The tragedy got lost somewhere in Richard Brooks's crushingly blunt direction.
Comment
01/01/00
The Catered Affair (1956)
33
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:6
Fresh:2
Rotten:4
Average Rating:4.3/10
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Gore Vidal adapted Paddy Chayefsky's teleplay about the Hurleys, a hardworking Irish family struggling to make ends meet in a poor Bronx flat. Bette Davis stars as Mrs. Agnes Hurley, a woman aged... [More]
Starring: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald
Director: Richard Brooks
Reviews for The Catered Affair
1 - 6 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
Kitchen Sink Realism Paddy Chayefsky style and Bette Davis as a frumpy Bronx housewife sounds like contradiction in terms, and it is. Stretching to the limit, Davis tries to fit into the mold of a Marty-like b/w working class melodrama with mixed results
03/25/08
Richard Brooks directed in a sort of free-wheeling way that carries the action jumpily from poignancy to farce and from moments of frowsy frustration to scenes of vulgar squawling en famille.
03/25/06
Top CriticPlays like Marty but without the same winsome appeal.
11/26/07
This eminently watchable misfire divides amateur and professional critics alike.
04/08/08
Overall, the performances are good and there are occasionally amusing and touching momemts in the otherwise talky, mostly drab, affair under Richard Brooks' direction.
04/08/08
Top Critic1 - 6 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
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