Customer Reviews

Father of the Bride (Keepcase)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just saw for the first time ever this movie made in 1950; directed by Vincente Minnelli; and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. Ms. Taylor was only 18 when she made this film and was frightening and eternally beautiful. She is so petite that she almost could adorn her own wedding cake. The movie, however, as the title implies, belongs to Mr. Tracy who plays her father who cannot bear to see his little daughter grow up and get married. There is a lot of most fathers in Mr. Tracy's character. He has some great lines and some funny scenes and endears himself to us with his gentle humor-- the footage where he gets stuck in his kitchen making drinks and doesn't get to make a speech about his beloved daughter, just to point out one delightful instance. He is such a bungler-- can't get to Ms. Taylor at the wedding reception to bid her goodbye either.

I did not find this 54 year-old movie dated at all. Some things never change. Love may be eternal and most families the world over act pretty much the same when it comes to seeing their children leave home.

First, a warning: this is the colorized version of this classic black and white film, so avoid it if you're a film connoisseur. The original black and white version is infinitely superior to this poorly done colorization.

Now, the good news. This film showcases Spencer Tracy's remarkable acting ability and he delivers a witty and intelligent performance as Elizabeth Taylor's long-suffering father. Spence has several monologues which are a joy to watch. His acting gift (along with Charles Laughton) is an absolute wonder and it's always a pleasure to watch him. Joan Bennet is adequate in a supporting role and Elizabeth Taylor is breathtaking as the 18-year-old soon to be wed daughter. Liz's performance is actually quite good and her interplay with Tracy is especially effective.

Yes, this movie is dated in places, but Tracy's performance is worth watching the entire movie. He is in nearly every scene and transforms a seemingly average movie into something really special.

The more I see of Spencer Tracy, the more underrated I think he was as an actor. And this is the kind of film where he excelled, the everyman comedy with sentimental touches of drama and romance. "Father Of the Bride" is not a cutting edge social commentary, just a humorous slice of life regarding a middle class Joe whose daughter is the apple of his eye, and the man in her life is suddenly someone else. The inherent tension and humor in this situation and all that follows makes for a sweet film with no sour spots except that its B&W nature makes it impossible to fully appreciate young Liz Taylor's remarkable eyes. The Steve Martin remake is OK, but there was only one Spencer Tracy, and if only for that difference this original version is much preferred. A classic for the ages, and one that all ages can enjoy.

Unlike some previous reviewers, I have to say that I think that the original "Father of the Bride" has stood the test of time and I found it to be just as enjoyable, if not more so, in some cases, as the Steve Martin remake.
Spencer Tracy stars as Stanley Banks, an attorney happily married to his wife Ellie (Joan Bennett), with three children and a lovely house. His only daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) drops a bombshell on Stanley and Ellie one evening by announcing that she is getting married to someone named Buckley (Don Taylor). From that moment on, the Banks family's life is turned topsy-turvy by the upcoming wedding.
I found Spencer Tracy's performance to be very genuine. I didn't see him as being so consumed by the cost of the wedding (although what father doesn't worry about the financial bottom line?) that who his daughter was marrying was secondary. I found his performance reflected the shock and sadness over losing his daughter to Mr. Right and the confusion over getting lost in the wedding shuffle, as most fathers of the bride do.
The engagement party, where Stanley is left to tend the kitchen, thereby missing the entirety of the party and the excitement showcases this fact perfectly. Again, Stanley is left out after the ceremony, when he wants to kiss the bride and cannot seem to get to her.
Joan Bennett is wonderfully cast as Ellie, rivaling Myrna Loy as the perfect cinematic mother.
Elizabeth Taylor is lovely as the bride to be and although her big fight with Buckley over where they will honeymoon is a bit farfetched (would they really break up over their vacation destination? - - and if they would, wouldn't that signal much larger problems?), her wide-eyed innocence and concern for her father during this time is touching.
Interestingly enough, Taylor wore her wedding dress in this film to her actual first wedding to Nicky Hilton, at the time this movie premiered (and was divorcing him by the time they began filming the sequel).
This film isn't necessarily Oscar material, but it's a wonderful cinematic collection of some Hollywood greats on film (Tracy, Bennett, Taylor, Billie Burke as the groom's mother) and a definite feel good film for the whole family.
RSVP to this one.

FATHER OF THE BRIDE is not a Tracy-Hepburn film. That is Spencer Tracy, giving another peerless performance in the title role. But that's Joan Bennett, perfectly cast as his wife, making a brilliant transition here to mother roles from the femme fatales she played in classic Fritz Lang film noir films of the forties. The bride, of course, is lovely Elizabeth Taylor. They're all first rate in this top notch Vincente Minnelli comedy.

