Catered Affair (1956)

Stars Can't Rescue Dreary Material

Dreary settings, dreary story, dreary moralistic ending. Bette Davis attempts a lower-class New York Irish accent, with little success, and there is absolutely no chemistry between her and Ernest Borgnine, doing a rehash of his Marty role with a bitter edge. Debbie Reynolds in a non-comic role is surprisingly good, but also unconvincing as the poor daughter of a cab driver. Barry Fitzgerald provides a much-needed spark of life, and, of course, is the only one with a convincing characterization. The story wraps up conveniently with the central characters having sudden, inexplicable changes of heart. Definitely a disappointment. June 1, 2006

A Woman Who Wants More

Bette Davis glumly acts her way through this working class-soap opera by Paddy Chayevsky, whose inherent misogyny undercuts his social realist message. Davis plays Agnes Hurley, a poor, but socially ambitious woman in the Bronx married to Tom, a decent, but not too bright, cabbie. The title "A Catered Affair" refers to the elaborate wedding she's planning for her daughter Jane, even though it will wipe out their life savings. But Jane defies her mother and decides on a private wedding and adding insult to injury, her bachelor brother Jack decides to marry his sweetheart. Both Jane's and Jack's weddings, and their personal happiness, force Agnes to face the barren emotional life she shares with Tom. Agnes is portrayed as domineering and unloving--her longing for more excitement and class respectability in her drab life is treated as a form of selfishness, if not depravity. "I guess you'll be doin' housework soon, too," she sourly says to her daughter, as Jane walks out the door with her fiancee. Jane may think her life will be different from her mother's, but we know she'll be in for a rude surprise.

Like so many other leftist male writers of the fifties, Chayevsky's socially progressive ideas didn't extend to the lives of women. Could Agnes' dissatisfaction have to do with the fact that she's obviously an intelligent woman with nothing to do all day stuck in dreary apartment married to a man who isn't very bright? Sure, Tom's a decent guy, but doesn't she have a right to expect more? If this were a story by Edna Ferber, Agnes would have taken the money she saved for Jane's wedding and started her own catering business and made millions. She would have set up Tom in his own limousine service. But no, in the film's depressing ending, Agnes has a "change of heart" and decides to dedicate her life to mothering her sweet, but dimwitted husband.

Left-wing films like this made during the fifties are actually more reactionary than the glitz turned out by Hollywood studios. Actresses like Doris Day and Judy Holliday played working-class girls unwilling settle for lives like Agnes'. No wonder audiences flocked to see them and gave films like Chayevsky's the brush-off. And in real life, Bette Davis herself would never have accepted the dreary life Agnes resigns herself to by the end of the film. Why Davis thought it was her best film is beyond me. But it gets five stars for being a perfect period piece that illustrates the repressive social expectations dumped on women, even (or perhaps especially) by the male left. May 14, 2006

I love this!!!

This movie is kind of depressing in some ways, but it hit me in a special way, and I love this film. I think the reason I like this so much is the fact that the characters are real, and the situations are real. The relationships are frustrating to say the least, but the actors do such a good job of selling themselves to you, that you are able to relate to them in some way. You may even realize that you are one of the characters on the screen!

I never was a Bette Davis fan until recently, but I have realized she is a great actress, and this movie accentuates this. Good acting all around and, although I have watched plenty of films more fun than this, "The Catered Affair" is very entertaining.

Enjoy this special movie with a loved one! March 21, 2006

It's a Fantastic Catered Affair, with Bette Davis

This is a great Bette Davis/Ernest Borgnine film from 1956.

It isn't enough that her daughter be happily married to a man she loves. The wedding must be a catered affair. The best. So says middle-class housewife Aggie Hurley (Bette Davis) when her daughter Jane (Debbie Reynolds) announces she will be married "next Tuesday." A fancy wedding will wipe out the family's meager savings and husband Tom's (Ernest Borgnine's) dream of buying his own taxicab business. But Aggie sees only the wedding she never had and the need to impress others. She soon turns the family upside down as she proceeds with her plans.

Gore Vidal adapted Paddy Chayefsky's "slice-of-life" teleplay for the screen. It concerns "little people involed in small situations which have significance in large, human terms" (Motion Picture Herald). And it is similar to Chayefsky's Marty, which won Oscars in 1955 for him and Borgnine. Under Richard Brook's strong direction -- and the realistic glare of the bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling of their poor Bronx flat -- The Catered Affair shows Chayefsky's "little people" dishing out a story of great heart.

"One of my proudest efforts as an actress"

- Bette Davis in Whitney Stine's Mother Goddam December 17, 2005

BETTE DAVIS NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME!!!!!!!

I have enjoyed many Bette Davis movies, but had never seen this underrated gem. There are so many layers of this story that really blend together, as well as a truly talented cast. This film should be a must see guide for the single and engaged women who fall under the pressures and outrageous expense of getting married. So many women make the mistake of falling in love with the fantasy of a wedding and not the reality of taking vows and knowing the true meaning of being married after the honeymoon is over.
I liked when Bette's character pointed out the importance of marriage in the bad times as well as good. Too many people forget the challenges of really sharing your life with a person and sometimes putting their needs above your own. Thank goodness I can always pop in a Bette Davis movie and be truly amazed by her talent!!! She is and will always be the First Lady of Film!!! May 16, 2005

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