Father of the Bride (1950)

Originally this story came from a book of the same name (that explains the father’s opening monologue and narration throughout both this and the ’91 version).  It was a huge bestseller so they turned it into a motion picture.  The plot is exactly the same as the Steve Martin job: daughter gets engaged out of nowhere and the parents help plan the wedding.  In fact the ’91 version is nearly a scene for scene, and in some instances shot for shot with even many lines of dialogue reused, remake of this ’50 one.  I couldn’t fucking believe how identical these two movies were technically.  That’s why it was even more mind blowing that the feel between them is completely different.

Talk about night and day.  Spencer Tracy (Judgement at Nuremburg) plays the father, Stanley Banks, and the main complaint I have is that he remains so crotchety throughout the production.  He’s furiously opposed to his daughter’s engagement and never seems to fully let it go.  At one point he even seriously offers the lovebirds $3,000 to elope so he won’t have to deal with the situation anymore.  This performance reeks too much of its own time for me.  The father-knows-best attitude is really off putting and his reactions seem a little too starkly real.

Stanley’s wife, Ellie (Joan Bennett (Suspiria)), is surprisingly strong considering the general direction of the movie.  She stands up to her husband more than a few times, is happy for her daughter almost right away like Nina and gets just as engaged in arranging the wedding.

Elizabeth Taylor (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?) plays the bride, Kay, and she’s not very good at all here in my opinion.  She goes too big with her emotions in every scene and comes across as very unnatural.  I know that was partly the acting style of the time but I’ve seen a lot of movies of that era and she inflates her acting even for then.  She’s not nearly as empowered as Annie from the ’91 version but considering the time period I won’t blame the movie for things like expecting Kay to become a housewife after she gets married.

The groom is…oh I don’t know why they went with this name…I mean there are so many names and they settled on this one?...it’s gonna hurt a little to write this one down…ok here a goes…Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor (Stalag 17)).  That’s the name they should’ve given the wedding planner, not the guy who’s supposed to be ultra likeable.  Whatever, he does fine and is probably the character that’s the most similar to the ’91 version.

There is a wedding coordinator but he’s not some off the wall euro trash guy.  Instead he’s an incredibly snobby Englishman that assumes the Banks’ are much richer than they really are.  This character plays a very minor role here being in only two scenes I think.

The changes to the story are really so minor that I’ll only go through a few brief examples.  When the Banks meet the Dunstans (the groom’s parents) George doesn’t accidentally break a mirror and throw their bank book in the pool.  Here he gets totally wasted, babbles on about Kay endlessly and falls asleep on the couch.  The reason why Kay and Buckley break up for a moment in the middle of the movie is because Buckley wants to honeymoon in Nova Scotia where he can fish instead of gifting her a blender (both Kay and Annie irrationally overreact equally though).  Kay has two younger brothers closer to her age than just one that’s thirteen years younger.  Instead of meeting abroad Kay and Buckley apparently went out for a little while and got engaged right at home.  The weird thing is no one seemed to notice.  Kay’s parents have never heard of Buckley and are surprised at everything she tells them.  Having Annie get engaged while away from home was a much better and much smarter move in the ’91 one.

Man what a dreary film.  For something that’s supposed to be a comedy there’s hardly anything funny in it.  And what I mean by that is there’s very little humorous setups, characters, dialogue, jokes or anything.  It’s not like the movie is trying to be funny and I just don’t think it is.  No, comedy is barely attempted at all which is so fucking bizarre.

I really wouldn’t recommend watching this.  It’s so flat, stiff and even sorta unpleasant to sit through.  Nothing works very well.  It feels like Stanley is being forced through the entire occasion, like George in the ’91 remake, but the difference is George realized incrementally how silly and insensitive he was being.  He grew emotionally from the experience.  All the way through to the end Stanley comes across like the wedding is a total annoyance and that he can’t wait for the whole thing to be over and done with.  You get the vibe that it wasn’t really worth it to Stanley and that’s sad.

Wow, so much is the same yet so much is different.  Totally nuts guys.