Father of the Bride (1950)

A father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, and the financial and organizational pain of arranging her wedding.

Director:

Vincente Minnelli

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (screenplay), Albert Hackett (screenplay),

Stars:

Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Spencer Tracy	...	Stanley T. Banks
Joan Bennett	...	Ellie Banks
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Katherine 'Kay' Banks
Don Taylor	...	Buckley Dunstan
Billie Burke	...	Doris Dunstan
Leo G. Carroll	...	Mr. Massoula
Moroni Olsen	...	Herbert Dunstan
Melville Cooper	...	Mr. Tringle
Taylor Holmes	...	Warner
Paul Harvey	...	Rev. A.I. Galsworthy
Frank Orth	...	Joe
Russ Tamblyn	...	Tommy Banks (as Rusty Tamblyn)
Tom Irish	...	Ben Banks
Marietta Canty	...	Delilah - the Maid

Storyline

Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.

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Plot Keywords:

wedding | chaos | wedding present | father daughter relationship | empty nest | 

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Taglines:

You're invited . . . to a hilarious wedding !

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 June 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

El padre de la novia

Filming Locations:

All Saints' Episcopal Church - 504 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

MGM gave Elizabeth Taylor a wedding gift of a one-off wedding dress designed by Edith Head (a move also designed to promote the film).

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Goofs

Early in the film in the scene where the Banks family are having a meal and talking about the forthcoming wedding the length of the candles on the table change from long, to short and back to long.

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Quotes

Ellie Banks: Stanley! You don't have to shout! Nobody's deaf! It's mortifying with
[indicates Delilah in the kitchen]
Ellie Banks: in there!

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Connections

Followed by Father's Little Dividend (1951)

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Soundtracks

"Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight"
(uncredited)
Written by Rudy Vallee, Ray Noble, Jimmy Campbell and Reginald Connelly
Heard in the last scene as Stanley and Ellie dance

User Reviews

The Original, The One and Only. . . . .

What a cute movie. What separates it from all the TV sitcoms that were to follow is the care, time, and expense that went into all aspects of the production. (Except that it was shot on the MGM lot, which would have made more money as a theme park than a shopping mall.) Followers of the more popular TV sitcoms become familiar with the various characters over the course of episodes, sometimes over the course of years. But Minnelli and his cast and crew had to squeeze everything we learn about the characters into an hour and a half so they had a lot more work to do. The audience couldn't take the characters' traits for granted, like Jack Benny's stinginess, Ralph Kramden's bluster, Lucy's mishchievousness, Ted Baxter's vanity, or Archie Bunker's ethnocentricity. In a feature film it all had to be shown first, and then developed in the course of one long episode, so to speak.

This was one of a series of what might be called upper-middle-class comedies, which included "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." "Father of the Bride" crafts and executes the jokes almost flawlessly.

Want to see a great example of intuitive acting, one that probably took more than a few takes? Watch the bedroom scene before the wedding in which Spencer Tracy wakes his wife and tells her how worried he is that their daughter's, Elizabeth Taylor's, fiancé is basically an unknown in their lives. "He's a charming boy," replies Bennet, the wife. "Charm, eh?" Tracy shoots back and unleashes his anxiety. "That's just what these guys have got. Oh, lots of charm. Probably got a criminal record," and so on until he winds up with, "Just the kind of guy who'll probably put a bullet in the back of her neck." Then he rolls over and goes to sleep. What a performance. Tracy rolls around frantically while talking, fluffing his pillows, settling back and then sitting up again, shaking the blankets, scowling at his wife. In TV, there simply isn't enough TIME to devote to a single scene like that, nor are the performers usually up to Tracy's standards.

The same goes for the direction. Watch the scene of the wedding rehearsal at the church. It is, as Tracy despondently describes it afterwards, "utter and complete chaos." The scene lasts a good four minutes and involves at least a dozen characters who must learn how to walk in a particular way and recite their lines appropriately. It's both maddening and hilarious. And it's all done with no more than one or two cuts. Minelli's camera simply sits there and captures the insanity in long takes. How many were required, we'll never know, but certainly there were more tries than "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" could afford.

Not much is required of the rest of the cast. Tracy is the main show and he provides the narration. But Elizabeth Taylor is drop-dead gorgeous. Russ Tamblyn doesn't have many lines as her younger brother but he has one of the best. Tracy and Taylor have a minor row and Taylor huffs off. "Well, what's the matter with HER?" asks Tracy. And Tamblyn gets to say in his whiny adolescent voice, suggesting knowledge beyond his years, "She's nervous. ALL women are nervous." If you haven't seen this yet, don't miss your next chance.