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Context Film / FatherOfTheBride1950

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5[[quoteright:262:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fotb1950.png]]
6[[caption-width-right:262:Stanley is not happy about this.]]
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9->''"I always used to think that marriages were a simple affair. Boy meets girl. Fall in love. They get married. Have babies. Eventually the babies grow up and meet other babies. They fall in love. Get married. Have babies. And so on and on and on. Looked at that way, it's not only simple, it's downright monotonous. But I was wrong. I figured without the wedding."''
10-->-- '''Stanley Banks'''
11
12''Father of the Bride'' is a 1950 film directed by Creator/VincenteMinnelli, starring Creator/SpencerTracy, Creator/JoanBennett, and Creator/ElizabethTaylor, based on a 1949 novel by Edward Streeter.\
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14Stanley and Ellie Banks (Tracy and Bennett) are an upper-middle-class Long Island couple with three children, the eldest of whom is 20-year-old daughter Kay (Taylor). Kay rather casually admits to her parents that she is engaged to marry one Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor). The main plot involves the increasingly chaotic preparations for a fancy upscale wedding, and Stanley's increasing anxiety over the enormous bill that he, as the bride's father, has to pay. Eventually it becomes clear, however, that the real cause of Stanley's stress is separation anxiety over his only daughter growing up and leaving the nest.\
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16One of the first grown-up roles for Elizabeth Taylor, who neatly averted FormerChildStar syndrome and made a smooth transition into playing adult roles. Minnelli and the cast reunited a year later for a well-received sequel, ''Father's Little Dividend'', which centers around Stanley's consternation at becoming a grandfather.\
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18Received a remake in 1991 with [[Film/FatherOfTheBride1991 the same title]], with Creator/SteveMartin playing the father part. [[Film/FatherOfTheBride2022 A second remake]], focusing on a Cuban-American family, dropped in 2022 on Creator/HBOMax, with Creator/AndyGarcia playing the father part.
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21!!Tropes:
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23* BreakingTheFourthWall: The film opens with Stanley, sitting in a chair amidst the wreckage of a wedding party, addressing the camera directly and telling the story. After this OpeningMonologue the Fourth Wall is restored and Stanley becomes a more conventional {{Narrator}}.
24* BumblingDad: Stanley's discomfort over his daughter's wedding and his inability to control the rapidly rising cost of the ceremony are the main sources of humor.
25* CatapultNightmare: Stanley's anxiety over the wedding manifests itself in a nightmare in which his clothes are ripped to shreds and he falls through the floor while walking down the wedding aisle. The nightmare ends and he bolts up in bed in standard style.
26* DaddysGirl: Stanley adores his daughter and is upset that she's leaving the nest.
27--> "You fathers will understand. You have a little girl. She looks up to you. You're her oracle. You're her hero. And then the day comes when she gets her first permanent wave and goes to her first real party, and from that day on, you're in a constant state of panic."
28* DeadpanSnarker: Stanley, both in dialogue and in narration.
29* DubNameChange: In the Italian-dubbed version, the original names were changed with Italian names: Stanley became Sandro, Ellie was replaced with Lidia, Kay was replaced with Carla, and Buckley with Poldo.
30* {{Facepalm}}:
31** Stanley buries his face in his hands when he gets a look at Buckley and realizes that Buckley is "that musclebound man with the shoulders" that he remembered in the TerribleIntervieweesMontage.
32** Stanley does this again when the chandelier is dropped and shattered. He doesn't even turn around to look.
33* FavoritismFlipFlop: Kay and Buckley are going out. Stanley suggests she wears a coat because it's cold, but Kay declines. When Buckley says she should, she does, causing Stanley to have an emotional moment as he realizes he's losing his daughter.
34* GiveAwayTheBride: A very sad moment for Stanley.
35--> "Who giveth this woman? "This woman." But she's not a woman. She's still a child. And she's leaving us. What's it going to be like to come home and not find her? Not to hear her voice calling "Hi, Pops" as I come in? I suddenly realized what I was doing. I was giving up Kay. Something inside me began to hurt."
36* HaveAGayOldTime: "What's the matter with her? Sounds kind of queer."
37* HowWeGotHere: The film opens with Stanley amidst the wreckage of the wedding party, and then jumps back to the beginning of the story.
38* HypocriticalHumor: Stanley rants about how the excessively long list of wedding guests is costing him even more money. But when Ellie suggests cutting the Sandway family, Stanley calls Harry one of his oldest friends and insists that the Stanways come.
39* LohengrinAndMendelssohn: Lohengrin ("Here Comes the Bride") is heard in a distorted, nightmarish version as Stanley is having his CatapultNightmare.
40* NoAntagonist: The wedding costs a lot, and Stanley is having separation anxiety over his daughter leaving, but there's no bad guy.
41* OfCorsetsFunny: Stanley desperately tries to fit into his old tuxedo, and just barely manages hit, although Ellie observes that the button will put someone's eye out if it comes loose. Then when he's trying to open a window his tuxedo coat splits down the middle.
42* OpeningMonologue: Stanley has an opening monologue in which he talks about his daughter getting married.
43* SeriousBusiness: Most of the film is about rich people spending a lot of money on a fancy wedding, and how stuff like a big cake and an orchestra are a big deal.
44* SleepingSingle: How did Stanley and Ellie conceive three children? The world may never know.
45* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: A montage early in the film has Stanley remembering all the suitors for Kay that have appeared in the house, all of whom he found annoying. He is horrified when he finds out that Buckley actually was one of them.
46* TitleDrop: Stanley tells one of his sons that he's looking forward to "my turn to present you to the father of the bride as my only contribution."

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