Father's Little Dividend

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source: Father's Little Dividend

I love the original Father of the Bride. Father's Little Dividend isn't as good, it is a little too short and there is nothing ground-breaking or special really in the story. However, it is still very good and very entertaining, and it is a little more realistic than the original I think. The cinematography and production values are still very promising, and the script is witty. The film is snappily paced and Vincente Minelli's direction is efficient. The acting I have nothing to criticise, Spencer Tracy is wonderful with his comic timing yet never stops to have a warm and loving chemistry with his co-stars. Elizabeth Taylor is also still lovely. Overall, a very entertaining sequel. 8/10 Bethany Cox

At first, I was hoping "Father's Little Dividend" was going to be about Joan Bennett's character becoming pregnant; then, Spencer Tracy dealing with a new baby of his own! In the beginning of the film, Mr. Tracy shows some very amorous interest/contact with Ms. Bennett; and, she certainly looks young enough to be pregnant. I guess Tracy and Bennett were being "careful"; because, all too predictably, Elizabeth Taylor becomes the expectant. I see the "middle class" Banks' still employ their maid "Delilah"; despite their worries about money, they didn't have to "let her go" after the wedding bills rang... This is a pleasant enough sequel, but having "the stork" visit Bennett & Tracy, instead of Taylor & Taylor, might have made "Father's Little Dividend" (1951) even better than the original "Father of the Bride" (1950). ****** Father's Little Dividend (1951) Vincente Minnelli ~ Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor

to me,this sequel to Father of the Bride is not as good.for one thing,there's less humour involved.it's more like a lite drama.also,i don't feel it has the same flow as "Bride".i didn't hate it,but i wouldn't call it a good movie either.maybe average at best.it's basically a rehash of "Bride" though instead of a marriage,its the impending birth of a baby,and Grandfatherhood.also,the particular DVD i viewed the movie on,had poor sound quality and no subtitle or caption options,so it was hard to hear everything.as far as i know,it's the only edition available.i would just warn anyone that this movie may only be available in poor quality.anyway,for me,Father's Little Dividend is a 5/10

There's nothing about a sequel that necessarily makes it bad. Sometimes stories are left open-ended so that a follow-up makes sense, or writers may be able to top their previous effort by putting a new spin on the material. There are also some great movie franchises where the same characters can be recycled for numerous stories. However one type of sequel that almost inevitably turns out turkey is the cash-in rehash of a recent hit movie, the hope being that reuniting the same crew and characters will strike the same box office gold without spending too much time, effort or money. In Father's Little Dividend, sequel to Father of the Bride, the "fast buck" motive was even faster than usual. The closeness of release dates indicates it was probably green-lighted while its predecessor was still in its theatrical run. It was shot in just twenty-two days (the kind of schedule a B-movie would usually get), perhaps because star Elizabeth Taylor and director Vincente Minnelli were scheduled to begin work on more important projects, A Place in the Sun and An American in Paris respectively, and the whole thing looks very rushed. The screenplay is riddled with plot holes and underdeveloped patches. Minnelli sticks largely to long, static takes and straightforward shot compositions. Not that there is anything wrong with such simplicity, it's just that Minnelli could usually work such magic with elaborate arrangements and delicate flow, which clearly he didn't have time for here. Father's Little Dividend also drops the device that made Father of the Bride work so well. Although it still retains a Spencer Tracy voice-over narrative and keeps him as the primary character, it is no longer quite so exclusively his story. In Father of the Bride he was a fairly passive character, but the focus was always upon his thoughts and his reactions as all the bustle of the wedding went on in the background. He is now a much more active character, but he is sharing the limelight far more with his co-stars. The result is that this is a far more routine piece of storytelling, without that unique take that elevated Father of the Bride above the average romcom. Taylor has a bigger role, probably to reflect her growing stardom, and in fact her heart-to-heart scenes with Tracy (something writer Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett are very good at) are among the nicest moments in the picture. However the larger parts for comedy players Moroni Olsen and Billie Burke don't work so well as the characters simply aren't funny or engaging enough. This is one of the few major studio productions to be in the public domain. Apparently MGM failed to renew the rights, perhaps due to oversight or simple lack of interest. As such it's available in dozens of shoddy, fuzzy-looking DVD editions, which to be honest pretty much do it justice. There's little point waiting for a nice restoration – the picture itself will always be a disappointment.

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.

I'll admit up front that I have serious reservations about some of Minelli's films, beautifully shot though they are. 'Meet Me In St. Louis', possibly the dreariest movie musical ever made and drowning in contrivance and sentiment, is a case in point. I saw 'Father's Little Dividend' without realising he was the director, and although there are obvious parallels - both family comedies set over a number of months -'Father's Little Dividend' lacks Minelli's great strength - the extraordinary beauty of his cinematography. Perhaps colour makes the difference. It also lacks the real saving grace of 'Meet Me In St. Louis', which was an extraordinarily potent central performance from Judy Garland - the scene in which she sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', the one truly worthy song in the film (Don't talk to me about the Trolly Song...), justifies the entire film. Nobody in 'Father's Little Dividend' is really firing on all cylinders in that way. What the film does have is Spencer Tracy's nicely dry performance as Stanley, a man having to adjust to the fact that both he and his daughter are getting older. Joan Bennett, a long way from 'Scarlet Street', is likable in the underwritten role of his wife, and a young Elizabeth Taylor is serviceable as his daughter. No one really shines, although Billie Burke, as the paternal grandmother, keeps threatening to burst out with a real comic performance. Her curtailed screen time prevents her. None of the comic sequences really work, because they never build into anything. Bennett terrifying Tracy with a desperate drive across the city to the hospital (for the birth of their grandchild) comes closest to actually being funny, but there's no capper, no punchline, and Bennett's calmness doesn't seem comically incongruent, but merely inappropriate, as though she doesn't know what sequence they're filming. Only Tracy gets any laughs, and those are few enough (his frozen reaction to learning that he's going to be a grandfather is particularly good). Funnily enough, the most effective sequence springs from the most tedious dramatic device - the apparent break up of Taylor and her husband. When he comes to get her from Stanley's house, she refuses and insists on staying in a room her father will make up for her. Accepting this, he proceeds to reel off to Stanley all the things she needs, both of them growing more and more tearful, until by the end he is helping her to remove her shoes whilst Stanley simply looks on. It's the best played scene in the film, tipping from comedy to genuinely heartfelt emotion (as opposed to Hollywood sentiment), although it's almost spoilt by the reconciliation, when they fall into a typical movie clinch. Nothing else in the film really stays with you - it's pure filler, particularly the last minute he's-lost-the-baby gambit. It's a nice attempt to reflect on common experiences - just as 'Father of the Bride' was - and certainly some of the observations are accurate enough, but ultimately it's just a little bit too nice, too safe, too soft, and it isn't executed well enough to be memorable.

There was one cute moment in this film -- when the daughter was explaining to Stanley the novel and startling ideas that her doctor had regarding childbirth. The rest of the movie was just as dated, but not as funny, and at times it was just plain disturbing. What kind of man would be disgusted at the thought of being a grandfather? What kind of grandparents would fight over the kinds of things these grandparents were fighting over? What on earth were they thinking, having him lose the baby in a park? It's not played as a frightening scene, or even too humiliating for Stanley... it's almost supposed to be funny. I know it was 50 years ago and things were different, and I generally try to make allowances for that in older movies -- but still! Overall, I'm glad this movie was short. It would have been even worse to have wasted a full two hours on it.

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.