Father of the Bride ****

A show of hands, please. How many of you have seen Father of the Bride? Okay, good. Who played the father again? Good, good, good. I just placed anthrax in the water supply of everyone who just said Steve Martin, so now the rest of us can talk.

I'm sure ol' Steve is a wonderful father and husband and is kind to animals and doesn't poison his candy on Halloween or place anthrax in the water supply of stupid people; and yes, Spencer Tracy was a monstrous drunk (nothing necessarily wrong with that...hmmm, while on that topic.)...

Okay, that's better. Where was I? Oh, yeah Tracy was a big boozer and he cheated on his wife for years and years and years (no, Kate Hepburn was not his wife), but he kicked ass on screen and he gave Humphrey Bogart his nickname, so I hope you like your dog Steve because you still suck.

There are about five actors in history who can carry a great movie with virtually no help. Spencer's one of them. James Cagney's another one and I'm about to do a review in the next couple of days of a third. Who else would I add to that list since I had to open my mouth and say five; Clark Gable and...let's say...I don't know...me, if I acted. Don't hold me to that list because the idiot doctors say I lost brain cells and I'm sure there's someone I'm forgetting. Do I even have brain cells now? I have to ask someone.) To show how hard this is to do, even Bogart couldn't do it.

So the movie starts at the end with Spencer rubbing his feet outside of his trashed house and announcing that he has "something to say about weddings." And like E.F. Hutton, if Spencer has something to say, I pick up my breakfast martini (I throw some grapefruit juice in there) and move in a little closer. This starts the flashback and off we go.

The basic premise is that Tracy's daughter (Elizabeth Taylor - looking tastier than a mint julep here) is getting engaged to this guy that Spencer can't remember. Vince Minnelli (Liza's dad) is the director here and he has a nice montage of the guys that Liz has dated as Spencer tries to figure out which one it is. Each guy is screwing something up or looking like an idiot and Spencer ends each little tableau by saying "It can't be him. She wouldn't do that to me, would she?" If memory serves, it ended up being the guy who messed up the toaster.

I've always been a Minnelli fan. He's unobtrusive, but I can always tell it's him calling the shots. He has such an elegant style. It's obvious that he was a former hoofer.

Back to the movie, Spencer finally meets the guy and he' s okay, he guesses, but now the problem is that he has to pay for the wedding. The mother and daughter go about this task like the Queen of Sweden is getting hitched and Spence has a daily conniption. Tracy really is marvelous here and it's not even his best work. He's the best at taking off the wall satire and making it realistic. He's also great at taking curmudgeons and making them lovable. He's just great period. It's such a pleasure to watch him. His work is so subtle. Like the scene where he's supposed to make the announcement, but he gets caught in the kitchen making drinks. He made a tub of martinis (which look delicious) thinking this would solve the problem, but of course everyone wants Old Fashioneds (haven't had one of those in a while), high balls (love high balls), and everything else under the sun (mmmm). At the end, he never gets to make his speech.

He has a similar scene toward the end when he gets caught up in the reception and he thinks his daughter leaves without getting to say goodbye. In both cases, Tracy made the audience feel sympatico. They were both wonderful and emotional moments that others (certainly not the wild and crazy guy) would not be able to pull off. Many actors specialize in showing certain emotions or portraying certain characters, and having successful careers doing so (see Wayne, John), but Tracy can do everything.

His best scene is the night before the wedding when neither he or his daughter could sleep. There were both downstairs drinking milk and having a snack. Tracy was scared to death (dreaming that he showed up drunk at the wedding and couldn't make it down the aisle...trust me, that is embarrassing), but he found out Liz was too (this was the first of her 27 weddings). So while still subtlely showing his fear to the audience, he was able to act as her rock and calm her down. Just marvelous.

A couple of years ago when Hanks won his second straight Oscar, he became the second man to do it twice in a row along with Spence, so the inevitable comparison went up. That was the reason I started the push for my return because no one stated what a joke that was. Tracy could have and should have won four more. There is no comparison. Tracy's the man and Hanks is the boy.

Once again, run to see this. If you already saw the Martin one and figure there's no need to see this...I still have some anthrax left.