Father’s Little Dividend (1951)
VINCENTE MINNELLI
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB. USA, 1951. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, based on characters created by Edward Streeter. Cinematography by John Alton. Produced by Pandro S. Berman. Music by Albert Sendrey. Production Design by Cedric Gibbons, Leonid Vasian. Costume Design by Helen Rose. Film Editing by Ferris Webster.
Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor in Father’s Little Dividend
The family favourite that took the box office by storm is continued in this minor but charming sequel. Elizabeth Taylor and husband Don Taylor have both sets of parents for dinner in their new home and announce some exciting news: they’re going to have a baby! This couldn’t thrill Taylor’s mother Joan Bennett more, while father Spencer Tracy finds it perfectly ill-timed. He has recently decided to stop being an old man and start working towards new experiences and adventures, and becoming a grandfather couldn’t possibly be a bigger hindrance to this happening successfully. Meanwhile Taylor mixes things up by getting into a fight with her husband and moving back in with her parents. It’s very sweet, very quaint and incredibly classist, not nearly as sparkly as the original but still an opportunity to see Tracy performing a character he does so well, and Taylor looking so ravishingly beautiful.
