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Thursday, July 30, 2020

Father of the Bride (1950)




Synopsis: The expanding pressures of his daughter’s impending nuptials force a mild-mannered-but-uptight middle-class lawyer to become… slightly grumpy. 
Blurb From the DVD Jacket: “The Bride gets the THRILLS! Father gets the BILLS!” 
What Did I Learn?: In 1950, you could apparently rent an orchestra for $85. [To be fair, that’s $948 in 2020 dollars]
Really?: 1) What was the point of giving Kay (a very young Elizabeth Taylor) a couple of brothers when neither of them have more than a few lines and we get to know almost nothing about them? Ok, I realize this film is called “Father of the Bride,” but I’m shocked that Stanley (Spencer Tracy) appears to be the only fleshed out character in this film. 2) Ok, Stanley and Ellie had a small, intimate wedding; we get that, but come on - when the wedding planner tells you that you’re going to have to remove furniture and doors from your beloved house in order to accommodate all of the wedding guests, and they’re still going to feel cramped like sardines, go out and rent a fucking banquet hall. 
Rating: I hadn’t seen the Spencer Tracy version of Father of the Bride until this summer, so I naturally compared it to the 1991 Steve Martin remake, which I think is superior in some respects, including the development of other characters (see: “Really?”, #1) Father of the Bride is a very low-key comedy that delivers far more moments of mild amusement than actual laughs (Tracy never completely loses his cool, for instance), but  I liked Tracy’s portrayal of Stanley Banks, and there’s something genuinely charming about this movie. 8/10 stars. 
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042451/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5

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