The Bachelor Party (1957) (In Glorious Black and White)

Delbert Mann's follow-up to the enormously successful MARTY, BACHELOR PARTY is written by Paddy Chayefsky in the same kitchen-sink style as the original, as he extracts drama from the most seemingly mundane rituals. In this case, the ritual is the bachelor party of bookkeeper Arnold (Philip Abbott), who leaves the planning to Eddie (Jack Warden), who picks the locations for the marathon pub-crawl. As the men hit various bars, a Greenwich Village "happening," and a porn theater, the forced merriment continues, the effects of liquor cause the men to reflect on their own lives and marriages. The reserved Charlie Sampson (Don Murray) tries to decide whether to use this opportunity to cheat on his wife with a willing beatnik (Carolyn Jones). Most disturbing, Walter (E.G. Marshall), the oldest of the group, and a self-professed swinger, contemplates the emptiness of his life, revealing a bottomless reservoir of self-hatred. Writer Chayefsky's faultless ear for dialogue reveals the desperation that often lies behind the chest-thumping and false kinmanship that is typical of groups of men. Exceptional performances by Marshall, Nancy Marchand, and Carolyn Jones (who garnered an Oscar nomination for her brief turn as, "the existentialist.")