The Catered Affair

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Catered Affair, 1956.

Ben Mankiewicz and guest Todd Fisher introduce and comment following The Catered Affair, 1956.

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Guest host Madeleine Stowe introduces The Catered Affair, 1956.

After a series of domestic eruptions, working-class Bronx mom Aggie (Bette Davis) apologizes to daughter Jane (Debbie Reynolds) and makes her pitch to stage a wedding for her they can’t really afford, and she accepts, but can’t quite tell groom Ralph (Rod Taylor), in Gore Vidal’s The Catered Affair, 1956.

Tom and Aggie (Ernest Borgnine, Bette Davis), parents of bride-to-be Jane (Debbie Reynolds), hosting Mr. and Mrs. Halloran (Robert Simon, Madge Kennedy), parents of Ralph (Rod Taylor), cranky Uncle Jack (Barry Fitzgerald) arriving to undermine appearances, in The Catered Affair, 1956.

Just after the opening, the low key announcement from Jane (Debbie Reynolds) to mom Aggie (Bette Davis) and cabby dad Tom (Ernest Borgnine) that she plans to marry, in The Catered Affair, 1956, from Paddy Chayefsky's teleplay and Gore Vidal's screenplay.

Ernest Borgnine is exploiting his Academy Award from Marty, 1955, in the fancy MGM trailer for his next Paddy Chayefsky-based drama The Catered Affair, 1956, with Bette Davis and Debbie Reynolds.