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Actors: Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, Edward Arnold, Hoagy Carmichael
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Belles on their Toes |
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This is the sequel to "Cheaper by the Dozen" of 1950, about the large family of efficiency experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. As the youngest of the family graduates, Lillian looks back on her trials as a poor widow raising twelve children, five girls and seven boys, with the help of their loyal houseman Tom.
Determined to keep the children together despite Cousin Leora's dire forecast of financial disaster, Lillian sends them to Nantucket with Tom while she looks for work. They have to live mainly on beans, but manage to enjoy themselves until they return to New Jersey. There they have to scrimp and cut corners to keep the family together, for example negotiating a special rate at the barbers and making their own root beer, but they are always lively and there are plenty of comical and romantic incidents to keep them amused.
Lillian, an industrial engineer like her husband, finds she receives nothing but rejections from the firms she approaches. Sam Harper of Harper Electrics wants some well-trained engineering executives and although initially as prejudiced as the others, likes Lillian and is convinced by her arguments. He eventually agrees to send six engineering students for her to train at home and even persuades some other firms to send pupils. Impressed by one of Lillian's articles, the Engineers Club of America invites Dr L. M. Gilbreth to speak without realizing she is a woman. When she arrives she is not allowed by their rules to enter the building and is turned away by the doorman. Furious, she drives away and collides with a parked truck. The handsome doctor who treats her in hospital falls for Ann, the oldest daughter. When Lillian is offered a college professorship, Ann feels she will be even more needed at home, but the doctor wants to marry her without delay.
--Maureen Evans, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Belles on their Toes |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1900-1920's
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Poverty story?
Yes
Poverty plotlets:
- coping with poverty (general)
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- engineer
Age:
- 40's-50's
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn curly
Body type
- (woman) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn curly
Body type
- (woman) average
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- general circumstances
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- encouraged
Any profanity?
- None
If lots of song/dance...
- lot of singing and dancing
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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