The Catered Affair-1956

This movie is overwrought. But Davis is good when she can resist her hamming the accent. Ernest Borgnine , much like Karl Malden, always appears to be middled aged. Richard Brooks is as much a director of detail as Vincente Minnelli or Hitchcock. They are poor. The movie never overcomes its television birthright. But Debbie Reynolds deserved an Oscar nomination. At first it doesn't seem like her at all. And young Rod Taylor...well.

Bette is miscast. Debbie, indeed, is very fine in it.

Bette Davis was only 48 at the time, if you can believe it. The 50s were not kind to her.

It was a role made for someone like Maureen Stapleton, who looked middle-aged even as a young woman. While Bette isn't terrible, she is too obvious in the part and is going slumming at the same time.

This is what 48 looked like in the 1950s. Wow.

R2 and R4, you may find this thread of interest:

Maureen would have been great except for the fact that she was only 7 years older than Debbie, r3. The perfect fit for the role was...of course...Miss Thelma Ritter.

^

From Wiki:

Chayefsky later called the play "an unfocused piece, in which the first act was farce, and the second was comedy-drama and the third was abruptly drama. There aren't a dozen actresses who could make one piece out of all that; Miss Ritter, of course, did."

Faith Prince was absolutely wonderful in the Davis role in the musical remake a few years back.

Or Shirley Booth.

Someone other than that big fat movie star Bette Davis.

R10 Shirley Booth would have been great! I never thought of her...great suggestion. This movie definitely belonged to Debbie and Ernest Borgnine was great as usual.

Didn't Shirley Booth originate the part on Broadway?

Oops! I was thinking of "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn". There was no Broadway version of the play (other than the musical.) However there WAS a TV version that preceded the movie, and Thema Ritter did play the mother in that one. (It was part of Goodyear Playhouse.)

Watching it now. Bette's performance is awful. She's all 'Bette" and not 'ma'. Ernest and Debbie are perfect. Shirley Booth would have made this movie a classic.

"The Catered Affair" was the last original drama that Paddy Chayefsky wrote for television.

Followed by Flower Drum Song.

This was like "Marty II" with poor Marty now married to a "slatternly" [Bosley Crowther] frump pushing 50 instead of cute, sensitive Betsy Blair. The whole thing is an embarrassment. Gore Vidal wrote it from Paddy Chayefsky's "vignette." Did this finish off Vidal's television career? Wasn't he really active in TV before 1956?

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