So much average

Please don't spend money on this.

Absolutely Fantastic

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

"Cheaper By the Dozen", based on the real-life story of the Gilbreth family, follows them from Providence, Rhode Island, to Montclair, New Jersey, and details the amusing anecdotes found in large families.Although most people have heard of "Cheaper by the Dozen", these days (2014) they are probably more familiar with the Steve Martin incarnation. This is unfortunate, as the Gilbreth clan (as depicted here or in the book) are a very interesting slice of American life. While some of the measurements Frank makes seem silly, he did have some important contributions to society, such as the use of a surgeon's "caddy".The film is a bit more of a comedy, and tends to focus on Frank's struggle with his eldest daughter and the fight against modernity. This is a bit interesting itself in hindsight, as one could see the 1950s/1960s cultural divide, which was obviously not the intent for a film made in 1950 and taking place in 1923.

This movie is based on the biographic book written by two of the 12 children of Frank Gilbert, Sr. Frank Gilbert, Sr., was a prominent pioneering efficiency expert. Efficiency experts were hired by manufacturers as consultants on how to increase the productivity of 20th mass production. (An example of the kind of work Gilbert pioneered is in the musical comedy, "The Pajama Game". Eddie Foy, Jr. plays the time-control manager, Hines.) But the movie and book are about his home life. With a huge family and limited bathroom facilities, organization is needed to make the parents' lives manageable and to prevent chaos. Some of his ideas seem good (such as decorating the children's bedrooms with educational material so that they will become familiar to them without studying. But others, such as an industrial scale tonsillectomy on the 12 children makes for a good story. The title of the movie and book come from the father bargaining for quantity discounts.This is a comedy the whole family can enjoy. It gives us an opportunity to view what life was like in an upper middle class family at the dawn of the 1920's jazz age. It hasn't any car chases, pratfalls, and its more of a series of vignettes (individual chapters of the book relate incidents in the family's life) than a story following a plot. I saw this movie when it was first in the theaters and after I had read the book. It remains one of my fondest biographical films, with the other being "Aunty Mame."

... half a dozen of the other, an apt description of a family boasting six girls and six boys. It's almost inevitable that after the first couple of reels you find yourself thinking of Life With Father and Meet Me In St Louis, both set in a similar period, featuring large families with colourful matriarchs and episodic rather than linear. I doubt that many feel-good family films of the fifties would have dared to end with the death - albeit off-screen - of the leading character so that's another brownie point to a well-made, sentimental movie. By today's - or even by those of the time - standards not a lot happens, instead we are treated to several vignettes of family life just as the twentieth century was gearing up to ride roughshod over the Edwardian era. Webb is excellent in the lead and though woefully underused Myrna Loy registers strongly as his patient and loving wife. A delightful diversion.

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!