The Courtship of Eddie's Father

The story of a dad and a lad and their divergent views on what constitutes desirable stepmotherhood, the production is richly mounted, wittily written and engagingly played by an expert, spirited and attractive cast.

Though Vincente Minnelli’s comic drama, from 1963, is packaged like a heartwarming tale of healing, it turns out to be nothing less than the emotional tenderizing of the American male, which Minnelli accomplishes by means of relentless pounding.

Before it became a TV series, this cutesy comedy by Vincente Minnelli had some status as an auteurist favorite, but it’s a long way from Minnelli’s Father of the Bride (another proto-sitcom).

There is something at once technically admirable and artistically obscene in making people cry. [02 May 1963, p.12]