyes because when I first saw this many years ago, I did not appreciate the subject of the film's simple plot. Bette Davis, in a clipped Brooklyn accent, is the tired mother of pending bride to be (an understated and wonderful Debbie Reynolds) and Ernest Borgnine, in a poignant follow-up to "Marty", is the hard-working taxi driver father. The story surrounds the problems the bride's family has in deciding what kind of wedding the family will have. The bride and groom want a small wedding, while Davis has her eyes on a big wedding, especially after she has to break the news to her own brother (Barry Fitzgerald) that he isn't invited to the smaller one they initially planned. Borgnine, desperate to buy his own cab, hopes they'll agree to scale down the plans, but as the groom's family gets involved, it appears that this will never happen. This is a sweet story of the middle-aged couple's seeming lack of love, but like Golde and Tevye of "Fiddler on the Roof", the obvious frustrations of two totally different people doesn't reflect the feelings which really lie underneath. Davis and Reynolds have a poignant scene where Davis apologizes after exploding with her demands and frustrations, and it is one of those larger-than-it-seems moments that rarely happens in films, so wonderfully underwritten by Paddy Chayevsky, the same writer who had earlier written the teleplay. It is apparent that he really understands all of these characters, and each of them are more alive than they were aware they were.Davis also shines in a scene where, while shopping for groceries, she is bombarded by questions from nagging women acquaintances who make all sorts of insinuations. As for Fitzgerald as the somewhat boozy uncle (made to be gay in a recent sweet Broadway musical version), he gets a nice surprising moment of his own thanks to the presence of veteran stage actress Dorothy Stickney as his own lady friend. Like "Marty", this is a masterpiece of understatement and shows that in 1956, a big year for Cinemascope epics and musicals, that less could be more, and the big screen can be filled with big emotions on smaller scales.

"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 [email protected] other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments (paste this address into your URL Browser)

Why is this terrific movie so little known? It's a simply fabulous production on every level. What seems like a relatively mundane theme - the financial stresses that a marriage places on a lower class urban family - is turned by the masterful Paddy Chayevsky into an absolutely gripping domestic drama, and is a reminder to us of his rank as among the greatest of Hollywood screenwriters. The cast is superb. It's wonderful to see the indomitable Betty Davis shine in a role completely different from the patrician parts she usually played. The underrated Ernest Borgnine as great as the put-upon father, as is Debbie Reynolds as the bride-to-be. The legendary Barry Fitzgerald provides comic relief as Uncle Jack. Director Richard Brooks doesn't drop a beat and keeps the dramatic tension moving. By all means do not miss this fantastic flick!