Product: Father of the Bride [VHS] (1950)
Rating: 5.0
"Speak Now, or Forever Hold Your Piece"
This is one of those films that, if you're switching channels and you land on this one, you can't stop watching until the very end, no matter how many times you've seen it before. It's like hypnosis. And every time I watch it, I still get caught up in the suspense of whether or not Elizabeth Taylor ("Kay") is going to have the perfect wedding or not. My head knows that it will turn out all right, but my heart can't help worry for her and especially for poor Spencer Tracy as dear old Stanley Banks, the man who's having to give up the dearest thing in his life, and having to pay for the privilege of doing so!Some people say that Spencer Tracy could play anything; I'm not one of them, and I find him pretty hokey or uneven in some of his parts. But for this kind of light comedy with a lot of heart, there was no one better. I also find his chemistry with the lovely Joan Bennett the equal of his famous screen relationship with Katharine Hepburn; he seems just as much at ease with Bennett as he was with Hepburn. (In this regard it's funny to watch the Cukor version of LITTLE WOMEN, with Hepburn as Jo and Bennett--still a blonde--as Amy, and to think that both of them would have Spencer Tracy in their future.)I know people who like the remake with Steve Martin and Martin Short, but it never captured my attention the way this one does. When I'm flicking the remote and Steve Martin's on, I just silently click again till I get something I want to see.