Girl with no dowry
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Girl with no dowry |
| Original title | The Catered Affair |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Brooks |
| script | Gore Vidal |
| production | Sam Zimbalist |
| music | André Previn |
| camera | John Alton |
| cut |
Gene Ruggiero Frank Santillo |
| occupation | |
| |
Girls without a dowry (Original title: The Catered Affair) is an American feature film that was directed by Richard Brooks . The leading roles are cast with Bette Davis , Ernest Borgnine , Debbie Reynolds and Rod Taylor . The tragic comedy is about the worries and hardships of a family like the ones in the Bronx area .
action
Tom Hurley is driving his taxi in the New York borough of Bronx , where he also lives with his family. He and his friend Jim have decided to start their own business. Tom has saved iron for years for this. You decide to make this dream come true so that you can drive on your own account. The car envisaged costs $ 4,000 each. At home, Jim tells his wife Agnes about his troubles as a taxi driver when their daughter Jane, who is usually called Jenny by their parents, joins Tom and Agnes and tells Tom and Agnes that she and her fiancé Ralph want to get married. Ralph is a teacher. Jenny tells the parents that the wedding should take place next Tuesday and that she and Ralph only want a small wedding with only the closest relatives. Jane's father thinks this is good, but her mother is quite disappointed. She had imagined this special day in her daughter's life to be different. When Agnes has to tell her brother Jack Conlon, who lives with the Hurleys as a sublet, that he is not invited, otherwise other family members would have to be invited, Jack is not only disappointed, but rather angry, which culminates in the threat that he'll move out. The next evening, the Hallorans, Ralph's parents, are to be invited to dinner so that they can get to know each other better. Ralph's father deals in houses and apartments and is much better off financially than the Hurleys. When Agnes goes shopping for the evening at the market and tells about her daughter's wedding and that Jenny only wants a small celebration and the wedding is already next Tuesday, the dear neighbors start whispering "whether they could not afford a bigger wedding" , "If a baby was out because they were in such a hurry," and more gossip . This also contributes to the fact that Agnes Hurley is increasingly dissatisfied with the young people's decision.
When the Hallorans appear in the evening, Agnes is very nervous. Their good food is praised by Ralph's parents and of course they talk about the children too. Joe Halloran talks about his other children and how well they are and how great the wedding celebrations were. These statements put an additional burden on Agnes. When Ralph's parents leave, Agnes begins again with her daughter, wishing Jane had a big wedding. She also talks to her husband Tom, and when she says that you have to get there with $ 2,000, he says in horror that that is half of what he has saved for his taxi all these years. Agnes conjures him that they have never done anything great for their daughter contrary to what was spent on the sons. Jane has two brothers, of which only Eddie, who shortly before his convocation stands, lives. The older brother died in the Korean War . Agnes visits her daughter in her room and asks her again to have a big wedding and lets her know how happy Jenny would make her with it. She tells the daughter about her own barren wedding and that she wants her daughter to be better and that she should remember this day as a very special one. She also tells her how the marriage between her and Jenny's father came about. Her own father, Jenny's grandfather, had offered Tom money if he "would marry his daughter," and he did. Jenny finally agrees and Agnes is happy. The next few days are filled with preparations for the wedding, choosing a wedding dress, writing invitations, planning the course of the celebration with the hotel manager, etc. When they talk to the hotel manager and Agnes talks about 200 guests, Tom strikes for a long time. Agnes gets her way through. When Tom then realizes that about 160 guests are to come from Ralph's side and that when he calls another phone there are already 186 plus the 100 from his own family, things get too colorful for him. The couple quarrel violently. When Jim then bursts into the argument and wants to collect the money for the taxi, Tom is left with just excuses, because his savings are probably going to be used for his daughter's wedding. Jenny intervenes and makes it clear to the parents that she doesn't want a big wedding at this price. As planned, the wedding should take place in the smallest of circles. Agnes is devastated. When Tom told her some time later that she wasn't a good match either, she replied, “As good as you can ask for $ 300.” Tom thinks this is unjust and tells her that he wanted to give up everything more than once and that she should finally understand that they are poor people and that they should stop nagging. He also accuses her of only taking care of the others, first the children, then Uncle Jack and he himself was always at the bottom of her list. He ends with the words: “Maybe you will take care of me now.” Agnes realizes that she and her husband actually know very little about each other.
