IGN.com|AskMen.com|Rotten Tomatoes|GameSpy|FilePlanet|TeamXbox|CheatsCodesGuides|GameStats|Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

Register | Log In | What is RT?
It's our 10th birthday, so you get presents!
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Photos & Trailers The Vine Forums
Box Office | In Theaters | Opening | Upcoming | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
 
MOVIES / ON DVD / THE CATERED AFFAIR
The Catered Affair

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy DVD
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

The Catered Affair (1956)

29%
N/A
0%
N/A
N/A
N/A
29 %
Reviews Counted: 7 Fresh: 2  Rotten:5 Average Rating: 4.2/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

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 by the toil and hardships of her marriage, forced to look back on her life and marriage to her... 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 by the toil and hardships of her marriage, forced to look back on her life and marriage to her taxi-driver husband, Tom (Ernest Borgnine), when her only daughter, Jane (Debbie Reynolds), announces her upcoming wedding. Although Jane wants only a simple civil ceremony, Mrs. Hurley is determined to give her daughter the wedding she never had, even if it will wipe out the family's savings and ruin her husband's dream of owning his own taxi company. THE CATERED AFFAIR is a simultaneously heartwarming and heart-wrenching slice of poor working-class life and the dreams that are sometimes squelched by poverty. Almost all the action takes place within the walls of the crowded flat that the Hurleys call home. Ernest Borgnine and Bette Davis deliver complex and thought-provoking portrayals of a husband and wife who are forced to examine the dreary circumstances of their marriage and find hope for the future. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, Rod Taylor

Director: Richard Brooks
Producer: Sam Zimbalist
Screenwriter: Gore Vidal

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 27, 1991

[DVD Details]

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 7 (sorted by date)
Text View
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image
2.5/4

This eminently watchable misfire divides amateur and professional critics alike.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/08/08
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Ratings Image
N/A

Overall, the performances are good and there are occasionally amusing and touching momemts in the otherwise talky, mostly drab, affair under Richard Brooks' direction.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/08/08
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
C+

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

Full Review | comment Comment
03/25/08
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
C

Plays like Marty but without the same winsome appeal.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/26/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
2/4

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/25/06
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/13/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
N/A

The tragedy got lost somewhere in Richard Brooks's crushingly blunt direction.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
1 - 7 (sorted by date)
Text View
See More Topics...

Related Forums

Click here to be the first to post a message on this forum.

Around the Network

• The Catered Affair at Rotten Tomatoes
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.