Intcatinfo
A Masterpiece!
ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Amy Adler
Mr. Frank Gilbreth (Clifton Webb) and his lovely wife (Myrna Loy) are the parents to 11 children in Providence, Rhode Island in the 1920's. Father is an efficiency expert, telling businesses how to speed up production and he often tries his ideas out at home. When he blows the whistle, the kids come running to line up. He also has ideas on how to bathe in the quickest method possible and still be clean! The children love him and try to please him. However, oldest daughter Ann (Jeanne Crain) often locks horns with her dad, because she wants to "bob" her long hair and wear more modern clothing. Ann is also very interested in young men and longs to start stepping out with them but has few opportunities to meet any. Even at a weekend beach retreat, the young lady's old-fashioned swim clothes are an embarrassment to her. Will she succeed in changing father's mind a bit? We'll see. Also, the Gilbreths always wanted a dozen children so will number twelve arrive? Yes! From father signing the kids up for tonsilectomies, to improve health, to dad riding in the rumble seat on Ann's first date, life is far from dull for the Gilbreth family! This is a lovely, funny family movie that shows nothing really changes over the ages. Teens still long to follow the time's fashion trends, to their parents' chagrin, and mothers and fathers keep trying to find out whether a boy is "good enough" for their daughters and such. What is unusual here is the escapades that Mr. Gilbreth puts his kids through, in the name of saving time and effort. Now, that's entertainment. As father, Webb is simply sensationally comic. When he volunteers his own tonsils to the scalpel, it is a good thing he came last in the operation, for he finds out its not so much fun! But, what a side-slapper! Loy, Crain, and all of the darling children do a fine job as well. What a treat it is, too, to see a recreation of the sets, costumes, and issues of the Roaring Twenties. Based on Gilbreth's own experiences and memoir, the script is great and so is the sure-handed direction. If you seek out this older version of CBTD, you will be glad you did, for this rich story of family love and loyalty is one joyful ride.
Jackson Booth-Millard
I confess that I had seen the Steve Martin remake before seeing this original from director Walter Lang (Call Me Madam, The King and I), but that didn't stop me. Basically in Providence, Rhode Island, the Gilbreth family are made up of husband/father Frank Bunker (Clifton Webb), wife/mother Lillian (Myrna Loy), and their eleven children, and including daughters Ann (Jeanne Crain) and Ernestine (Barbara Bates). There is no specific story, it is just seeing how the family cope in certain situations, e.g. going on a day out and stuff, but you do see some storyline concerning marriage and that. I will admit I dozed off somewhere in the middle, but I woke up to see the quite sad ending with father Frank dying. Also starring Betty Lynn as Deborah Lancaster, Edgar Buchanan as Dr. Burton, Mildred Natwick as Mrs. Mebane and Sara Allgood as Mrs. Monahan. I did laugh at quite a few moments, I almost prefer the concept of the remake, but this original period comedy certainly does feel like it deserves three stars out of five. Worth watching!
Neil Doyle
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN is based on the true life experiences of a family with a dozen children, although when watching the film you have to suspect that some of these "events" were embellished for the sake of laughs rather than accuracy. And Clifton Webb, in stiff collar and still bossing everyone around, reminds one of Mr. Belevedere with a family.Still, he's the main reason for watching this highly sentimental illusion of what family life was like in America in the early 20th century. The film itself is no more than a series of vignettes, just glimpses of humorous minor events that happened in a family where the father ruled the roost while the mother (MYRNA LOY) took care of the children and her husband, not necessarily in that order.MYRNA LOY and JEANNE CRAIN (as the oldest daughter), don't have much to do and Crain is a bit simpering and coy in a role she was really too old to play. But most of the kids have some good moments and it's all over in a brisk 86 minutes, so no need to squabble about too many dull moments.If you like CLIFTON WEBB as an eccentric and overbearing efficiency expert, you'll get a lot of amusement from this one.
Steve Haynie
I bought the DVD of Cheaper By The Dozen months before watching it. The movie was part of a larger number of old movies that I was working through. Part of the reason for putting it aside was that in order to appreciate some movies you have to be in the right frame of mind.Knowing that Cheaper By The Dozen was made shortly after World War II, it was expected that the family's values would reflect Hollywood's "perfect" world of that era. The truth is, many families strove for that level of obedience and order. With the story set in the 1920's and the nature of Mr. Gilbreth, there was another level of family structure that may seem odd today. Instead of watching the movie randomly, I chose a time at which I could think in terms of the real Gilbreth family and their environment. I had to bring myself to the level of the movie instead of waiting for the movie to draw me in.Having recently been taught a little about how efficiency managers view manufacturing processes, I could understand the character of Frank Gilbreth much better. They really do look for ways to save ten seconds here and twenty seconds there. At the end of the day minutes or hours are saved, which translates into more product output. Seeing Gilbreth apply his morals and industrial efficiency techniques on keeping order within his household is what makes this movie funny. I admire Mr. and Mrs. Gilbreth for their thoughtful parental guidance.
