List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $11.98YOU SAVE $3!
Buy it
DVD Cheaper By the Dozen
Though it's impossible to gauge just how much of it is true, this endearing family comedy (based on the book by their children Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey) is inspired by the true story of the husband-and-wife efficiency experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and their adventures raising 12 kids at the turn of the century. Director Walter Lang takes a loping pace through the episodes of family life: the kids descend upon the new school in force while Dad (fussy Clifton Webb) offers his unsolicited views on education; Dad takes his oldest daughter (wholesome Jeanne Crain) to the school dance and becomes the hit of the ball; a mass tonsillectomy becomes an opportunity to document the ordeal as an experiment in efficiency. Myrna Loy almost steals the film in her one standout scene, holding back a smirk while a birth-control advocate (played by Mildred Natwick) solicits this mother of 12 to speak at a rally, but her martini-dry comic deadpan is criminally underused in this picture, which is dominated by Webb's stern, military-like parenting and Crain's adolescent crises. Though this sometimes overly sentimental classic never builds to any real dramatic plateau or comic highlights, it maintains an even tone of good humor and warmth throughout, capturing a bygone era through the travails of a loving family. A charming sequel, Belles on Their Toes, followed two years later. --Sean Axmaker
I saw Cheaper by the Dozen when I was a little kid. What I remember most were: 1) the tonsillectomy part when one of the daughters was telling everyone about the doughnuts she had for breakfast; 2) how the father made me so mad; and 3) but oh, how I cried when he died. I still watch this movie every now and then and every time I have a good cry!
I AM A SUCKER FOR THE CLASSICS.......
THIS IS A FANTASTIC WAY TO INTRODUCE SOMEONE TO THE NEWER VERSION OF STEVE MARTIN'S RENDITION OF "CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN"....I MEAN TO ACTUALLY SEE WHERE IT STEMMED PAINTS A CLEARER PICTURE OF THE WRITER, PRODUCER, AND DIRECTOR'S ARTISTIC EYE. THIS IS TRULY ONE FOR YOUR ARCHIVES...TRUST ME....YOU WILL LOVE IT.
Bang for the Buck
Best bang for you buck. A classic, if Hollywood made movies like today the world would be a much better place.
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... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jeanne Crain - Myrna Loy Director(s): Henry Levin DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
Predating The Brady Bunch by almost a decade, Yours, Mine, and Ours is a screwball comedy about the ultimate blended family. When the widow Helen North (Lucille Ball) marries the widower Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), the two must find a place to house their 18--count 'em, 18!--kids (she had 8, he had 10). Based on a real-life couple, the film details the nuances of everyday life in a house overrun with children. From getting all the kids ready for school to sending off an older son to war, this well-written film is wholesome entertainment that doesn't condescend. Look for the very young Tracy Nelson as Germaine. --Jenny BrownMore Info about this DVD Director(s): Melville Shavelson DVD Release Date: Released the 06 March 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $10.99YOU SAVE $3.99!
Buy it
Ah, remember those good old days when father ruled the roost, keeping a tight rein on the money, the kids, and the docile wife? Well, neither does Clarence Day (William Powell), the title character in Life with Father. Taking place in New York in 1883, this charming comedy purports to show the life of a strict father managing his house and his family, only to be constantly--and unknowingly--out-manipulated by his somewhat ditzy wife, Vinnie (Irene Dunne). Day is terrifying enough that maids keep quitting, but Vinnie manages to keep Day under control--that is, until she discovers that he was never baptized. A battle ensues as she desperately tries to ensure that they will one day meet in heaven, and all the while he severely maintains that the church has no business messing with a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): William Powell - Irene Dunne - Elizabeth Taylor Director(s): Michael Curtiz DVD Release Date: Released the 04 June 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $7.98 Your Price: $7.98YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
This high point in the 1940s vogue for movies about family life at the turn of the century was directed by George Stevens (Shane), and stars Irene Dunne as the matriarch of a Norwegian family that faces hard knocks with grace in 1910 (or so) San Francisco. Based on John Van Druten's hit play (derived from Kathryn Forbes's autobiographical memoir), the film is gorgeously rendered and quite moving as an act of memory. The sterling cast of character actors--Edgar Bergen, Rudy Vallee, Oscar Homolka, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby, Cedric Hardwicke--add great texture and a depth of experience that make the film feel quite lived-in. Hardwicke's turn as a penniless boarder who "pays" his rent by reciting from classic literature is a special highlight. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Irene Dunne - Barbara Bel Geddes Director(s): George Stevens DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.97 Your Price: $15.98YOU SAVE $3.99!
Buy it
Actress-writer-director Ida Lupino got one of her unfortunately rare opportunities behind a camera making this 1966 family comedy about two mischievous students (Hayley Mills, June Harding) making life difficult for the nuns at a girls' convent school. Rosalind Russell has a fine part as a mother superior vexed by their pranks and outwardly chilly until the girls catch her in a more private moment of emotional release. The script has an anecdotal structure--it's sort of one thing after another with Mills's and Harding's troublemakers--but there is a rising sense that these two kids gradually develop some awareness of the pain and sacrifices of others. A fun and touching movie all around, with a nice twist at the end. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Rosalind Russell - Hayley Mills Director(s): Ida Lupino DVD Release Date: Released the 11 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $24.95 Your Price: $18.71YOU SAVE $6.24!
Buy it
