Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

“All those kids yours?” 

            Like most of my generation the first time I ever heard of the term or a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen was when the remake in 2003 came out. I actually had no idea the 2003 version with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt was even a remake until I became a fan of Myrna Loy. The only reason I sat through the newer Cheaper by the Dozen nine years ago (holy crap it seems like yesterday!) was because Tom Welling played the oldest son and at the time I was in love with him. Other than me loving Tom Welling I remember very little about the movie, well I do remember the line when someone asked Bonnie Hunt’s character about all her kids she replied “… well after the sixth one they just kind of walked out” haha.

            The original 1950 Cheaper By the Dozen with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb as the parents is very different than the 2003 version. Sure I guess the newer one modernized the story but I found the 1950 one to be nicer. For one the original is set in the 1920s when the real Gilberth lived (the story is based off their lives). It has more of an innocence and sweetness to it. The story really has no running plot like the new one, it goes through different periods and stories of the family’s life just as in real life.  

            Frank Gilbreth (Webb) is an efficiency expert who is sought after the country over. At the beginning of the film the family only has eleven kids and they live in New England. Frank comes home from work one day and tells his family that he was offered a new job in Montclair, NJ (hey Montclair!! Tell why this is special to me later). The kids are not happy at first but they have no choice. They all pile into their oversized car Frank has nicknamed Foolish Carriage because it is always breaking down.

            The family moves into a very nice large house in Montclair. The house is just right for the family of thirteen but not small enough for two servants to work. Frank calls a family meeting to discuss everyone having chores. The kids seem never to have done chores before and do not take kindly to starting them now. Lillian tells them if they do not make some sacrifices they will have to make cutbacks in other places like buying clothes or ice cream. Instead of wanting those things cut out of their lives all the older kids agree to help out.

            One day one of the kids gets sick with whooping cough. Some of the younger kids come home from school to see the doctor’s car parked outside and automatically think there is another baby on the way (which there is but it is not said). Frank says that there cannot be sickness in the house because it is like an epidemic. Which turns out to be the case, all eleven wind up sick at home with the cough.

            The twelfth baby to be born into the family is a boy Lillian and Frank name Robert. The scene in the hospital where Frank sees his new boy for the first time is very sweet. They talk about how from when they were married they planned on having twelve kids.

            On a summer afternoon a woman from the local birth control center comes to the house to speak to Lillian. The woman had spoken to a neighbor of theirs and told her to visit Lillian who is also a psychologist. Lillian plays a joke with the woman. She gets Frank telling him who is in the house and he calls down all the children. The woman is in shock that all the kids are theirs.

            The oldest daughter and child Ann (Jeanne Crain) is growing up. The family goes to the beach for a summer vacation and while there sees a boy from the high school she goes to is a life guard there. Ann also sees the girls who are wearing modern bathing suits that show a little more skin while hers is one from the teens. That night she cuts her hair and tells the next sister that she is doing it for her and the other sisters so that it will be easier for them to be free of the old ideals. Frank at first has a fit but eventually things calm down and he reluctantly accepts his daughter is growing up. During the school year Ann is asked to the prom. Frank refuses to let her go alone and chaperones her at the dance. All the girls and even some of the boys like Frank and sit and talk to him. They all think he is a great man.

            Frank has been given a great opportunity to travel to London and some of Europe to give lectures. The family is sad to see him go for such a long time but they know how much this opportunity means for his career.

            The ending is very sad for the family and comes from left field. For the entire film you come to love every single member and then the sadness comes and numbs even you like it does to them.

            I like the closeness of the family. I am the oldest of four and we are all very close no matter how much we argue and say we hate each other. I missed my brothers and parents terribly when I was away at school only an hour and a half away and when I went away to London for a month. The scene where Frank goes to the dance with Ann reminds me of me and my dad. My dad gets on my nerves to absolutely no end we fight and argue more than anything. The problem is he does not know when to stop and thinks he is so funny when he is not. All our friends love our dad and think he is absolutely hysterical. Sometimes I will give in and give him a hug especially when I am upset over something. I always know that he will be there when I need him.

             I must warn you that while the film portrays the father as loving and somewhat close with his children you cannot watch it with modern eyes. Frank is very much a man from the early 1900s. As I said he was somewhat close with his children but not what we think of as a warm and loving relationship today. In terms of being modern and ahead of his times Frank did want all of his children to go to college including the girls. Lillian was most definitely an early 1900s wife taking care of the children and pretty much doing whatever her husband says and letting him take control of situations. But she was also a working woman she was a rare woman for the time she obtained her degree in psychology which meant she went to college. She also had the inner strength and courage most women had at the time. In the end she becomes the strong mother and the strong woman who takes over and is respected.

            Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb were great in their roles but they would not have been my first choice to play Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. I kept thinking to a quote of Loy’s as I watched her play mother to all these kids: “Some perfect wife I am. I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg.” Loy just looked uncomfortable and awkward playing this part with all the kids around. I noticed even when she was in The Thin Man films and in the third one they made Nick and Nora have a kid, she just looked awkward around kids. I am so used to her as this bold 1930s woman matching wits with the guys and spouting off these wisecracks that no matter how many times I see her in her later roles as “the perfect wife” and mother she just seems awkward and odd. Of all her films I have seen Loy never gave any of her performances less than one hundred percent. Her best scene is at the end where Lillian has to become the rock of the family. She puts on a brave face and tells her oldest children what she is bravely going to do and how they can help. That to me was pure, wonderful Myrna Loy. No matter how many times she has had to toughen up in her films that never gets old because that is her and she played the quiet bravery and toughness to perfection. In her autobiography Loy tells how she got the part: “… Daryl Zanuck offered me the role of Lillian Gilbreth in Cheaper by the Dozen. What an irony! Zanuck, who typed me as the sloe-eyed exotic at Warners, casting me as the wholesome mother of twelve.” This quote is interesting to think about especially if you have seen any of her early films where she played the exotics or the mean girls. Loy definitely came a long way from those days. She goes on to say how she should have fought like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford not to play perfect wife roles with children but at the time she was more concerned with her political work. She did read the novel by the real Lillian Gilbreth and it did seem like a good role for her.

            Clifton Webb to me is just an odd choice to play a father. The man always seems like such a flame in his other films and like Loy seems so awkward around children. But what do I know he was perfect for the role. Jeanne Crain wrote for Loy’s autobiography that while Loy was calm and submissive Webb was all over the place he was very demanding and temperamental. Loy herself wrote that he would try to move her out of the way of the camera and bully her a bit like he would when he acted on stage and this almost drove the cinematographer off the film. Crain wrote that while Webb would be everywhere else Loy remained quiet and let Webb fly off the handle and that it is amazing to see how great their chemistry was on screen.

            Jeanne Crain was adorable as Ann. I never saw her in a film before (or so I think) I thought she was very good and I very much look forward to seeing her in more films. Crain was not very happy that the studio was making her do this film because she had just made the dramatic film Pinky and really liked doing that she did not want to be playing a fifteen year old. Zanuck got to her though by saying that soon no one would be asking her to play a fifteen year old anymore. Crain said she had a great time making the film especially working with Loy who she had adored for years and looked to as an idol.

            Oh, let me tell you why I loved the Montclair, New Jersey location: I went to college at Montclair State University and had many fun nights driving around the town with my roommate and her friends. The main entrance to the campus is on this gorgeous road called Valley Road with all this beautiful houses and a nice little town center. As soon as I saw the house in the film I wondered if it was on Valley Road. Even the houses down the side streets are beautiful. If I ever make enough money to buy a house in Montclair I will definitely be moving up there. Also any New Jersey reference I love, especially in old films and this one even more so because no one was making fun of the state.

            Cheaper by the Dozen is a very well made film with a great cast down from Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy and Jeanne Crain to the youngest kid. I cringed a bit with all the kids because I could never imagine living in a house with that many kids (my great-grandma is the youngest of sixteen!). There are several themes throughout the film but I liked how the family was very close. I loved Cheaper by the Dozen pretty much right from the beginning and I am sure when you see it you will too.

 

Mister Scoutmaster (1953)

Before you question why I have watched a film entitled Mister Scoutmaster and do not see anywhere on this poster the usual actors and actresses I post about I will tell you: Frances Dee plays Clifton Webb’s wife in it. I do not mind Webb but there would have been no way in hell I would have watched a film with this title with just Webb as the star. But I did find the film to be really cute and funny.

            Webb plays a snobby TV show host named Robert Jordan. His show might be getting the ax if one of the major sponsors pulls out. The sponsor is a kid’s cereal company and they want the show to shift towards kids if they are to play their commercials during the program. Robert is not very happy and does not hold hope the sponsors will stay with the show. Robert does not know the first thing about children since him and his wife Helen (Dee) never had any. On his way home he buys a whole bunch of kid’s magazines as some research.

 

            When Robert gets home Helen says that she wants to adopt a kid, she does not want to be alone all the time. Robert sees it as a good idea strictly for research purposes. He tells her they are going out for dinner and he goes looking for a specific suit he has. Helen tells him that she just gave a boy scout a few of his suits for them to sell. He gets all mad and drags Helen to the church where the sale is. There he finds a little boy selling them as once belonging to his father. Robert and the boy get into a pulling match with the jacket before Helen intervenes and pays the kid.

