Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) + Belles on Their Toes (1952) – DVDs

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
**/**** Image B+ Sound B+
starring Clifton Webb, Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy, Betty Lynn
screenplay by Lamar Trotti, based on the novel by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
directed by Walter Lang

BELLES ON THEIR TOES
**/**** Image B Sound B
starring Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter
screenplay by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, based on the book by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
directed by Henry Levin

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Periodically, one comes across a critic who yearns for the qualities of golden-age studio filmmaking. This person will point to the technical proficiency that has since vanished from our cinema and appeal to something other than brutal, instant gratification in their narrative makeup. In response, I offer 1950's Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel, Belles on their Toes, as examples of how these elements can be used for evil and not for good. Aesthetically, there's nothing especially wrong with them: Though directors Walter Lang and Henry Levin aren't masters, they're solid professionals, and they help the saga of an enormous family go down fairly easy. But what they're sending down is something conformist and ugly, making a phoney harmony out of ingredients that would under normal circumstances repel each other and fly off into space. Thus the initial film is about being crowded into one space under the rule of a benign despot, and the sequel, though backed into a mildly subversive corner, still manages to minimize the dark undertones of the family unit.

Adapted from a best-selling memoir, Cheaper by the Dozen tells the story of the Gilbreth clan in the early part of the 20th century, largely from the point of view of patriarch Frank Gilbreth (Clifton Webb), an efficiency expert who runs his family of ten children in the clockwork manner he would run a factory. True, the story is narrated in flashback by one of his eldest daughters, Ann (Jeanne Crain), but this only intensifies his centrality, turning him into a reverential father-god instead of a character who merely speaks for himself. Of course, Frank gets ample opportunity to speak for himself as he decides for his children, from uprooting them to New Jersey from Providence (occasioning a jaunty sing-along that dissolves the children's objections) to regimenting the household, holding court at family meetings, and chaperoning the dates of increasingly annoyed Ann. Though there are occasional cracks in the armour (his voting system gets the family a pet dog over his objections), mostly he's a sweet, hilarious curmudgeon in the "Father Knows Best" mold.

As I say, the thing is based on a book by two of his children, so for all I know, the Gilbreths were just as the movie depicts them. But the problem is that it rides over all of the rough patches of the relationship between parent and family–which, as anyone with parents or children knows, can be nasty and open-ended. Here, a dispute is an opportunity for comedy to be resolved one scene later or ignored entirely. Nothing can break up this celebration of togetherness, whether it actually existed or not, and all hiccups along the way can take a seat. This is where the craft of old Hollywood comes in: The immaculate set decoration and fluid camera movements create a domestic paradise that dulls knives and stops bullets, lending visual credence to the yarn being spun. The style, stodgy though it may be, overwhelms you with the house-ness of the family house and the hominess of every stick of furniture–everywhere you turn, you're confronted with the idyllic nature of the whole enterprise. Resistance is futile. Conform or die.

To my great annoyance, it must be reported that Cheaper by the Dozen was an enormous smash hit for the studio, and as the Gilbreths opted to write a continuation of their best-selling book, a follow-up film was all but inevitable. Continuity with the original, however, was impeded by the fact that–SPOILER ALERT–Frank Gilbreth dies of a heart attack at the end of Cheaper by the Dozen, taking with him the film's paternalistic raison d'être. Belles on Their Toes therefore deals with the highly un-patrician story of Frank's widow, Lillian (Myrna Loy), who despite being an engineer like her husband was barely alluded to in the first film. To be fair, she gets her due this time as she takes on the Herculean task of keeping the family together in a time and place that devalued working women. In fact, much of the movie is spent reporting on Lillian's attempts to use her degree to earn a decent living–not an easy task in the close-minded '20s.

Alas, for all of the work it does for Lillian's position, Belles on Their Toes wimps out when it comes to her personal life and aspirations. In the film's major subplot, Ann starts a romance with a dashing young doctor (Jeffrey Hunter) just as Lillian gets a teaching position at Purdue University–meaning a commute, and an absent mother. Ann makes herself the martyr, forgoing marriage so that she can look after the rest of the children, requiring Lillian to give her permission to let go. The matter of who deals with the children is never answered, skipped over like the family angst in part one, although the impression is "mother first, teacher second." Most glaringly, Lillian's boss starts to take an interest in her right up until he sees the work involved with commandeering her family, occasioning a lame speech on his part about how she has no room for anything else in her life. So even though there are some unavoidable strides made for working women, the maternal impulse is the only one that really defines her. Family: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

THE DVDs
Fox's Cheaper by the Dozen disc is a mixed bag. While the full-frame image has extremely fine definition, revealing detail upon detail and never becoming muddy, the colours are peculiarly wan and lacklustre, dissipating into a washed-out palette that barely registers on the optic nerve. The stereo remix is acceptable but nothing more, lacking definition and sharpness if offering no barriers to comprehension. Also included is the film's trailer, plus trailers for Belles on their Toes and the Cheaper by the Dozen remake and a two-minute "Movietone News" segment showing the 1950 version being presented a family entertainment award by one Father Keller.

Belles on their Toes fares somewhat less well on DVD. The similarly fullscreen image features all the disadvantages of the prequel disc (specifically, the pale saturation) while adding a sickly green pallor to the blacks and a strange flickering in some shots that suggest carelessness at the lab. Definition, however, is still quite solid. The remixed stereo track is also a notch below its predecessor's, sounding slightly tinny. The film's own trailer and trailers for both versions of Cheaper by the Dozen are the disc's only extras.

• Cheaper by the Dozen
  86 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Stereo), English DD 2.0 (Mono), Spanish DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English, Spanish subtitles; Region One; DVD-5; Fox
• Belles on Their Toes
  89 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Stereo), English DD 2.0 (Mono), Spanish DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English, Spanish subtitles; Region One; DVD-5; Fox