Father of the Bride

Media:	VHS Tape
Directed by:	Vincente Minnelli
Starring:	Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor
Release date:	10 July, 2001
List price:	~~$14.95~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!

Father of the Bride

Average rating:

Takes the Cake--Wait There is No Cake.

There is a reason that Spencer Tracy was one of Hollywood's most acclaimed actors. He could pull off any role and make it believable. He was one of the great everymen of his day. Watch, for instance, FATHER OF THE BRIDE and you will find yourself thinking of your own father, grandfather, uncle, or perhaps even yourself.

In the film, based off the novel by Edward Streetcar, Tracy plays Stanley Banks, an upper middle class lawyer who has his nerves put to wits ends when he learns nonchalantly over dinner one evening that his only daughter, Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) has just become engaged. His life is turned upside down in a few brief moments, as the simple thing he thought of as love turns into a nightmare called a wedding. Yet as much as things change, he learns that nothing really changes at all.

This original film version of Streetcar's novel stays true to the source and (as much as I love the remake) in many ways is far more entertaining than the Steve Martin version. The movie has dated some, yet it remains as enduring as ever. Watch it and laugh, maybe cry, then--if you can--give Dad a call.

Father of the Bride -

The original comedy film about marriage with Tracy & Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor is the most beautiful bride in the history of the movies and Spencer Tracy is the suffering "Father of the Bride" in this 1950 film directed by Vincent Minnelli. Stanley Banks (Tracy) finds his peaceful life is tossed upside down when his daughter Kay (Taylor) announces she is going to marry Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor). In the aftermath of the wedding, Stanley recounts in great detail the many problems a father has to contend with during the preparations for the wedding. But all the headaches are made worthwhile when he opens the door and see Kay in her wedding dress for the first time in a superbly beautiful shot of the radiant young bridge. This is one of those shots that makes you forget the film is not in color. Joan Bennett is first rate as Ellie, the woman caught between her husband and daughter, while Moroni Olson and Billie Burke play Buckley's parents and Leo G. Carroll gets the choice role of Mr. Massoula, the wedding planner. Tracy became very much the father figure for Taylor after this role, which certainly shows in their on-screen chemistry, and she always called him "Pops" until the day he died. The film was based on the novel by Edward Streeter and was quickly followed by a sequel, "Father's Little Dividend." The recent remake with Steve Martin was totally unnecessary, but you have to admire anybody who would take on a role for which Spencer Tracy was nominated for an Oscar. Remind me to watch this film when my daughters start planning their weddings.

- Father of the Bride

Charming as ever!

"Father of the bride", starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Bennett is just magical. It's basically the story of a young girl who's anouncing to her parents ( Tracy and Bennett ), that she is getting married at age 20, to a young man they hardly know. the news comes has a shock to her father, who's afraid of losing her. And the whole process of planning the marriage comes along. Bennett wants a big wedding for her daughter,to replace the one she never had. But Tracy doesn't want to ruin himself, and tries to keep the wedding as cheap as possible though it doesn't quite come to this. The movies is fun, charming and just as magical as a Tracy film can be. Tracy never acted really but impersonnated his values and morals through passionnate characters that believed in what they were saying and stucked to it. And in this particular performance, he's more vulnerable, than we've seen before, showing the real depth of what a father goes through when is daughter gets married. Because as he says in the film, A son doesn't mean the same to a father than a daughter. And that's what the movie is all about. The relationship between a father and a duaghter, in between the constant love of a mother.