Allons donc, papa!

Last night on the Turner Classic Movies channel, I saw Father's Little Dividend. It was a very funny movie! Spencer Tracy shines as he plays Stanley Banks. Just as good as the original Father Of The Bride. Despite the airheadedness of the last commenter, this movie is very much worth seeing. It's a classic! Not Tracy's best movie, but it's a gem!

The material may be sticky, but the players shine. Fortunately, Tracy's dour reactions keep the soggy motherhood plot from becoming too sweet. His pained grimaces and caustic asides are really quite droll, more amusing however than funny. The young couple, Taylor and Taylor, are right out of a glossy Photoplay, but manage not to be too annoying, while Bennett shows she can do dutiful wives as well as conniving trollops (Scarlet Street, 1945). For some reason the two sons, Tamblyn and Irish, make a brief appearance, then disappear without a trace, and I'm wondering why the script bothered in the first place. Of course, the complications of a first- time baby keep the narrative moving; at the same time, we know perfectly well how things will end. And they do. This is the old MGM dream factory at work even after the boss L.B. Mayer has departed-- big houses, elegant clothes, household servants, and even teenagers with no zits. As the boss himself famously remarked, People don't want to see people like themselves on the big screen, or words to that effect. Not much chance of that here. Still, the movie remains a seductive piece of entertainment, rather like a shiny new suit that doesn't quite fit, but you buy it anyway.

A befuddled Spencer Tracy and a scatty Joan Bennett find out they are to become grandparents in this charming sequel to 'Father of the Bride'. Although the original film was better, this is a funny, warm, and worthy follow-up.

Elizabeth Taylor again appears as daughter Kay, looking beautiful and radiant. Husband Buckley (the slightly wooden Don Taylor) struggles to cope with his pregnant wife's mood swings, while the in-laws (Moroni Olsen as the pompous ex-Harvard father-in-law, Billie Burke as the twittery mother-in-law) almost come to blows before baby has even arrived.

The star performance in this film is, as ever, Tracy, as he comes to terms with his little girl growing away from him, with his life 'slipping away' with the arrival of the new baby, with his resentment of the rich in-laws. It's a winning performance, and his scenes with Bennett and with Taylor are pure gold.

I absolutely loved FATHER OF THE BRIDE. This was my favorite Spencer Tracy film in that it gives him a chance to play an "everyman" and you really grow to care about him and his growing family. So, I was thrilled that MGM made this sequel (and I ordinarily hate sequels). Now that his lovely daughter, Liz Taylor, was married off in the last film, this movie tackles the next big life-changing event in Tracy's life--the imminent birth of his grandchild. All the worries and changes are dealt with so deftly that you soon forget that nothing earth-shattering or amazing happens in the film--it's just a wonderfully written, directed and acted slice of life film that is enhanced by its realism and gentle humor.

Spencer Tracy blusters around quite nicely in this fluffy sequel to Father of the Bride. It's most interesting to watch as a sort of time capsule, to see the attitudes and quirks of the early 1950s. I love the scene where Liz Taylor describes to her father how her doctor believes in the bizarre new concept of childbirth, wherein the mother is actually conscious during the process, and then she is with her baby as much as possible during the coming days. It's quite funny, then, to the viewer, as Tracy's eyes widen in horror -- and episodes like this pepper the film. It's not a masterpiece, but it's cute, and for fans of the genre, it's just fine.