Dalbert Pringle Released in 1951 - This somewhat ditzy Chick Flick/Comedy starred the radiant, 19 year-old Elizabeth Taylor whose beauty, alone, wasn't enough to hold its obviously rushed and weak-scripted story together as a whole.Father's Little Dividend, which was a sequel to Father Of The Bride, was, above all else, a Spencer Tracy vehicle. Here Tracy revised his role of Stanley Banks whose daughter, Kay (the eldest of his 3 children) had married Buckley Dunstan, a stuffy, young man whom he didn't (and still doesn't) particularly approve of.In this film, Kay, who has now been happily married to Buckley for a year, excitedly announces, to one and all, that she's pregnant.Instead of joy, this news puts Stanley into a miserable snit because it's now going to make him a grandfather, which is something that he secretly resents.There's lots of unnecessary bickering and confusion going on in this one's story. And there's one really terrible scene (which is supposed to generate the biggest laughs) where (once the baby boy has been born) Stanley takes his infant grandson out in the carriage for a walk and, due to sheer neglect, actually loses him in broad daylight.Father's Little Dividend was a poorly-conceived picture on all counts.Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it was filmed in b&w, with a running time of only 82 minutes.

Robert J. Maxwell Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett reprise their roles from "Father of the Bride" as an upper-middle-class couple whose daughter, Elizabeth Taylor, marries Don Taylor, son of a family of equal social station. In "Father of the Bride," Tracy guided us through his view of the marriage and it was hilarious. Here, in the sequel, Taylor has a baby and although it's not so consistently funny, it's amusing and cute, with much of the humor conveyed by Tracy's wry commentary. (The newly born child "looks as old as Methuselah.") It's the kind of story that might later have been made into a two-part situation comedy special on television. Everything is neat and clean, including the dialog. The child inspires many "awwwww" moments."Father of the Bride," the model, is the sort of movie that is the result of some writers sitting down and brainstorming a funny event, starting from scratch. Every incident flowed smoothly along, each new situation adumbrating later incidents. Familiar scenes are reenacted and given a comic frame. For instance, after the couple are engaged to be married, there must be a fierce argument over nothing, that brings Liz Taylor back home crying that the wedding is off.And "Father of the Bride" had the advantage of being built around a series of sometimes extraordinarily funny ceremonial acts -- the choice of swain, the first meeting of the in-laws, the bridal shower, the practice for the wedding itself, the arrangements for the reception afterward -- one horrifying ritual relentlessly following another."Father's Little Dividend" doesn't have that strict structure. The birth of a child is preceded by few rituals so there's less comic potential in the story. There's the announcement of the pregnancy, the birth itself, and taking the baby for strolls later. The things don't hang together well, so the plot has a cobbled-together feel. (There is some kind of ante-birth party but it's thrown away.) It's as if the writers had been given an assignment rather than a gift from Thalia.If "Father's Little Dividend" isn't as funny as "Father of the Bride", it's not the fault of the performers or the director, all of whom are carried over from the original. By this point in his career, Spencer Tracy had the role of reluctant marginal participant in a rite of passage down pat. He could have done it in his sleep -- and done it superbly. (Cary Grant was equally good as the tormented central figure rather than the observer.) Elizabeth Taylor's beauty would stun a rhinoceros. My God, she's slender, pale, has fluffy hair and striking eyebrows the color of anthracite.I don't want to come down too hard on this film but compared to the original it just doesn't clear the bar. It seems manipulative and stagy. In the original, Liz Taylor storms out of a family discussion and the bewildered Tracy asks, "Well, what's the matter with her?" The naive teenager brother, Russ Tamblyn, remarks, "She's nervous. All women are nervous." That line, a res gestae that's funny as hell, just pops out of Tamblyn, a pimply kid who neither knows nor cares very much about what's going on. There's nothing so spontaneous here.Every ounce of the effort that went into writing this seems to show. The baby occasions too many "cute" moments. And the nonsensical argument, repeated from the original, is lingered over for far too long, clumsily done and not at all funny.Or -- I don't know. I guess that IS a pretty harsh statement. Maybe it's just that I don't like babies. They're not only wrinkled and red faced, they're uncanny. I think they know a lot more than they're letting on. Some kind of witchy quality about them. Perhaps a medical model is apt. Everybody is born with a disease, childhoodosis, causing them to appear small, wizened, stupid, and organized around reflexes. As they mature, the disease spontaneously remits and they grow into sensible, treacherous adults.

dougdoepke 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.

Snow Leopard This solid sequel to "Father of the Bride" has some good moments, and with the same cast on hand plus a similar story line, it feels very much like a direct continuation of the original. "Father's Little Dividend" is a cut below its predecessor, but it works all right in itself.Spencer Tracy once again plays the rather hapless Stanley Banks, and again he shows how good he could be in a rather thankless role. It's almost unfortunate that he seems so natural as a flustered or put-upon husband or father, since he often played such roles although he could do so many other things as well or better. But as far as this pair of movies went, he was certainly a fine choice, since he makes the character believable and sympathetic.Tracy's character is the focal point for the common kinds of changes and adjustments that families must make as the younger generation grows up. Although his reactions are often exaggerated, in general it is fairly easy to understand Stanley's constant feeling of apprehension about any and all changes.As with the first movie, Elizabeth Taylor works very well as Kay, giving her an appealing presence and a simple believability.The pace and the material of this one are not as consistent as they were in the first movie, and some of the comedy ideas come across rather awkwardly. But at other times the characters and cast make things work quite well, and in fact the simplest moments are some of the best ones in the movie.