Father of the Bride

Thoroughly enchanting comedy about the trials and tribulations a middle-aged family man faces when the daughter he dotes on decides to get married. As one might expect, Tracy is superb, and while the film is never as impressive as Minnelli's all-out melodramas (Some Came Running, Two Weeks in Another Town), it's still fascinating for the rather bleak undercurrents coursing beneath the many laughs: the father's problems are engendered by his own jealousy, insecurity and fears about getting old. A less effective sequel, Father's Little Dividend (1951), had Tracy facing the trial of becoming a grandfather.