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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.

Myrna Loy (Thin Man series and much more) diligently takes over her loveable brood after Clifton Webb's character dies in this wonderful true story adaptation of the famous Gilbreth story made famous by the first installment called "Cheaper By The Dozen".

Loy's irresistible charm is joined by legendary songster Hoagy Carmicheal (Stardust) as the Gilbreth's comical stillman/houseman, lovely Jeanne Crain (Pinky), veteran Edward Arnold (You Can't Take It With You), dashing Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings), lovely Debra Paget (The Ten Commandments), likeable Robert Arthur (Hellcats of the Navy) and very young [19 y/o] Martin Milner (Route 66, Adam-12).

Simple story of strong woman's determination to continue in her husband's "male" career as industrial engineer. There is enough going on on all sides to keep you interested in this remarkable family's life in the early part of this century.

How many times have I seen this movie! and still it never goes stale...good clean fun is never out of style.

This film is a sequel to "Cheaper By the Dozen" (the Clifton Webb version, not the crappy Steve Martin version). As you may remember, the first movie ended with the death of the father (Webb)...so you wouldn't think there'd be a sequel. However, this one picks up soon after. The family is quite poor without Dad's income--and so the family needs to make some adjustments. But, since they are all so gosh-darned nice, they take it all in stride.

While the film lacks the charm of Webb, and he was missed, the movie works amazingly well. The slack is taken up by Myrna Loy in the lead and a very strong supporting performance by Jeanne Crain. In fact, there are lots of very good supporting performances by Edward Arnold, Hoagy Carmichael, Martin Milner and Jeffery Hunter. Overall, it's a nice family comedy-drama--in much the same mold as "Life With Father" or "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". I love these family films and they represent a highly idealized but fun piece of Americana you can't help but enjoy.

cute how they got rid of the boyfriend (Martin Milner)

I saw it this morning and I liked it. It kept my interest. I never realized there was a sequel until today. I saw the original DVD and I should have gotten it when I saw it. Now I am on the hunt for both DVDs. I don't know what it is lately with the movie industry, but I find myself watching more and more of the classics and going to the movies or renting new DVDs less and less. I mean, why would I want to watch a movie about reptiles on an airplane? There is too much terror on the airlines as it is and now some moron has to put yet another fear into people's hearts when they need to fly? I feel if the movie industry keeps going in the direction they are going, there will be more film on the editing room floor than being shown.

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.