A woman stuck with nothing
Bette Davis glumly acts her way through this working class-soap opera by Paddy Chayevsky, whose inherent misogyny undercuts his social realist message. Davis plays Agnes Hurley, a poor, but socially ambitious woman in the Bronx married to Tom, a decent, but not too bright, cabbie. The title "A Catered Affair" refers to the elaborate wedding she's planning for her daughter Jane, even though it will wipe out their life savings. But Jane defies her mother and decides on a private wedding and adding insult to injury, her bachelor brother Jack decides to marry his sweetheart. Both Jane's and Jack's weddings, and their personal happiness, force Agnes to face the barren emotional life she shares with Tom. Agnes is portrayed as domineering and unloving--her longing for more excitement and class respectability in her drab life is treated as a form of selfishness, if not depravity. "I guess you'll be doin' housework soon, too," she sourly says to her daughter, as Jane walks out the door with her fiancée. Jane may think her life will be different from her mother's, but we know she'll be in for a rude surprise.
Like so many other leftist male writers of the fifties, Chayevsky's socially progressive ideas didn't extend to the lives of women. Could Agnes' dissatisfaction have to do with the fact that she's obviously an intelligent woman with nothing to do all day stuck in dreary apartment married to a man who isn't very bright? Sure, Tom's a decent guy, but doesn't she have a right to expect more? If this film were written by Edna Ferber, Agnes would have taken the money she saved for Jane's wedding and started her own catering business and made millions. She would have set up Tom in his own limousine service. But no, in the film's depressing ending, Agnes has a "change of heart" and decides to dedicate her life to mothering her sweet, but dimwitted husband.
Left-wing films like this made during the fifties are actually more reactionary than the glitz turned out by Hollywood studios. Actresses like Doris Day and Judy Holliday played working- class girls unwilling settle for lives like Agnes'. No wonder audiences flocked to see them and gave films like Chayevsky's the brush-off. And, in real life, Bette Davis herself would never have accepted the dreary life Agnes resigns herself to by the end of the film. Why Davis thought it was her best film is beyond me. This fifties period piece illustrates the repressive social expectations dumped on women, even (or perhaps especially) by the male left.
Bette Davis glumly acts her way through this working class-soap opera by Paddy Chayevsky, whose inherent misogyny undercuts his social realist message. Davis plays Agnes Hurley, a poor, but socially ambitious woman in the Bronx married to Tom, a decent, but not too bright, cabbie. The title "A Catered Affair" refers to the elaborate wedding she's planning for her daughter Jane, even though it will wipe out their life savings. But Jane defies her mother and decides on a private wedding and adding insult to injury, her bachelor brother Jack decides to marry his sweetheart. Both Jane's and Jack's weddings, and their personal happiness, force Agnes to face the barren emotional life she shares with Tom. Agnes is portrayed as domineering and unloving--her longing for more excitement and class respectability in her drab life is treated as a form of selfishness, if not depravity. "I guess you'll be doin' housework soon, too," she sourly says to her daughter, as Jane walks out the door with her fiancée. Jane may think her life will be different from her mother's, but we know she'll be in for a rude surprise.
Like so many other leftist male writers of the fifties, Chayevsky's socially progressive ideas didn't extend to the lives of women. Could Agnes' dissatisfaction have to do with the fact that she's obviously an intelligent woman with nothing to do all day stuck in dreary apartment married to a man who isn't very bright? Sure, Tom's a decent guy, but doesn't she have a right to expect more? If this film were written by Edna Ferber, Agnes would have taken the money she saved for Jane's wedding and started her own catering business and made millions. She would have set up Tom in his own limousine service. But no, in the film's depressing ending, Agnes has a "change of heart" and decides to dedicate her life to mothering her sweet, but dimwitted husband.
Left-wing films like this made during the fifties are actually more reactionary than the glitz turned out by Hollywood studios. Actresses like Doris Day and Judy Holliday played working- class girls unwilling settle for lives like Agnes'. No wonder audiences flocked to see them and gave films like Chayevsky's the brush-off. And, in real life, Bette Davis herself would never have accepted the dreary life Agnes resigns herself to by the end of the film. Why Davis thought it was her best film is beyond me. This fifties period piece illustrates the repressive social expectations dumped on women, even (or perhaps especially) by the male left.