Belles on Their Toes (1952) User Reviews

An interesting follow-up to Cheaper By The Dozen.

[stevehaynie · 7/10 · 29 May 2006]

I personally thought that Belles on Their Toes held up well as a sequel to Cheaper By The Dozen. Sequels rarely have the same magic of the movies they follow, so it is wise to not make too strong a comparison. Once the characters are accepted on their new terms, Belles on Their Toes is much easier to watch.

The entire movie is a flashback sequence to the events that took place after the prior movie ended. The focus is not on the eccentric Mr. Gilbreth and the humorous view of life in a large family. This time it is placed on the characters themselves. Their situations are less of a focus than their personalities. Myrna Loy is allowed to continue as a strong character, and she gets to show much more depth as Ann Gilbreth than she did in the first movie. The same is true for the oldest Gilbreth daughters, too. Jeanne Crain takes center stage for much of the movie. Debra Paget and Barbara Bates tilt the story toward the girls in the family.

What makes the biggest difference in the feel of the movie is the presence of Hoagy Carmichael and the talented Debra Paget. With Carmichael in the cast it was obligatory that he perform his music. Debra Paget performed a dance routine that would never have been allowed by the conservative Frank Gilbreth. The feel of the 50's replaced the 1920's charm of Cheaper By The Dozen.

Movies are geared toward target audiences. Sequels are created to capitalize on previous successes. Belles on Their Toes is fun to watch, but it cannot be held to the same standard as Cheaper By The Dozen. Accept it on its own and you will have an enjoyable hour and a half while you watch it.

Very nice even without Webb.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 26 August 2012]

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)

Acceptance in a man's world

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 12 February 2021]

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.

The charms continue in famous "DOZEN" sequel

[Enrique-Sanchez-56 · 31 May 2001]

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.

Second Eleven

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 1 March 2009]

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.

Fun

[jkucharik · 9/10 · 3 November 2007]

I love this movie. First, the music is so great. Full orchestration of many old tunes from the 1920s, particularly "You Wore a Tulip" and "Linger Awhile". One disappointment is that the sound did not come out so well on DVD - kind of scratchy and distorted at times....yet NOT this way in the VHS format. How can anyone dislike this crazy and loving family? Next, there are the many great vintage cars in various scenes that an historic automobile enthusiast would appreciate. Of course, there are some really, really attractive people in this movie too. Feast your eyes on the likes of Jeffrey Hunter and Jeanne Crain. Anway......want to see a fun family picture? Well, this is it. I should mention that you should see the the original 1950-version of "Cheaper by the Dozen" first (an equally great picture)....so that you have some background on the Gilbreth family. The final scene is a killer - watch as Myrna Loy closes her eyes and remembers the past......and grab a tissue for that one. Good Sappy Flick!!

Not As Fun As The First Film But Acceptable

[jcholguin · 5/10 · 19 May 2003]

Cheaper by the dozen was the first story involving the Gilbreth family and was headed by Frank Gilbreth, played by Clifton Webb. He died at the end of the first movie as he gave charge of the family to his wife, Lillian Gilbreth played by Myrna Loy. This film probably would have been a little more inspiring if it had centered on the strength of Mrs Gilbreth overcoming the odds of raising a dozen children and a dog during a time when woman were not as accepted in a "man's world of business." But this film was a comedy, so it centered on the teenage daughters and their love lives. Jeannie Crain plays Ann Gilbreth, the only daughter shown getting married but only after finally accepting the idea that children grow and leave home. This was a tightly knitted family and this was how they overcame many difficult times. The ending entails a fine salute to the man that would have loved to have seen his children all grown up as an aged old mother Gilbreth remembers the many memories that will never leave her heart. A job well done by Mrs Gilbreth.

Mid-Century Oddity

[michle53 · 8/10 · 19 April 2022]

This is the early 1950s harkening back 30 years to its childhood. It's an odd film in that it's ostensibly not a musical, but its characters have a tendency to break into song en masse. The Gilbreth children are portrayed as a single undulating organism, busting out for little cameos resembling grade-school skits. We have a feminist plot device in Mother Gilbreth, who dips in to rail at various sexist overweight early-20th century males.

Strange as it is, or perhaps because of its offbeat nature, this film moves fast, and it's an enjoyable watch.

Sequel lacks the spark and wit of Clifton Webb...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 26 March 2007]

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.

You can't not like this family

[hazeleyedbeauty1967 · 2 September 2006]

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.

Disappointing sequel

[IStillAmBig · 22 March 2004]

Vastly inferior follow up to the delightful "Cheaper by the Dozen". It hurts me to put down any film starring the great Myrna Loy, but before you dive into this expecting the same qualities contained in the original you ought to be warned.

Part of the charm of the original was the attention paid to period details and the wonderful production values - missing this time around. The family originally lived in the house made famous in "Meet me in St. Louis", now the set looks like Mayberry. Interiors, originally rich with detail have taken on the 50's monochromatic look of an old "I Love Lucy" episode. Direction? The pacing, cinematography and line deliveries are found lacking.

Is it worth watching? Sure...it's not a bad way to pass an hour and a half - Just don't expect to see what you saw the first time around and you won't be disappointed.

A fairly basic comedy melodrama that has a chocolate box nostalgia about it that some might find appealing but really has little else to recommend it for

[bob the moo · 10 March 2007]

It is graduation day for the youngest of the Gilbreth children and, sitting in the crowd, Lillian Gilbreth is moved by this to reflect back on times when things were not so rosy for her family and a reduced income. And so this film-long flashback begins although it didn't help my interest in the material to find that these "harder times" were a sort of Norman Rockwell version of poverty rather than what most people would consider "hard times" (they have a butler for goodness sake).

So it was no surprise to me to find that this film had no real interest in producing an actual character drama so much as churning out a cheerful melodrama with basic family morals and the Americana virtues of the 1950's writ large across every scene. I'm not sure if this world ever did exist but regardless I'm sure some viewers will find this nostalgia to be just about enough to justify watching the film for. God knows there is not much else to bother spending the time on. The humour is very basic and involved harmless pratfalls and good ol' wholesome joshing – shame there are so few laughs to be had in this.

The cast aren't much cop either. Webb shows up on a picture while Loy buzzes round full of worry, love and strength while the cast of children are more about quantity rather than quality. The odd turn from Hunter, Arnold, Carmichael and others provide some distraction but this is not a film where anyone is given the material to turn in a good performance. Overall then a fairly basic comedy melodrama that has a chocolate box nostalgia about it that some might find appealing but really has little else to recommend it for.