            The next day the kid named Mike comes over to give the ten dollars back since it was not his suit to give away in the first place. For a reason I cannot remember Robert heads over to the church where the troop meets. The scoutmaster has quit which he thinks because he was a nervous man and did not know how the handle a bunch of boys. Robert decides to take over the troop because he has only seen three of the boys and they were the good ones. It is obvious from the moment the priest starts talking about all the past scoutmasters in the past year the troop has gone through. When he gets home he sees just why the scoutmasters quit when he puts his hat on and he cannot take it off because the boys put glue in it!

            The first time Robert is really put to the test is when he has to go over to one of the boys’ houses so the boy can move up to the next level. A bunch of the boys in the troop come over and the situation gets chaotic pretty fast. One of the boys who is really obnoxious Robert nudges in the leg and the boy freaks out. Robert has had about enough at this point and spills ice cream on the kid’s head. He finds out the kid is his sponsor at the TV studio. Robert is all ready to be fired but when he calls the kid’s father the father tells him to torture the kid as much as possible because he deserves it!

 

            Robert takes the troop on a trip to a camping ground in the woods. Mike shows up late that night all by himself. He is not in their troop but he likes Robert and has been following him around and showing up at his house. Robert lets Mike stay in his tent and sleeping bag and finds he really likes the boy.

 

            Not long after this night Mike runs away and cannot be found. The troop gets together and looks for him. Robert feels awful because he feels it is mostly his fault Mike went missing. As he looks for the boy Robert goes missing in the woods but it is Mike that actually winds up saving him and finding him.

            If you ever see the film you will most likely guess the ending and what happens with the characters.

            Clifton Webb was very good. I can only take the man in small doses in other films but here I got to see how far his acting could go and I liked him. Webb was sophisticated with his looks, mannerisms, and acting so it was a lot of fun to see him pretty much playing himself but taking him out of that type of environment and sticking him with a bunch of uncooperative wild boys.

            Frances Dee was beautiful (geez how many times have I started off a review of her acting this way? I cannot help it she was such a beautiful woman no matter how old she was). Her character was so sweet which provided a balance with Webb’s snobbiness. I loved Dee’s outfits in this film they were very fifties with the skirts and the button down tops. With Frances Dee in a film the story and the film rarely suffers she was so good at any type of character she played.

 

            Mister Scoutmaster is a very cute film. The story was fun as well as the characters. I can relate with trying to get crazy psychotic twelve year old boys to calm down, I have a twelve year old brother and my parents tend to leave him and his friends with me while they go out… thanks a lot mom and dad. As I write this my brother has two of his friends over and it sounds like they are going to bring the house down! Maybe I should go check on them… nah I will most likely wind up getting hurt somehow!!  

            If you can find Mister Scoutmaster on TCM give the film a try.

 

The Razor's Edge (1946)

“The whole world is restless and confused”

            The Razor’s Edge is one of many adaptations of stories by the author W. Somerset Maugham. The story combines philosophy and enlightenment with greed, jealousy, and downfall. These elements sound like they would not mix perfectly at all but each character with these elements come together and connect.

            Somerset Maugham is a character in the film (he is played by Herbert Marshall). He often comes in and narrates. In the beginning he tells the audience that this is a story about a man named Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power) who will leave no trace when he dies. This line ties in at points during the film when Larry does do very good things, we almost feel ashamed for him being such a good man who will never be well known.

            The film starts off at a party in the 1920s after World War I. Larry was a pilot during the War. He has come home to Chicago very disillusioned with life after seeing his friends die and seeks something more. He is engaged to a girl named Isabel Bradley (Gene Tierney). She is a society girl who only wants the best out of life. She and her mother are practically brainwashed by her social climbing uncle Elliot Templeton (Clifton Webb). Larry decides to go to Paris where many exciting things are happening. He figures he may gain some new knowledge or experience new things that will open his mind and his eyes. When Isabel and her family come to stay in her uncle’s Paris apartment Larry shows her Paris and the place where he has been living. She cannot understand how Larry could live the way the he does with barely any money and in such a small place. He asks her to come away with him and live a simple life. Isabel refuses and breaks off her engagement to Larry.

            As the years go by Larry has traveled to India where he finally seeks his enlightenment. Isabel is married with two girls to a man named Gray. They have lost their money in the stock market crash and Gray has gone into a depression where he has his good days and bad. They are living in Paris in Elliot’s apartment where he pays for them to have a rich life. Isabel still loves Larry in a way. She wants him to come back into the high social class that she is used to. Money and wealth do not matter to Larry but Isabel cannot understand that.