Tom spent the evening before the wedding drinking all of the beer that was in the fridge and is still in bed the next morning. The wedding should take place in about an hour. Agnes sends Jenny up, goes into the bedroom, sits down on a chair, looks at her husband and waits until he wakes up. When he wakes up and says she was right, she contradicts him and says: “No, Tom, you were right and Jenny is getting married the way she wanted.” “The years are like a day and I am only getting to know you now , “Says Tom in astonishment to Agnes. When Tom is getting ready for the wedding, Agnes calls Jim. When the two of them stand in front of the house and the taxi stops, Tom can't believe it, they drive in “their own taxi” to their daughter's wedding. Agnes "took care."
Background and production notes
The film is based on the television game The Catered Affair (Catered Affair) by Paddy Chayefsky , aired on NBC on May 22, 1955. The budget of the film was estimated at 1,008,000 US dollars.
The filming took place on the original locations in the northernmost borough of New York in the Bronx . They lasted from December 15, 1955 to January 16, 1956. The role of Ralph Halloran was originally supposed to be played by Leslie Nielsen. The role of Agnes Hurley played by Bette Davis was held in the television play Thelma Ritter . For Bette Davis it was the first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . There have been negative voices about her cast as a Bronx housewife. The slender Bette Davis was padded to the full for this role, wore a wig with an unkempt, old-fashioned hairstyle, thick shoes and unattractive clothes.
The film premiered in New York, USA on June 14, 1956. It is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production. In the Federal Republic of Germany the film was released on May 10, 1957, in Austria on May 31, 1957.
DVD
The Catered Affair is currently only available in the original English version, published on September 16, 2011.
synchronization
The German dubbing took place in 1957 at MGM , dubbing was done in the dubbing studio in Berlin.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Hurley | Ernest Borgnine | Werner Peters |
| Agnes Hurley | Bette Davis | Manja Behrens |
| Jane Hurley | Debbie Reynolds | Marion Degler |
| Ralph Halloran | Rod Taylor | Hans Dieter Zeidler |
| Jack Conlon | Barry Fitzgerald | Hans Hessling |
| Mr. Halloran | Robert F. Simon | Walther Suessenguth |
| Mrs. Halloran | Madge Kennedy | Roma train |
| Mrs. Rafferty | Dorothy Stickney | Friedel Schuster |
| Eddie Hurley | Ray Stricklyn | Herbert Stass |
| Jim | Jay Adler | Eduard Wandrey |
| Alice Scanlon | Joan Camden | Tilly Lauenstein |
criticism
Variety was of the opinion that the actors' performances were "overall good" and that there were occasional "amusing and touching moments". Most of the time, the film is "chatty and often monotonous."
Rasch and Röhring's film lexicon was “tragic-comic everyday life” . The lexicon of international films says that the film is "rich in human warmth and tragicomic glorification of everyday life."
Awards
- Debbie Reynolds was named Best Actress by the National Board of Review .
- The film itself was named one of the ten best films of 1956 by the National Board of Review.
Web links
- Catered Affair in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Catered Affair at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Girls without a dowry at Schnitt.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Catered Affair in the Internet Movie Database (English) , Section Box Office. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
- ^ The Catered Affair (1956) - Notes. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
- ↑ cf. Bette Davis Your Films - Her Life by Jerry Vermilye, Heyne Filmbibliothek No. 32/4, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1988, pp. 140 + 144
- ↑ The Catered Affair. In: TCM Shop. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Girl without a dowry. In: synchronous database. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
- ↑ The Catered Affair. In: Variety . 1956, accessed October 23, 2019 .
- ^ Lexicon Films on TV from Verlag Rasch und Röhring, Hamburg, written by Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz, in collaboration with GONG magazine, 1988, p. 377
- ↑ Girls without a dowry. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 2, 2017 .
- ^ The Catered Affair (1956) - Miscellaneous Notes. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved October 23, 2019 .