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.
- Awards
- 2 wins
- Mr. Joe Halloran
- (as Robert Simon)
- Girl on Phone
- (uncredited)
- Mrs. Casey's Daughter-in-law
- (uncredited)
- Saleswoman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaCraggy-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 versionsAlso shown in a computer colorized version.
- SoundtracksCailín Deas Crúite na mBó (A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow)
Traditional 18th-century Irish ballad
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.
- bkoganbing
- Apr 24, 2008
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,008,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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