Lovers And Other Strangers (1970)

Although they have been living together, the groom (Michael Brandon) starts getting cold feet prior to his wedding, the bride to be (Bonnie Bedelia) takes it in stride. Meanwhile, the bride's father (Gig Young) is having an affair with his wife's (Cloris Leachman) best friend (Anne Jackson), the groom's brother (Joseph Hindy) is divorcing his high school sweetheart (Diane Keaton in her film debut) and his parents (Bea Arthur, Richard Castellano) are living a loveless marriage. Based on the play by Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor (who adapted their play with help from David Zelag Goodman) and directed by Cy Howard. Wedding movies almost seems its own genre by now: FATHER OF THE BRIDE, Altman's A WEDDING, MONSOON WEDDING, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING etc. This is one of the better ones although its somewhat misogynistic attitude with a touch of homophobia date it. As with most of these wedding movies, the bride and groom are the least interesting characters and its the offbeat family members that provide the interest. The film is really a series of sketches and its fortunate that the cast members are comfortable in the sketch comedy format. Only one performance really stands out and that's Castellano (in an Oscar nominated performance), who has a wonderful scene talking about marriage with his older son. The film's theme song For All We Know won an Oscar. With Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Bob Dishy, Marian Hailey and Jerry Stiller.