This movie has an okay plot--a guy wants to buy a cab license and his wife is insistent that they instead use the money on an over-priced wedding. But the movie is more than just a tissue-thin plot. Instead, the real story is that the acting and writing for the characters are so good that these all seem like real-life people--not like people acting. Ernest Borgnine--just coming off his success in MARTY, does a great job as the husband. Bette Davis is also exceptional as the mom. Debbie Reynolds could have been over-shadowed by these two fine actors but she manages to also come across quite well. The story is a bit simple and slow-moving and some may cringe at the painful family squabbling (though it never degenerates to outright cruelty--you know down deep they do care about each other). But, the acting pulls it all together.

Have always had a thing for talented casts, and 'The Catered Affair' certainly has that in the likes of Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Barry Fitzgerald and Debbie Reynolds. All immensely talented and not immune from great performances. It was the cast that was my main reason for watching, though the concept (another common interest point with me) intrigued. Richard Brooks always struck as one of those directors who was very competent but not always particularly distinguished.

'The Catered Affair' turned out to be a very good film in my view, if not quite the best work of everybody involved. All the cast fare very well, even if a few are in roles unusual for them, and it is one of Brooks' better directing jobs. While it is not too hard to believe that 'The Catered Affair' was Davis' personal favourite, to me she has definitely given better performances and other roles played to her strengths more. That is not meant as a bad thing, just merely in comparison.

Criticisms are very few actually, but the ending for my tastes was a little too unrealistically pat and like the film ended too much on a false note.

However, there is so much that 'The Catered Affair' does really well. Am aware that some critics thought Davis miscast, sure it is an unusual role for her and not the best work she ever did but she is magnetic and performs her role with true brassy commitment and dignity. Borgnine also doesn't overplay and also gives a fine performance that has a lot of nuances.

Fitzgerald is both charming and amusing, so classic Fitzgerald, and Reynolds is very likeable and perky. Brooks' direction is one of his more sympathetic and distinguished.

It is a good looking film, very sumptuously designed, atmospherically lit and never feels too much of a filmed play or anything. The music doesn't get too melodramatic, while the script is literate while not being overwrought or taking things too seriously. The story doesn't feel dull and other than the ending the story always compels and doesn't feel too safe or overblown. There is a lot of charm throughout and the film is also quite touching in spots.

All in all, very good indeed. 8/10

Paddy Chayefsky wrote this second ode to the Bronx to follow up what he had received in acclaim from Marty. Though The Catered Affair did not win all the awards that Marty did, it certainly is a well done film with a lot of merit on its own.

The Jewish Chayefsky certainly was a good observer of the other cultures where he grew up. Marty was about an Italian butcher who starts to find romance late in his life. The Catered Affair is about a young Irish couple getting married and the effect a big wedding is having on the family finances and structure.

Ernest Borgnine switches quite easily from working class Bronx Italian to working class Bronx Irish. He barely makes enough to support a wife, two surviving children and a brother-in-law, Barry Fitzgerald who lives with them. One son was killed during World War II.

Bette Davis was at her most drab on the screen, but that's not to say she was not great. Richard Brooks put a tight rein on all her Betteisms and got a fabulous performance out of her as the Bronx housewife who wants to live vicariously through a big wedding for daughter Debbie Reynolds. It's been a hard life for her and the family and she wants a little glamor in it.

Rod Taylor and Debbie Reynolds are an appealing young couple and Robert F. Simon and Madge Kennedy do fine as Taylor's parents. The best part of A Catered Affair is Barry Fitzgerald and Dorothy Stickney as the woman who woos him away from free loading on his sister. Davis and Borgnine certainly had a challenge just to keep the whole picture from being stolen by Barry Fitzgerald in what was really his last great part.

A few people have compared The Catered Affair with Father of the Bride and the problems that upper middle class lawyer Spencer Tracy faces as compared to lower middle class cab driver Ernest Borgnine faces in giving their daughters an expensive wedding. It's that other Bronx family of the same era, the fabulous and illegally rich Corleones that beggars comparison. I look at that wedding scene that from The Godfather and the lavishness that was bestowed on Talia Shire's wedding and who wouldn't want a wedding like that. But I have a feeling that Reynolds and Taylor will make it last, a lot more than the much married Connie Corleone did.

I did so like looking at the Bronx in the Fifties where at least some establishing shots were done. The first time I was in the Bronx was for my first Yankee game. It's changed a lot now, but a place like Morris Park for the Italians and Woodlawn for the Irish still has the flavor of the areas where the Hurleys and Hallorans of The Catered Affair and the Pilettis from Marty lived and worked.

And if you like seeing the New York of your childhood, The Catered Affair is a film to enjoy.