Main Cast: Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, Edward Arnold
Release Year: 1952
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
Myrna Loy returns as Mrs. Gilbreth -- efficiency expert, industrial engineer, and mother of twelve -- in this sequel to Cheaper By The Dozen. After the death of her husband, Gilbreth is forced to take over as the family's primary breadwinner, but she soon discovers that not every company who hired her and her husband in the past is eager to work with her on her own. Facing prejudice from many of her prospective clients, Gilbreth finally makes good training engineers for Sam Harper (Edward Arnold), putting her family back on solid financial ground. In the meantime, the dozen Gilbreth children are growing up, most notably eldest daughter Ann (Jeanne Crain), who enters into a serious romance with Bob Grayson (Jeffrey Hunter), a young doctor. The supporting cast includes Hoagy Carmichael, Debra Paget, Barbara Bates and Robert Arthur. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
As a sequel, Belles on Their Toes faces a special challenge: how do you do a continuation of a film (namely, Cheaper by the Dozen) without the main character (namely the father, played by Clifton Webb) who was the cornerstone of the original? In this case, the answer is to focus on the mother. Fortunately, the mother in this case is played by Myrna Loy, who was to a degree wasted in Cheaper; now that she's front and center, Loy gets a chance to shine and takes full advantage of the opportunity. Loy is in full command of Belles, even though Jeanne Crain and her subplot romance keeps threatening to take over, and even though Debra Paget and Barbara Bates also try to steal some screen time. But Loy is more than enough match for these upstarts, and even when their stories take center stage for a while, her presence is very much felt. Like Cheaper, Belles is essentially a series of events strung together, but in Belles the stringing is more noticeable and a bit bothersome. Belles also has a bit of an identity crisis, not sure if it is a musical, a comedy, a drama, or just an affectionate valentine to a bygone era. It never does seem to make up its mind, and that indecisiveness of tone, along with the episodic nature of the screenplay, damages Belles. But with Loy around, the damage is not too severe. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Hoagy Carmichael - Tom Bracken; Barbara Bates - Ernestine; Robert Arthur - Frank Gilbreth; Verna Felton - Cousin Lenora; Roddy McCaskill - Bob Gilbreth; Carol Nugent - Lily Gilbreth; Tina Thompson - Jane Gilbreth; Teddy Driver - Jack Gilbreth; Tommy Ivo - William Gilbreth; Jimmy Hunt - Fred Gilbreth; Anthony Sydes - Don Gilbreth; Martin Milner - Al Lynch; June Hedin - Jane (at 22); Robert Easton - Franklyn Dykes; Cecil Weston - Emily; Sid Saylor - Cab Driver; Clifton Webb - Frank Gilbreth
Credit
Henry Levin - Director, Robert Fritch - Editor, Cyril Mockridge - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Arthur E. Arling - Cinematographer, Samuel G. Engel - Producer, Henry Ephron - Screenwriter, Phoebe Ephron - Screenwriter, Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. - Book Author, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey - Book Author
Belles on Their Toes recounts the story of the Gilbreth family after the death of efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, husband of Dr. Lillian Gilbreth and father to twelve children.
