Im Dutzend heiratsfähig

Belles On Their Toes takes us through the further adventures of the Gilbreth family after the loss of the family patriarch Clifton Webb in Cheaper By The Dozen. Webb has left Myrna Loy with quite the large family to raise on her own now.

Webb was a real life and well known industrial efficiency expert and Loy has had the same training. The big issue for her is acceptance in a man's world and she has a rough go of it. She does however make an ally and a convert of industrialist Edward Arnold and a bit more than that with him.

Loy however is mostly in a mother role and she's there for advice with her older daughters like, Jeanne Crain, Debra Paget, and Barbara Bates all of whom have their usual romantic problems.

Belles On Their Toes is not as good a piece of nostalgia as Cheaper By The Dozen, but it's a pleasant piece of family entertainment that holds up well aftr half a century.

It is graduation day for the youngest of the Gilbreth children and, sitting in the crowd, Lillian Gilbreth is moved by this to reflect back on times when things were not so rosy for her family and a reduced income. And so this film-long flashback begins although it didn't help my interest in the material to find that these "harder times" were a sort of Norman Rockwell version of poverty rather than what most people would consider "hard times" (they have a butler for goodness sake).

So it was no surprise to me to find that this film had no real interest in producing an actual character drama so much as churning out a cheerful melodrama with basic family morals and the Americana virtues of the 1950's writ large across every scene. I'm not sure if this world ever did exist but regardless I'm sure some viewers will find this nostalgia to be just about enough to justify watching the film for. God knows there is not much else to bother spending the time on. The humour is very basic and involved harmless pratfalls and good ol' wholesome joshing – shame there are so few laughs to be had in this.

The cast aren't much cop either. Webb shows up on a picture while Loy buzzes round full of worry, love and strength while the cast of children are more about quantity rather than quality. The odd turn from Hunter, Arnold, Carmichael and others provide some distraction but this is not a film where anyone is given the material to turn in a good performance. Overall then a fairly basic comedy melodrama that has a chocolate box nostalgia about it that some might find appealing but really has little else to recommend it for.

Vastly inferior follow up to the delightful "Cheaper by the Dozen". It hurts me to put down any film starring the great Myrna Loy, but before you dive into this expecting the same qualities contained in the original you ought to be warned.

Part of the charm of the original was the attention paid to period details and the wonderful production values - missing this time around. The family originally lived in the house made famous in "Meet me in St. Louis", now the set looks like Mayberry. Interiors, originally rich with detail have taken on the 50's monochromatic look of an old "I Love Lucy" episode. Direction? The pacing, cinematography and line deliveries are found lacking.

Is it worth watching? Sure...it's not a bad way to pass an hour and a half - Just don't expect to see what you saw the first time around and you won't be disappointed.

I love this movie. First, the music is so great. Full orchestration of many old tunes from the 1920s, particularly "You Wore a Tulip" and "Linger Awhile". One disappointment is that the sound did not come out so well on DVD - kind of scratchy and distorted at times....yet NOT this way in the VHS format. How can anyone dislike this crazy and loving family? Next, there are the many great vintage cars in various scenes that an historic automobile enthusiast would appreciate. Of course, there are some really, really attractive people in this movie too. Feast your eyes on the likes of Jeffrey Hunter and Jeanne Crain. Anway......want to see a fun family picture? Well, this is it. I should mention that you should see the the original 1950-version of "Cheaper by the Dozen" first (an equally great picture)....so that you have some background on the Gilbreth family. The final scene is a killer - watch as Myrna Loy closes her eyes and remembers the past......and grab a tissue for that one. Good Sappy Flick!!

BELLES ON THEIR TOES is another nostalgic look at a past that never was. At least that's the impression you get from watching MYRNA LOY worry about her brood of Gilbreth children after father Clifton Webb has passed on. As usual, Loy is likable enough as the strong-willed mother who has to guide her children through what passes for "hard times" but has the look of the '50s rather than the '20s.

This lack of detail makes the film much less enjoyable than CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. There's also a lack of freshness about the performances of JEANNE CRAIN as the oldest daughter, BARBARA BATES, JEFFREY HUNTER, MARTIN MILNER and ROBERT ARTHUR. It all seems rather pat, standard stuff that passed for wholesomeness in the '50s, before the grim realism of the '60s films set in.

Mother is seen at the graduation ceremony of her girls, which makes room for a flashback to their turbulent "growing up" years that includes the girls being romanced by whatever Fox star hopefuls the casting agent could find. Of the men, JEFFREY HUNTER stands out as the most likely prospect for stardom and is paired nicely with JEANNE CRAIN.

Nostalgia is nice, but the charm wears thin when the film offers nothing new in the way of plot twists and you have to settle for more of the same material offered in the original--without Webb, who gave that film its chief distinction.