Review of The Family Way

I had first heard of "the family way'" because I'm a Beatles buff and Paul McCartney wrote the music arranged by his producer George Martin;I did not expect much from the film and I was wrong. Hindsight displays its charm....

.....the charm of things of long ago,which lingers on after so many years,after the sexual revolution, the pill, the woman's lib ..... It's because it's a dated film that "family way" possesses considerable appeal ,even for today's audience .

The problems of Benett to consummate his marriage make sense : people put so much pressure on him that it's almost unbearable: the girl's family always present for they live in her native house, the so called friends ' heavy jokes,the gossipies all around, even the town and its shops ....It's a comedy,because one knows ,that with a bride as gorgeous as Hayley Mills , the unfortunate groom is not a desperate case!

Even the parents have to make amends in the end ; the wife evokes her honeymoon and the bizarre "ménage à trois" she had to endure ; the end of the movie belongs to John Mills , who after the newly weds' departure ,almost breaks down.

There's also Murray Head ("say it ain't so Joe" ,"Jesus Christ Superstar ") as the brother-in-law.