the audience applauded

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a superb chamber play, with just a handful of actors.Ernest Borgnine, Bette Davies, and the rest of the cast are just magnificent! Seldom I've watched such a 'Kammerspeile' that has me smiling so much as this one, although it is a pretty sad story!Each time I see this movie, it brings a smile to my face, although it is mostly a sad tale about the realities of life!A hard to find DVD, by the way, my copy being Spanish; far from my native language!Nothing more to add!IMDb needs ten lines, hope this is enough!If not, I give up!

Based on a television play by Paddy Chayevsky, with a screenplay by Gore Vidal, THE CATERED AFFAIR focuses on Jane's (Debbie Reynolds) decision to marry Ralph (Rod Taylor). Neither of them want an elaborate wedding; a small ceremony would be perfectly sufficient. Jane's mother Aggie (Bette Davis) will not hear of it, and proposes to organize an elaborate wedding breakfast, even though the cost of it will absorb the $4K that represents Aggie and husband Tom's (Ernest Borgnine's) life savings. This inevitably causes familial conflict, which is further fueled by the continued threats issues by Aggie's brother Jack (Barry Fitzgerald) to quit their house for various reasons. Richard Brooks' film is notable for its use of tight camera angles focusing on the protagonists' every gesture: Aggie's deteriorating emotional state is signaled through the way in which she repeatedly clasps and unclasps her hands. In one memorable sequence, designed to reveal Tom's sense of social inferiority, Brooks shows a close-up of Tom's side profile juxtaposed with that of Ralph's father Joe (Robert Simon). While Joe's face dominates the screen, the viewer's eye is drawn towards Tom, who keeps trying to enter the conversation yet finds himself continually interrupted. No one, it seems, has the time to listen to a mere cab- driver. THE CATERED AFFAIR is very fixed in its views of gender: as a homemaker Aggie is expected to play a secondary role to that of her breadwinner husband Tom. This has an essential bearing on the film's ending, which seems a little forced, almost as if Chayefsky and screenwriter Vidal were trying to tie up the loose ends of the plot as quickly as possible. THE CATERED AFFAIR is seldom shown on television, but represents a good example of Davis' mid-career oeuvre.

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.

Very good drama about a poor husband and wife (Ernest Borgnine and Bette Davis) who live in a cheap apartment in the Bronx and learn that their only daughter (Debbie Reynolds) is going to be getting married and wants only a very small wedding. Borgnine is all for going the cheap route, as he is a struggling cab driver who's recently trying to scrape together enough cash to buy his own cab and can't see the point in throwing away all his savings on one dinner for strangers; but Davis wants her girl to have a large affair, but mostly to make up for her own miserable wedding and lousy marriage. There are some powerfully charged emotional scenes, and both Davis and Borgnine are very good. Anyone who has ever prepared for a wedding will still be able to relate to much of the craziness that goes on. This is well directed by Richard Brooks, who keeps things moving nicely. Barry Fitzgerald is also a plus as Bette's older bachelor brother who lives in the apartment and might not even be invited to the wedding. ***1/2 out of ****