….as in a Classic Movie Monday featuring Father of the Bride!

FATHER OF THE BRIDE;  1950;  Studio:  MGM;  Director:  Vincente Minnelli;  Cast:  Spencer Tracy,  Joan Bennett,  Elizabeth Taylor,  Don Taylor,  Billie Burke,  Leo G. CarrollBased on an Edward Streeter novel, Father of the Bride places an anxious Spencer Tracy in the middle of a marriage maelstrom as Stanley T. Banks,  the hapless dad of newly engaged Kay (Elizabeth Taylor),  as she embarks on wedding plans with fiancée Buckley (Don Taylor, no relation) and mother Ellie (Joan Bennett).  What follows is barely controlled chaos,  with Stanley struggling to enjoy one moment of his daughter’s impending wedded bliss while money keeps flying out the window.

The hit movie was followed by an equally successful sequel in 1951, Father’s Little Dividend,  as well as a short-lived TV series.  Decades later,  Steve Martin stepped into Tracy’s shoes and made two equally beloved remakes of the original films.  “And then the day comes when she gets her first permanent wave and goes to her first real party,  and from that day on,  you’re in a constant state of panic.”