CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN

US, 1950, 85 minutes, Colour.
Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Betty Lynn, Edgar Buchanan, Barbara Bates, Mildred Natwick, Sarah Allgood.
Directed by Walter Lang.

Cheaper By The Dozen is based on a book by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth-Kerry?. The book is about their father, their mother and their growing up. The father was a strong martinet, a time-efficiency expert. They had twelve children – and this film is a nostalgic and entertaining look at a family in the early part of the 20th century. There is a lot of domestic comedy of the old style – a perfect family film of the past.

Clifton Webb, a dancer, who had emerged as a villain in such films as Laura and The Razor’s Edge, achieved notoriety for his comic role as Mr Belvedere in Sitting Pretty. There were several sequels. Cheaper By The Dozen was made at the same time. He is matched with charming veteran actress Myrna Loy. Jeanne Crain is the oldest of the children.

The film was directed by Walter Lang, director of a number of musicals in the 1940s and bigger-budget films in the 1950s including There’s No Business Like Show Business and The King and I.

The story was updated to the 21st century and a remake starred Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. It was rather raucous – and irritating for fans of the original film. This was compounded by their making a sequel. The sequel of the original Cheaper By The Dozen, with Clifton Webb’s character absent, was Belles On Their Toes starring Myrna Loy and the other children.

1. Did you enjoy this film? How did it combine lightness of approach with its use of comedy styles? As an example of popular films of the late forties? As a typical American film with American settings and sentiment?

2. What impact did it make as a biography? As an affectionate biography? The atmosphere of love and devotion? The role and influence of characters on others? The importance of togetherness in a family, for life and work? How real were the portrayals of these values? How convincing, how encouraging?

3. How important was the central character of Frank Gailbraith? Clifton Webb’s performance and style? The particular details that make his character memorable? His importance as a father, husband? His time saving devices, his eccentricities, his old fashioned style and manners? The importance of his providing a new house? The humour of his talking with the doctor, filming the operation, undergoing the operation? The importance of the European conference for him and his work? The sequence of the holiday and his encounters with his growing up daughters? His unbending at the dance and the humour? The sudden impact of his death his absence? The importance of memory end coping with loss? The impact that he made as a character with the audience and his impact on his family?

4. How attractive was his wife? Myrna Loy’s style? As a contrast to Frank, as a complement to him? Her quiet strength, advice, her role on the house council? The atmosphere she created for her husband and children? Her support for her daughters? Her strength at the end in carrying on his work? Should she have done otherwise? As an example of motherhood and strong womanhood?

5. How attractive were the daughters? The older girls and their growing up? The importance of the sequence when they accompanied their father to the new school? Their shyness with boys and flirting? The sequence at the beadh? Clothes? The dance? Their support for one another and the younger girls? The boys and their reliability, their mischief? As an adequate portrayal of family and family life?

6. What did the film have to say about families and family bonds? The support from the servants and their role in the house?

7. The irony of the visit of the birth control lady? Was this adequately done as comedy? Point behind it?

8. How successful an example of American family cinema in terms of enjoyment, popularity, positive outlook on life?