Weddings and Babies
Directed by Morris Engel
Written by Morris Engel, Blanche Hanalis et al
1958/USA
Morris Engel Associates
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. — Groucho Marx [/box]
Love is a messy thing as Engel’s docu-drama illustrates so well.
Al is a professional photographer who specializes in wedding and babies but aspires to something more creative. He has been going with Bea for the past three years. She is more than ready to get married. He says he will marry her “soon”, when he has saved up enough money. “Soon” does not seem to imply anything in the immediate future.
Al spends his savings on an expensive camera and Bea starts crying more than previously. When Al is unwilling to really care for his senile mother, Bea may have finally had it.
I would rank this right behind Little Fugitive among Engel’s films. The evocative camerawork brilliantly captures the time, place and people of a slice of 1950’s New York City. Sure, some of the sequences run on too long and the amateur acting is spotty. The total effect is so raw and real that I was moved in the end.
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