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:

Bachelor | Pregnant Wife | Bachelor Party | Beatnik | Irreverence

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Don Murray	...	Charlie Samson
E.G. Marshall	...	Walter
Jack Warden	...	Eddie Watkins
Philip Abbott	...	Arnold Craig
Larry Blyden	...	Kenneth
Patricia Smith	...	Helen Samson
Carolyn Jones	...	The Existentialist
Nancy Marchand	...	Mrs. Julie Samson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barbara Ames	...	Girl on Stoop (uncredited)
Norma Arden Campbell	...	Stripteaser (uncredited)
Karen Norris	...	Hostess (uncredited)
Jeffrey Sayre	...	Greenwich Village Party Guest (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey	...	Existentialist's Landlord (uncredited)
Robert Williams	...	Bartender (uncredited)

Directed by
Delbert Mann

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Paddy Chayefsky		screenplay
Paddy Chayefsky		story "The Bachelor Party"

Produced by
Paddy Chayefsky	....	associate producer
Harold Hecht	....	producer

Original Music by
Paul Mertz		(as Paul Madeira)
Alex North		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Joseph LaShelle

Art Direction by
Ted Haworth

Set Decoration by
Edward G. Boyle

Costume Design by
Mary Grant

Makeup Department
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist
Rudolph Liszt	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Richard McWhorter	....	production manager
Eric Stacey	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Richard Maybery	....	assistant director (as Dick Mayberry)
Edward O. Denault	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Robert G. Carlisle	....	sound effects editor
John K. Kean	....	sound recordist (as John Keane)

Camera and Electrical Department
Frank J. Calabria	....	additional photographer (uncredited)

Editorial Department
William B. Murphy	....	editorial supervisor

Music Department
C. Bakaleinikoff	....	conductor
Lloyd Young	....	music editor

Production Companies

• Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions
• Norma Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1957) (USA) (theatrical)

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.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the subway scene, the moving image through the window behind the actors is not synchronized with the images seen through the windows further down the train.

Quotes:

The Existentialist: My new landlord kept telling me he was in love with me. I said, "How existentialist can you get? You just met me five minutes ago."

Movie Connections:

Featured in Playboy: The Story of X (1998) (V)

Nice Slice-of-life drama

"Look Back In Anger," which came out on film a year after this, is a far more famous and influential work. Yet it doesn't hold up. The charter of Jimmy Potter, the original angry young man, seems extremely disagreeable. That film is beautifully acted.

"The Bachelor Party," on the other hand, though a far lesser work, does not seem dated. Oh sure: The money is different. The approach to women is antithetical to Women's Liberation. But it's a nice little movie.

Of the Paddy Chayevsky movies from this time, I would rate "The Catered Affair" as the best. Next would come this. Then would be the feted "Marty," which is extremely dated.

Don Murray makes a highly likable main character. The other men are good too. The women don't register so well. And in particular, the gifted Carolyn Jones's role has not held up well: She plays a character called The Existentialist. Murray meets her at a Beatnik party in Greenwich Village -- and a highly improbable one, at that. She doesn't seem Bohemian. She seems like a garden variety kvetch.

But it's an easy movie to like and one I would recommend.

(It seems to me a precursor to the John Cassavetes buddy movies that were to begin a few years later.)