The original Cheaper By The Dozen, released in 1950, was a huge hit which explains but doesn't excuse the recent pathetic remake. It also explains why Fox felt moved to produce a sequel some two years later albeit without patriarch Clifton Webb who departed this earth for the Big Family Planning Clinic in the sky at the end of Cheaper. Seen today it's rather refreshing in its old fashioned values and sense of family but in 1952 it would have been just another 'wholesome' slice of Americana and even after eight years the memory of Meet Me In St Louis, which was light years better, still lingered and patrons would have seen the Hoagy Carmichael 'housekeeper' as the studio attempting to replicate the Marjorie Main role from St Louis. Apart from Jeanne Crain and Barbara Bates matriarch Myrna Loy also has a brand-new family but support is on hand from the likes of old-timer Edward Arnold and newcomers Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter. Pleasant enough but don't go out of your way.
Review of Belles on Their Toes
