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