            One night when Larry, Isabel, Gray, and Maugham are out they visit a seedy sort of club. There they meet an old friend from Chicago named Sophie (Anne Baxter). She is no longer the happy in love woman married to a man she adored with a baby. Now she is a mess addicted to drugs and alcohol. Larry for a while saves her and they plan to marry. Isabel becomes jealous and tempts Sophie back to her old ways by flaunting what Sophie cannot have and has lost.

            Since Larry finally has found what he has wanted in life and sees just how cruel someone he had once felt so close to he returns to Chicago most likely to see none of his old friends again.

            I’m not sure how I feel about The Razor’s Edge. I did not hate it but I did not love it. I felt Anne Baxter was the only good actor in the whole film. Gene Tierney was beautiful without a doubt (and wonderfully dressed by her designer husband Oleg Cassini) but her acting to me was not the greatest it felt so fake and so forced. In one scene it was as if she was not trying to act like she was saying her lines the way someone would memorize a poem. Tyrone Power I just have trouble liking I have not watched one film with him so far where he has clicked with me and I cannot even say I kind of like him. He is not terrible here he was not a bad actor but I just cannot for the life of me get into him. Clifton Webb was pretty much a more flamboyant version of Waldo Lydecker from Laura. Baxter was really the only actor I thought gave a really great performance (she rightly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role). You can see the emotions on her face you can believe her character has loved and greatly lost and is now just a complete emotional mess. What Baxter did in just the few scenes she was in blew Tierney and pretty much everyone else right out of the water.

            I did really like the story and I liked the characters even Isabel who was so mean. Watching the film made me really want to read the book. For the film itself I do not wish other actors were the stars or can think of any other actors who could have done better. Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, and Clifton Webb were perfect but as far as the acting Power and Tierney could have done a lot better. The acting does not deter from the story at all.

            The Razor’s Edge is definitely worth seeing it is a very good example of classic Hollywood at its best. Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power were beautiful together (Power was often considered more beautiful than his female costars so it was often difficult for 20^th Century to find him beautiful female leads. Gene Tierney was just as beautiful and they looked perfect together). The entire cast was very good together. At a time when Film Noir was becoming big and there were anti-heroes The Razor’s Edge adds something a bit different. It does reflect society at the time when men were coming home from war and they questioned life but Larry found enlightenment he found his something more in life that was not high society and money. He was not down on his luck for very long. The people that surrounded him were out on their luck and he wanted to help them because he saw they were not happy with their lives.

             I found myself wishing I could be in Paris during the 1920s. As an Art History major I have learned about how artsy Paris was during this time and how it was THE place to be even into the 1930s (how I wish I could have  been around when Man Ray and Lee Miller were together). I would have loved to have witnessed the city then and to mingle with all the great artists and literary figures, maybe I would have ran into W. Somerset Maugham.

Laura



“You forced me to give you my word. I never have been and I never will be bound by anything I don't do of my own free will.”

   

Laura starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews embodies all the characteristics of a Noir film.  The film was one of the first four films to be discussed as a “film noir” in 1946. There is murder with sexual motivations, a beautiful femme fatale, dark lighting, and wonderful different camera angles.

            The film starts off in a Noir way; the first voice we hear is that of the character Waldo Lydecker. We don’t see him we hear him while the camera pans to a clock. Lydecker says:

“I shall never forget the weekend Laura died. A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass. It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection. I felt as if I were the only human being left in New York. For with Laura's horrible death, I was alone. I, Waldo Lydecker... was the only one who really knew her... and I had just begun to write Laura's story when another of those detectives came to see me.  I had him wait. I could watch him through the half-open door. I noted that his attention was fixed upon my clock. There was only one other in existence and that was in Laura's apartment, in the very room where she was murdered.”

This is the beginning of some fantastic foreshadowing. In the next scene Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) asks Lydecker about a column he had wrote:

                “Two years ago, in your October column you started out to write a book review

            but at the bottom of the column, you switched over to the Harrington murder case. You                said Harrington was rubbed out with a shotgun loaded with buckshot the way Laura Hunt       was murdered night before last.”

As the scene progresses Lydecker gives some more of himself away. He says that a shotgun was a more interesting murder of a man than by the sash the man was really killed with and that murder was his favorite crime.

        Lydecker’s narrative and point of view is the first of the film. We see he was in love with the murdered woman Laura Hunt. He cannot stand to hear Mark call Laura a dame and more than anything or anyone he cannot stand Laura’s fiancé Shelby Carpenter. Lydecker sees Shelby as a male damsel in distress.