Beware - this version of a classic film is COLORIZED. Those of you who love B&W films should stay away.

"Father of the Bride" is a mainly delightful family comedy which benefits from a strong central performance...

One night at dinner, daughter Kay casually announces her engagement... Father and mother react on cue...

Following practically all the events of Edward Streeter's charming novel, the Oscar-Nominated screenplay is a series of comic and warm set pieces: the loving father asks his daughter to invite his future son-in-law for dinner; girl's parents meet boy's parents; prospective bride quarrels with prospective groom... The vignettes are applied with the light Minnelli touch at its most charming, and they are acted with captivating nonchalance by the incomparable Spencer Tracy in the title role and by the beautiful performances of Joan Bennett, Liz Taylor, and Don Taylor...

As the complaining middle class father, thoughtful to his daughter's welfare and watchful as to the distributing of his money, Tracy is incredibly amusing... Torn by jealousy, Tracy is all good-natured father exhausted by the complete weight of the problems leading up to the happy day...

But it's an ensemble show, and as the typical spoiled daughter of a typical mid-American bourgeois, Elizabeth has one of her joyful screen moments, altering and urging her beloved ones with such gentle, persuasive, winning, and gracious manners...

There is a reason that Spencer Tracy was one of Hollywood's most acclaimed actors. He could pull off any role and make it believable. He was one of the great everymen of his day. Watch, for instance, FATHER OF THE BRIDE and you will find yourself thinking of your own father, grandfather, uncle, or perhaps even yourself.

In the film, based off the novel by Edward Streetcar, Tracy plays Stanley Banks, an upper middle class lawyer who has his nerves put to wits ends when he learns nonchalantly over dinner one evening that his only daughter, Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) has just become engaged. His life is turned upside down in a few brief moments, as the simple thing he thought of as love turns into a nightmare called a wedding. Yet as much as things change, he learns that nothing really changes at all.

This original film version of Streetcar's novel stays true to the source and (as much as I love the remake) in many ways is far more entertaining than the Steve Martin version. The movie has dated some, yet it remains as enduring as ever. Watch it and laugh, maybe cry, then--if you can--give Dad a call.

Another "classic" that I had not seen in years and I could only remember the inspired and hilarious dream sequence where Spencer Tracy tries desperately to get down a fun house of an aisle to get to the alter while his daughter the bride and attendees look on in horror. This one sequence brings the audience out of a rather normal and traditional looking world and right into the noir for a moment before bringing us gently back to suburbia again. I also love the "slice of life" (as filtered through Hollywood's eye) approach to the film. By this I mean that it's rather fun to see what a modern middle class suburban family and home was like in the late 1940s to the early 1950s (servants and all). I loved seeing lovely Elizabeth Taylor dressed in rolled up blue jeans and a flannel shirt and kerchief, (That woman could wear a potato sack and look elegant) and calling Tracy "Pop" in her genuinely affection tone. The entire cast of characters is great with seasoned professionals like Billie Burke and Leo G. Carroll to name just a couple. But Tracy alone is the anchor to this piece, bringing a rye wit and quiet sense of dignity and patience to the whole mess, even when surrounded by the aftermath of the wedding in what looks like a bombed out city complete with with crepe paper. The whole film has such a sweet, satisfying quality that I think, in the hands of a lesser man than director, might have fallen flat. But Minnelli pulls it off brilliantly, balancing charm, sentimentality, humor and even fantasy with just the right touch. And, as others have mentioned in other opinions posted here, it is difficult to compare the original here with later remakes. I do like Steve Martin very much, but there is really nothing to compare next to Spencer Tracy and the subtle expertise of the folks at MGM, circa 1950

"Father of the bride", starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Bennett is just magical. It's basically the story of a young girl who's anouncing to her parents ( Tracy and Bennett ), that she is getting married at age 20, to a young man they hardly know. the news comes has a shock to her father, who's afraid of losing her. And the whole process of planning the marriage comes along. Bennett wants a big wedding for her daughter,to replace the one she never had. But Tracy doesn't want to ruin himself, and tries to keep the wedding as cheap as possible though it doesn't quite come to this. The movies is fun, charming and just as magical as a Tracy film can be. Tracy never acted really but impersonnated his values and morals through passionnate characters that believed in what they were saying and stucked to it. And in this particular performance, he's more vulnerable, than we've seen before, showing the real depth of what a father goes through when is daughter gets married. Because as he says in the film, A son doesn't mean the same to a father than a daughter. And that's what the movie is all about. The relationship between a father and a duaghter, in between the constant love of a mother.