THE BACHELOR PARTY (1957)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Delbert Mann

SCREENWRITER: Paddy Chayefsky

FILM STARS: Don Murray, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Philip Abbott, Larry Blyden, Patricia Smith, Carolyn Jones, Nancy Marchand

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Paddy Chayefsky

TYPE: Play

PUBLISHER: Signet

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1957

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1955

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS: The Bachelor Party is a 1953 television play by Paddy Chayefsky which was adapted by Chayefsky for this 1957 film. Don Murray played the lead in both, and he is perfect. Don Murray could do little wrong in the late 1950s. The play, like all Chayefsky’s work (and there is a passing resemblance to Marty here (in characters rejecting the behaviour of the pack)), is a “slice of life” drama. The two new literary “movements” in the US in the early to mid-5os were the “slice of life” and “rat race” plays and novels. Both transferred easily to film and television. Coincidentally, a few later, the not dissimilar “kitchen sink dramas” and “angry young men” novels would emerge in England both in literature and film.

Co-workers out for a bachelor party and a night on the town stumble into situations that will test them and their resolve to marriage and relationships. I recall watching this many years ago (and then reading the play some time later) and what struck me was, social mores and fashion aside, how the issues were still relevant at the time of my watching / reading in the 80s, which was reinforced by what I saw when I started working in an office in the 90s. Don Murray’s character, Charlie Samson, is tested and tempted through the night by another woman … just like the other “Samson”?

LINKS

from the documentary retrospective “Don Murray: Unsung hero” (2014) …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V3Vvb5BPno&t=6s