Nice effects though.

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This movie is an excellent slice of life back in the day. The father and the mother were both pioneers in motion studies and took on the challenge of raising a dozen children according to their precepts of high educational and moral standards and this movie concerns the various humorous situations that occur throughout the years including the woman who was told that the mother would be a good "family planning representative," democratic family meetings, the father's insistence that the girls wear old fashioned bathing costumes at the beach, the father's stand against make up and new-style undergarments. Sadly, the father suffered a fatal heart attack while traveling and we get to see the family pull together to enable the mother to carry on with the family business.

I know Steve Martin fans will not agree, but this is the best version, the original. Granted the values of family and the father being really old fashioned are not today's values. The thing is though, the father here commands respect and because he gets it the family is much more of a well behaved unit than the newer version.Myrna Loy is really too beautiful to have 12 children, at least you would think so. Actually any woman who has 12 children would be attractive though. I once met a woman who in real life has 20 kids (10 boys and 10 girls) and she is still an attractive woman. Of course she is not Myrna Loy, but that's Hollywood. I mean they never would type cast Phyllis Diller as a mother of 12. She would be too funny anyhow.Clifton Webb is excellent as the father figure. This film has 1950 values throughout. It is the best dozen without any doubt. The remakes all fall short of this classic based upon a real family.

Amusing family drama, set in the 1920's, and immensely popular on first release. No wonder, since the movie presents an idealized family portrait that goes humorously beyond the usual two or three kids. Here, of course, it's a dozen. With that many offspring, all kinds of kid hi- jinks are possible to fill out the screenplay. Nonetheless, it's the prickly Webb at the height of his popularity who dominates, along with a bemused Loy looking on. There's really no plot, just a series of ordinary family episodes centering around Mom, Dad, and the two eldest girls (Crain & Bates).Still, there is something of a socially conservative subtext behind the scattered goings-on. Importantly, it's one that doesn't harm the generally humorous results. Take the way the family-planning lady (Natwick) is gently mocked when Dad parades his army of offspring before her. This was, after all, back in the day when contestants on quiz shows with bigger families got bigger applause. Or take the prom scene where young Tom (Hill) pointedly affirms to teen-age Ann (Crain) what her dad has already explained to her—namely, that boys only marry "good girls". This scene, however, appears aimed specifically at the audience and is a bit awkward for such an otherwise smooth production.Despite the one scene, this is not an in-your-face subtext, but it is present and quite consonant with the times. After all, idealized families were not unusual for either movies or TV of the 50's, unlike today's often ribald variety. However, I am curious how in such a sunny movie the unexpectedly dark development suddenly occurs near the end. I guess its inclusion was to maintain the facts of the real life family on which the movie is based. At the same time, the development prevents things from getting too sentimental, always a pitfall for movies like this. Nonetheless, it is understandably passed over quickly and at a distance.All in all, the movie remains warmly amusing, thanks mainly to another of Webb's prickly but likable characters. Then too, the kids are cute without being cutesy; at the same time, the lovely Crain looks a little long in the tooth to be playing a teenager. However, I'm still wondering how Mom can bear all of twelve kids and still look like Myrna Loy. Oh well, just another of Hollywood's enduring mysteries.

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.