The Catered Affair

1956
Approved
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

3.9K

YOUR RATING

At breakfast, Jane announces that she and Ralph are getting married the next week. All Jane and Ralph want is a small wedding with the immediate family and no reception, because Jane's parents are poor and Jane and Ralph can borrow a car for their honeymoon. But at dinner that night, all Ralph's parents talk about are the big weddings they gave their daughters, and everything escalates. Suddenly it's a big wedding breakfast with hundreds of guests. The problem is that for 12 years, Tom has been saving money to buy his own cab and license, but now that he can, all of that money is going towards a wedding that neither he nor Jane nor Ralph really want.

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Comedy Drama Romance

When Jane Hurley tells her parents Tom (a struggling cab driver) and Agnes (a domestic engineer) that she is marrying Ralph Halloran, Agnes starts planning a big wedding, even though Jane an... Read allWhen Jane Hurley tells her parents Tom (a struggling cab driver) and Agnes (a domestic engineer) that she is marrying Ralph Halloran, Agnes starts planning a big wedding, even though Jane and Ralph don't want it and Tom cannot afford it.When Jane Hurley tells her parents Tom (a struggling cab driver) and Agnes (a domestic engineer) that she is marrying Ralph Halloran, Agnes starts planning a big wedding, even though Jane and Ralph don't want it and Tom cannot afford it.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

3.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins

Trivia
Craggy-faced Ernest Borgnine was 39 when this film came out, only 15 years older than his film daughter Debbie Reynolds, who was 24. His wife in the film, Bette Davis, was 48.

Goofs
(at around 30 mins) Ralph (Rod Taylor) and Jane (Debbie Reynolds) are sitting next to each other in front of the window. In the next moment, Uncle Jack (Barry Fitzgerald) then appears in the room, but now Ralph is sitting at the opposite end of the table away from Jane, and Uncle Jack takes the seat where Ralph had been.

Quotes
Agnes Hurley: You're going to have a big wedding whether you like it or not! And if you don't like it, you don't have to come!

Alternate versions
Also shown in a computer colorized version.

Connections
Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Bette Davis (1977)

Soundtracks
Cailín Deas Crúite na mBó (A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow)
Traditional 18th-century Irish ballad

User reviews64

Review

Featured review

Intense Drama Skillfully Acted

This delightful production is full of life; a vignette which cuts deep to reveal the quiet despair, sullen defeat, and ultimate triumph of a marriage which had always looked back at its shameful beginning, but finally is freed to discover itself anew.

Davis' mastery of the Brooklyn tone and colloquialisms is uncanny. Her "Aggie" is real, and sympathetic, if not admirable. Her pain from the awakening knowledge of having only lived with, but not shared life with her daughter and husband touches us where it hurts. The fix of manipulating a "big" (but unaffordable) wedding for her daughter falls flat, forcing Aggie to grapple with the real issues of her life.

Her bachelor brother "Uncle Jack" (Barry Fitzgerald) is Aggie's counterpoint, full of Blarney, enjoying every moment to its fullest, as when he playfully informs delightful Mrs. Rafferty (his future bride) of her debt in their running game of Cannasta: $24,700.

Debbie Reynolds is lovely, earnest, in character and hard-hitting as Aggie's daughter Jane, sacrificing her own wishes, and torn between the conflicting needs of her mother and father.

Borgnine is the under-appreciated, self-sacrificing husband, giving up his long held dream of owning a taxicab if it would satisfy his wife, finally pleading his own case, and finding joy in his marriage.

A compelling story with excellent acting and staging.