Father of the Bride (1950)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Vincente Minnelli

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (screenplay) and
Albert Hackett (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

16 June 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

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

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Wedding | Marriage Engagement | Marriage | Chaos | Family Relationships

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 nomination

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	...	Reverend A.I. Galsworthy
Frank Orth	...	Joe
Russ Tamblyn	...	Tommy Banks (as Rusty Tamblyn)
Tom Irish	...	Ben Banks
Marietta Canty	...	Delilah - the Maid

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G | Spain:13 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #14439) | USA:Not Rated (DVD rating) | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The premiere of this film took place two days after Elizabeth Taylor's real-life marriage to "Nicky" Conrad Hilton Jr.. The publicity surrounding the event is credited with helping to make the film so successful.

Goofs:

Continuity: 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.

Quotes:

Ben Banks: Can't be June. I've got my final. Why not May?
Ellie Banks: May's too early.
Tommy Banks: July's out. I'm going to camp.
Kay Banks: This isn't a kids party. It's my wedding and my friends.
Stanley T. Banks: Ellie, what did you mean by?
Kay Banks: No one has to raise a finger. When the time comes, I'll do everything. And I mean everything.
Ellie Banks: I can imagine that.
Ben Banks: I'm not going.
Kay Banks: Listen! I don't care if you come or not!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Office: Phyllis' Wedding (#3.15)" (2007)

an MGM corker

My favourite performance of Spencer Tracy's from all the work he did in thirty-seven years in the movies - here he plays harassed father Stanley Banks struggling to cope with the comedy of his daughter Kay's wedding. Kay is played by the young and beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, who had just been married for the first time in real life; and her intended is played by Don Taylor, an actor I haven't seen in anything else, and can't really remember doing anything of interest in this. The family is completed by Joan Bennett as Tracy's wife, and Rusty (later Russ) Tamblyn as their youngest child.

Although the movie does play up the comic potential of the wedding situation - the dad dreams of losing his trousers as he walks down the aisle, for example - it also has moments of poignancy, especially in the last few sequences where the parents dance together in the post-party mess of their once-pristine house. This kind of thing puts the movie above the ordinary, and is exactly what was missing in the Steve Martin remake years later.

And don't let me forget Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the groom's parents - really funny!