Metro Slices Off Some Brooklyn Working Life

The Catered Affair (1956) Is No Laughing Event

I was under mistaken impression that this was a comedy, when actually, it's another of kitchen sink talk-outs adapted from live television, a cycle that would click also in theatres after surprise success of "Best Picture" Marty. Drama of simple folk was anathema to a Studio Era that celebrated glamour, but that era was done and largely discredited by independent-minded filmmakers coming up since war's end. Many of these, and certainly newcoming writers, saw baptism before TV cameras. The Catered Affair was big studio (MGM) acknowledgement that Marty was no fluke. If a public wanted humble fare, here was cracked plate of it, though question raised by all these was whether we'd pay admission to watch Brooklyn's worker class quarrel over money and marriage. Catered's ensemble is a pathetic lot, a cast playing down what starry image they'd built till then. Commit to reality comes most naturally to Ernest Borginine, who seems likeliest Brooklyn born, while others deal more self-consciously with the accent and milieu. Still, this was widening of range for the lot, Bette Davis and Debbie Reynolds coming away with deserved kudos, an aspect of The Catered Affair we remember better than fact the film lost money for Metro.

Negative cost was held to a million, this a most economical "A" for Leo in 1956 next to Forever, Darling. There was some location in New York, mostly second unit, plus opening up beyond a shabby flat where virtually all of TV's adaptation took place. Latter was penned by Paddy Cheyefsky, though Gore Vidal was credited with the feature script. Poster art softened blow of Bette Davis as a dowdy housewife by depicting her in All About Eve-ish terms, that the persistent image that made execs reluctant to use her for The Catered Affair. Davis would portray, perhaps too convincingly, a frump long past hope or retrieval of looks, a forfeit of lead lady BD that must have startled her audience nearly as much as Baby Jane grotesques later would. Good as Davis is in The Catered Affair, the part was surrender to character work, largely on television, from there on. Maybe what cost the show was outward appearance as Parents Of The Bride and comedy this implied, presence of Debbie Reynolds a further mislead along said line. Non-stop arguing through 92 minutes may have brought bad word-of-mouth that hurt business. Exhibitors would report dissatisfaction and slumps after opening days (part of trouble is The Catered Affair indicating an event that never happens in the movie). Of course, it works nicely now as realist drama, and has welcome flavor of hard times lived in 50's Gotham. It plays HD on Warner Instant, and is available on DVD from Warner Archive.