{"id":16669,"date":"2021-06-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=16669"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:14:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:14:28","slug":"in-praise-of-the-catered-affair-the-best-bette-davis-performance-you-probably-havent-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/in-praise-of-the-catered-affair-the-best-bette-davis-performance-you-probably-havent-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of The Catered Affair<\/i>, the Best Bette Davis Performance You Probably Haven’t Seen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThat\u2019s very nice,\u201d says Bronx housewife Agnes Hurley (Bette Davis) when her daughter Jane (Debbie Reynolds) announces that she\u2019s getting married to her longtime boyfriend Ralph Halloran (Rod Taylor). When Jane\u2019s father Tom (Ernest Borgnine) comes home and Agnes tells him that their daughter is getting married, he has the same response: \u201cThat\u2019s very nice.\u201d Tom is tired from his night-shift job as a cab driver. Agnes has housework to do. Jane\u2019s brother Eddie (Ray Stricklyn), who\u2019s set to report soon for military service, can barely even muster the same polite response as his parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Catered Affair <\/em>(released 65 years ago this week), marriage is just one more obligation in life, like getting a job or serving in the military. That\u2019s how it was for Agnes and Tom, who was offered $300 by Agnes\u2019 father, a fellow house painter at the time, to marry his daughter. But \u201cthat\u2019s very nice\u201d turns out not to be enough for Agnes, even though it\u2019s genuinely all that Jane and Ralph want. They have a chance to borrow a friend\u2019s car to take a honeymoon trip to California, but only if they get married in less than a week. They plan a short, simple ceremony with the local Catholic priest. Ten minutes at most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Agnes, Jane\u2019s wedding becomes a sort of referendum on her own value as a wife and mother, at least in her own eyes. Agnes doesn\u2019t appreciate the gossip among the local busybodies that Jane must be \u201cin trouble\u201d (i.e., pregnant) if she\u2019s getting married so quickly. When Agnes tells her brother Jack (Barry Fitzgerald), who\u2019s lived with the Hurleys for 12 years, that he won\u2019t be invited to the ceremony because it\u2019s for immediate family only, he acts like she\u2019s stabbed him in the heart, and then threatens to move out the next day. At dinner with Ralph\u2019s upper-middle-class parents, Agnes winces at every mention of the fancy wedding receptions and gifts they gave to their older children. What was once about respecting Jane\u2019s wishes is now about protecting Agnes\u2019 pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screenwriter Gore Vidal (working from a play by Paddy Chayefsky) and director Richard Brooks make The Catered Affair<\/em> into a sort of downbeat counterpoint to every peppy studio movie about a fancy wedding. When Agnes finally breaks down Jane\u2019s resolve and gets her to agree to the catered affair in a hotel ballroom, the music swells, but the look on Jane\u2019s face makes it clear that this is not a triumphant moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And indeed every new preparation for the insisted-upon ceremony brings new strife. There\u2019s humor, especially from Fitzgerald as a somewhat stereotypical drunk Irish uncle, but The Catered Affair<\/em> isn\u2019t Father of the Bride<\/em> or any other comedy of misunderstandings. Real emotional pain surfaces in each interaction, and Jane starts to see the depressing truth of her parents\u2019 marriage of convenience. She\u2019s horrified when she tells Ralph that her parents have never said \u201cI love you\u201d to each other, and she can\u2019t stand the thought of them alone in their apartment once the other family members have moved out, never talking to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Agnes who drives the family discord, but she\u2019s not malicious and she\u2019s not a villain. The pride associated with class and gender roles is really to blame, as Ralph\u2019s parents could easily afford to pay for the lavish wedding but won\u2019t offer (and wouldn\u2019t be accepted) because the bride\u2019s family is expected to pay. Agnes is terrified of anyone thinking that the Hurleys are \u201con relief,\u201d even if that means spending every penny that Tom has spent years saving to buy his own taxi and medallion. She doesn\u2019t understand a younger generation that is honestly happy to forgo the traditional trappings of a wedding. She never says so, but she probably doesn\u2019t quite understand that Jane and Ralph are getting married because they truly love each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone familiar with Davis\u2019 most famous roles as imperious, domineering women may barely even recognize her as Agnes, just six years after her Oscar-nominated comeback in All About Eve<\/em>. But what might seem at first like miscasting proves to be a rewarding choice, and Davis immerses herself in the role of this dowdy, self-sacrificing housewife. There\u2019s none of Davis\u2019 above-it-all haughtiness in Agnes, just a bone-deep weariness at every compromise she\u2019s had to make in her life, and a stubborn determination that she\u2019s not going to compromise on this one special day for the daughter she feels guilty for neglecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what\u2019s bracing about The Catered Affair<\/em> is that compromise and moderation are the movie\u2019s most prized values. There\u2019s an eventual happy ending, but it doesn\u2019t come from the fancy wedding improbably working out for everyone. It comes from Agnes and Tom and Jane and Ralph taking each other\u2019s feelings seriously, giving up on their entrenched ideas of what other people want, and letting go of unrealistic dreams. \u201cYou\u2019ll get used to it, like everything else,\u201d Agnes tells Jane about housework, by way of explaining married life. Sometimes getting used to it is all you can do. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Catered Affair” is available for digital rental and purchase on the usual platforms.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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