Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1950)

SHADOW Altar antics: Marriage is no private affair for Don Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor in a comedy as gay as a wedding bouquet (F) Father of the Bride (M-G-M) fJ^ALK about timing! This fumy and refreshing comedy I about a wedding just couldn’t have been timed more perfectly — what with Elizabeth Taylor, one of its stars, having marched off to the altar in May with young Nick Hilton, son of the hotel tycoon. However, this is really Spencer’s picture. As the harassed father who gets all the headaches, the heartaches and the bills, Spence wraps it up and takes it home. Joan Bennett, beautiful enough to be a bride herself, plays the mother who married in a dull tailored suit, and is determined that her daughter shall have all the expensive trimmings; veil, church, cake, reception, orchestra, caterers, champagne, etc. Liz, of course, is the young daughter, all dewy-eyed over Don Taylor. All she wants is to get married quietly, and suddenly she finds herself in the year’s biggest clambake. e Burke and Moroni Olsen are the groom’s parents. And, according to the father of the bride, they get off mighty easy in this marriage racket. All they have to supply is the groom! Leo G. Carroll shines as the snooty wedding dictator, as does Melville Cooper as the Reverend’s busy assistant. Your Reviewer Says: It’s funny if you aren’t a father. Vital Statistics: Elizabeth’s foster parents ( Metro-Goldtvyn Mayer ) and her real parents are pleased at her choice of a husband. After a honeymoon in Europe, the young Hiltons expect to live in a Hollywood apartment, and continue their respective careers . . . Spencer Tracy could lose some weight, don’t you think? Bet he could split some of his old suits just as effectively as he did his striped pants in the picture . . . Joan Bennett, the youngest of the Hollywood grandmothers, looks more like Elizabeth’s sister than her mother in this film. But Joan was never one to fuss aboo‘ “-sing” parts. BY LIZA WILSON In Old Chicago: Colorful musical of the Gay Nineties with Phil Harris, Vic Mature as rivals for Betty Grable’s favor ^ (F) Wabash Avenue (20tli Century-Fox) BETTY GRABLE is back in the kind of Betty Grable movie you like best. (And she likes best, too.) Again she dances plush production numbers, sings nosta’gic songs, and shows those famous legs in pretty tights, which is good news for the millions of Grable fans. This time, Betty is an 1892 honky-tonk entertainer in a tough night club run by Phil Harris on Chicago’s Wabash Avenue. Her specialty is the shimmy. And she shakes a mean one. But, before the picture is over, Betty has become a glamorous star of a lavish Broadway musical, and sings the popular “Wilhelmina.” Vic Mature, fresh from the unbecoming haircut given him by Delilah Lamarr, plays a breezy, fast-talking guy with a heart of gold. He and Phil outtrick each other for Betty. The usually immaculate Reginald Gardiner plays a grubby panhandler, and James Barton a lovable old tosspot. Your Reviewer Says: No messages, just wonderful fun. Vital Statistics: For this picture Betty Grable’s hair was dyed a tvhite-gold color, which looks good in Technicolor. Latest measurements are: 36-inch bust, 23 waist, 35 hips, 19 thigh, 13 calf. Betty thinks her legs are much too skinny. “ ‘ Sociable ’ has better,” she says. “Sociable” is a two-year-old thoroughbred she owns. She and Harry are mad for horses and have twentyeight of them at their Calabasas ranch, near Hollywood . . . Director Henry Koster tried to make Vic do a bit of terpsichore with Betty. Vic just stuck out his feet, while Betty shuddered. “Size twelve-and-a-half,” he said. But he did consent to take piano lessons, just long enough to play “Baby, Won’t You Say You Love Me.” Ben Gage does Vic’s screen singing. Vic and his wife and child live in the same five-room house they’ve I had for several years. “I’m the only actor in Hollywood with one bathroom,” boasts Vic. '/'/'V' Outstanding VV Good V Fair F — For the whole family A — For adults 24