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(out of 5)
Spencer Tracy is the put-upon father whose life is turned upside down when his magnificently beautiful daughter (Elizabeth Taylor) announces that she is getting married. He is immediately thrust into a whirlwind of wedding preparations, mounting bills and one emotional crisis after another. Vincente Minnelli allows the film to have a picture-perfect view of American upper-class life without ever letting it get too cloying, emphasizing instead the quirkiness of his main characters and making them seem much more real than they would be in an Andy Hardy movie. Taylor is at the absolute peak of her loveliness, and Tracy couldn’t be more endearing (their scenes together are especially wonderful).
USA, 1950
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, based on the novel by Edward Streeter
Cinematography by John Alton
Produced by Pandro S. Berman
Music by Adolph Deutsch
Production Design by Cedric Gibbons, Leonid Vasian
Costume Design by Walter Plunkett, Helen Rose
Film Editing by Ferris Webster
Academy Award Nominations
Best Actor (Spencer Tracy as “Stanley T. Banks”)
Best Motion Picture (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Best Writing (Screenplay) (Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett)
