The Bachelor Party (1957)

Director:

Delbert Mann

Writers:

Paddy Chayefsky (screenplay)
Paddy Chayefsky (story)

Release Date:

10 April 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

They'll live it up tonight!

Plot:

Five office friends meet up for a night on the town to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of one of them...

Plot Keywords:

Pregnant Wife | Male Virgin | Accountant | Nymphomaniac | Humor

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Don Murray	...	Charlie Samson
E.G. Marshall	...	Walter
Jack Warden	...	Eddie Watkins, the Bachelor
Philip Abbott	...	Arnold Craig
Larry Blyden	...	Kenneth
Patricia Smith	...	Helen Samson
Carolyn Jones	...	The Existentialist
Nancy Marchand	...	Mrs. Julie Samson

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #18416) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia)

Company:

Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions

Trivia:

Movie debut of Nancy Marchand.

Quotes:

Arnold Craig: [about his fiancée] What'll I say to her, Charlie?
Charlie Samson: Gee, I don't know. What do you feel like saying to her, Arnold? Do you really love her? I mean, are you just marrying this girl because your family wants you to marry her? What?
Arnold Craig: I think I like her, Charlie. It's just that, well, I'm afraid that I'm not going to make a very good husband for her, Charlie.
Charlie Samson: Tell her that, Arnold. Just tell her that you don't think you'll make a good husband, that you're scared. If she's a half-way decent girl, she'll try to understand. If she loves you, she'll make it her job to make you happy. That's what love is, Arnold...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Remake of "The Philco Television Playhouse: The Bachelor Party (#6.2)" (1953)

The women on hand are more perceptively drawn than the men...

Working stiff in New York City is encouraged by his newly-pregnant wife to attend a co-worker's bachelor party; he reluctantly agrees, but troubles within his marriage and the rut of work and night school has made him despondent, and after meeting a sharp dame from Greenwich Village he doesn't want to go back home. Paddy Chayefsky adapted his own TV play for the screen, and he's loaded with sad stories for his characters to tell (they each have a chance to get up on a soapbox and emote). When he's not being maudlin, crass, or clichéd, Chayefsky manages to get in a few realistic digs at the plight of the modern married man--but instead of coming on strong, Chayefsky putters along with expository dialogue and relentless back-and-forth exchanges which tire the ear ("C'mon Eddie, for Pete's sake!", "Let's find another nightclub. You wanna find another nightclub?"). In the central role, Don Murray fidgets like an uptight Boy Scout; he's good in his scenes with the groom-to-be, listening to the mama's boy talk about his total lack of experience with women, but Murray struggles with this underwritten character, uncertain of what emotions he should be feeling or showing (it's a mediocre performance in a mediocre movie). Bachelor Jack Warden is agonizing as he drunkenly goads everyone to go against the grain, while E.G. Marshall displays a fine sense of helpless melancholy before the writer has him sounding off in the subway (where the picture stops dead in its tracks and never recovers). Chayefsky does a bit better by the female characters; the wives and Carolyn Jones' downtown girl are actually more insightful (and more perceptive, cynically) than the boorish men. *1/2 from ****