Product Description

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 02/12/2008

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18372 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2004-03-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
Myrna Loy charms as the Gilbreth family matriarch in this enjoyable 1952 sequel to Walter Lang's comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, based on the autobiographical novel by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. Picking up from the somber ending of Cheaper, in which Frank Sr. (Clifton Webb) dies, leaving behind his wife, Lillian (Loy), and 12 children, Belles focuses on the family's slow recovery and aspirations for a future. Lillian's qualifications as an engineer are dismissed--sometimes humiliatingly--by sexist men, though she finally receives a training position with the plain-speaking Sam Harper (Edward Arnold) and the respect of a major university. Meanwhile, eldest daughter Ann (Jeanne Crain) is wooed by a young doctor (Jeffrey Hunter), and the other Gilbreth kids weed out unsuitable suitors for their dating-age sisters. Several pleasant musical numbers punctuate the comically unpredictable action, including a few by Hoagy Carmichael as the Gilbreth's wry cook. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Great Family Fun
Delightful sequel to Cheaper By The Dozen, Belles on Their Toes, follows the adventures of the Gilbreth family following the death of father Frank (Clifton Webb). Struggling to keep the family together, mother Lillian (Myrna Loy) continues the pioneering work in industrial engineering she started with her husband. Eldest daughter Ann (Jeanne Crain) has struggles of her own. Does she go off to college and pursue a life of her own, or stay home to help her mother with domestic matters, no small task since Ann is one of twelve children! The cast is very appealing and although they seem too good to be true at times, it's hard not to be drawn into this heartwarming comedy. Most of the cast from Cheaper repeats their roles in Belles, with the addition of a young Jeffrey Hunter and veteran character actor Edward Arnold. Also in the cast, a young Debra Paget (as third daugher Martha), and an unbilled Martin Milner as an "unsuitable" boyfriend for Ernestine (Barbara Bates). The Technicolor print for this film is superior to Cheaper By The Dozen, which is a plus. The color looks new and vibrant and it will add to the overall positive experience of viewing this film. As sequels go, Belles is pleasant and enjoyable family entertainment.

Charming but uneven
There's an undeniable sweetness and charm to this film, but overall it just doesn't feel as satisfying and well-developed as the movie version of CBTD. That movie wasn't entirely true to every bit of the book, but it overwhelmingly felt close to the book's spirit despite some things that were left out and some things that were invented. In BOTT, the viewer doesn't get nearly as much a sense of period authenticity and details as in the original; it looks more like something from the Fifties instead of a story taking place in the Twenties. And there were a lot of events from the book left out, commingled with a few things that did really happen in the book; the storyline definitely had far more liberties taken with it. Missing all of these important events that really set the mood for how much this family cared for one another and what a great job they did getting by on their own, one doesn't really feel quite as connected to the characters and the plot as in the original. (It was also interesting to note how they cut and pasted two different but similar events from the first and second books, the film of the family eating dinner at something like ten times the normal speed as opposed to the film of Mrs. Gilbreth demonstrating how time-saving the design of her kitchen was.) The book focuses on Mrs. Gilbreth's struggle to raise her eleven children after her husband dies and how she steps into his shoes, even though she was a female engineer in a man's world at a time when many female professionals weren't taken seriously; in real life she was a lot more successful and welcomed than the movie makes her out to be. It's enjoyable enough family entertainment, just lacks the continuity and even pacing of the original. Because of all of the things that were left out and substituted for by things invented (perhaps to give it a more modern feel, like the scene of the beach barbeque/dance party), it just doesn't flow as naturally or seem quite as engaging.

Love this movie!
This movie, and its predecessor, Cheaper by the Dozen, are wonderful movies. I was so excited to find out they are coming out on DVD! Wonderful movies the whole family can enjoy. No worrying about what kind of things your children will see in this movie! It is a charming tale. Funny and sweet. A definate must have!!!!