This is such a sweet and marvelous film, and yet it has few plot twists or dramatic moments. Instead, it's a slice of life film about a middle-aged man who is coming to reluctantly accept that his "little girl" is growing up and getting married. The leisurely pace of the film is absolutely perfect as it looks like you are taking a peek at the life of these real and yet likable people. What I mean by saying "real" is that of course Tracy is flawed (but aren't we all) but much like someone who might have been your neighbor or coworker back in 1950s America. Real and ordinary,...and yet still interesting and sweet. And this niceness should NOT be mistaken for blandness--no this guy is NOT Ward Cleaver or Jim Anderson ("Father Knows Best") but a funny and decent guy with a bossy but loving spouse. His daughter is ably played by the strikingly beautiful Liz Taylor and you can almost feel the dad's pain as he learns to let go.

A superb film thanks to great writing and acting. A tour de force for Tracy. Also, if you liked this film, be sure to see FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND--the wonderful sequel.

For a while now, I have loved this movie. One or two scenes may feel unrealistic by today's standards, but so much compensates. The film does look very quaint and charming, I loved the style of the cinematography especially. The script is deliciously witty with Tracy getting the best lines, the story is immensely engaging and snappily paced and Vincente Minelli directs impeccably. The acting is also very good. Spencer Tracy is brilliant and gives one of the best performances of his career, while I have only seen one or two other films as of where Elizabeth Taylor looks as lovely as she is here. Overall, Father of the Bride is timeless. When it comes to the 1991 remake, it isn't as good but as far as remakes go it is not bad at all, quite the contrary. 9/10 Bethany Cox

When I watch either this version or the Steve Martin version of Father of the Bride, I always think of my poor brother now. He's the father of girls 21 and 19 so he will have to deal with what Spencer Tracy did twice.

This film was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's big moneymakers at the tail end of Louis B. Mayer's reign. It certainly has a theme, one that we can all identify with. 55 years after Father of the Bride came out, fathers all over the world will be overwhelmed by weddings. It will be so 100 years from now.

Twelve years after he won his second Oscar in Boystown, Spencer Tracy got an Oscar nomination for Stanley Banks, beleaguered and harried father of one of the most beautiful brides ever to grace the screen. It's on his performance, narrated in flashback by him, that the whole film rises or falls. Of course Tracy never let an audience down.

By coincidence the publicity surrounding Elizabeth Taylor's first marriage came as this film was being made and released. Sad that Liz Taylor never settled down to a stable marriage with a loving, faithful husband as Kay Banks did with Buckley Dunstan. But she sure is a bride for all seasons.

Of course the wedding, the planning, the cost, the disruption to the lives of the Banks household is the film. Who of us who dealt with having a wedding didn't have to deal with a snooty caterer? A formal announcement party that Tracy puts on and can't enjoy because he's stuck behind a jerry-built bar in his kitchen? A wedding rehearsal that can't seem to come off? Universal and timeless themes.

Joan Bennett registers well as the patient and loyal mother of the bride who has to deal with both her husband and daughter losing their minds to pre-wedding jitters. Moroni Olsen and Billie Burke and their son, Don Taylor, do just fine as the groom's side. And Leo G. Carroll is the wedding caterer from snob city. Maybe Clifton Webb could have done it better, if MGM could have afforded him, but Carroll is just fine.

My favorite moment in Father of the Bride is in the midst of all the chaos, Tracy looks at the older of Taylor's two brothers, Tom Irish, and tells him with great relief that when he gets married, his only contribution to the wedding will be him. My brother has to go through two daughters before he can say that to my nephew.