            As the film progresses Mark begins to fall in love with Laura. Her portrait haunts her as well as the stories he is told by the suspects of how kind and beautiful she was. He wanders around in her apartment one rainy night. Lydecker has just left. The detective does not know what to do with himself. He begins to look around then pours himself a drink and sits on a chair. He falls asleep, we hear the door open. Laura Hunt who everyone believes to be dead is standing above Mark.

            No one can believe Laura is alive they are all in shock. But there are two twists and one of the twists is the murderer. Everyone around Laura believes she i murdered the dead girl who is found out to be a model Diane Redfern. She and Laura had gotten into a an argument and Laura being a nice persona and feeling bad loan the model her apartment for the weekend. But Mark knows she could not be she is too smart to tell him about where she has been that he could easily check on. Mark knows who the real murderer is and why. When he leaves Laura’s life becomes at risk.

            What a fantastic film it is beautiful in every way from the way it was filmed, to the lighting, and the casting. The story is just great; you really believe that everyone Laura was close to could have “killed” her and that she could have had a hand in the murder as well. What I really like about Laura is the multiple character point of view. Lydecker is the only one who gets the voice over but we can clearly see from which character’s point of view we are watching.

            As I mentioned there is much foreshadowing. In many scenes in Laura’s apartment the characters stand in front of the clock. When Mark and Laura walk into the kitchen together the camera lingers a little longer on the clock. With Lydecker there is so much foreshadowing that he is the murderer it is nuts when you go back and watch the film.  

            My favorite scene in the movie is when Mark takes Laura in for questioning. The cinematography is gorgeous. The whole scene was just beautifully filmed and acted by Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. This is the scene where Mark in a way professes his love for Laura when he asks her if she loves Shelby. He knows from looking into her that she is a good person and that she’s too smart to kill anyone. Gene Tierney looked so pretty in this scene. From this comes my favorite movie stills.

            The other scene that was done so perfectly was the scene where Laura comes back. The music had stopped when Mark got a drink and sat in the chair. The silence in this moment just adds so much. You can feel the shock, the surprise, and the tension between Mark and Laura.

            Now I have to gush over Gene Tierney in this film. She was so beautiful. I love all her clothing especially in the white dress at the party at Anne’s house, the outfit she wore when she came back, and the dress she had on when Mark interrogated Laura. She did a fabulous job acting, it wasn’t dramatic and over the top. When Lydecker blows her off in the scene where they meet for the first time, her facial expressions were so genuine; she looked like she was really hurt and offended. In no way was she dramatic when Lydecker had the gun to her in the end again her face was genuine, she looked really scared for her life. Gene Tierney was so believable as Laura Hunt, as a young, career driven girl living the dream in New York City. This was one of the many times she would work with both Vincent Price and Dana Andrews. With Vincent Price she made two other movies- Leave Her To Heaven and Dragonwyck, with Dana Andrews- Tobacco Road, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Whirlpool. The only issue I have with the character of Laura would be her choice in men: Lydecker was an older man who finally got his eye candy and when she had other lovers he got really jealous. Shelby was truly a damsel in distress but charming. Mark seemed to be the only real man of the whole film.

            The first time I saw this I think I cracked up laughing with Judith Anderson as Anne Treadwell. The only other time I have ever seen her in a movie was Hitchcock’s Rebecca where she played Mrs. Danvers. She played Mrs. Danvers to such perfection it’s truly hard to see her in any other roll.

            As you can see Laura is a very typical Noir. There is a murder mystery, quick actions with the camera, a hardened cop, a jealous lover, and a beautiful woman. But here’s a question: can Laura herself be considered a femme fatale? I recently read the book Laura by Vera Caspary which the movie is based on. In the end there is some information about the film and the question was raised if Laura Hunt could be considered a femme fatale. That’s interesting to think about. The author of this section of the books said that Diane Redfern is the femme fatale; she was the one causing trouble for everyone.

             The book and the film run along the same lines but with great differences. Mark smokes a pipe instead of playing with his little pocket baseball game to keep him calm. Lydecker is a fat old man. Laura had hit Diane Redfern with a tray and felt so sorry about the whole thing she let Diane stay in her apartment while she was away. Anne’s name in Susan and she was an opera singer. Many of the lines in the book were brought to the film such has Lydecker’s opening monologue. One of the great differences in the book to film is the murder weapon; the book has the weapon a gun in Lydecker’s cane. The film kept the different character points of view which is important to the story. I must say the film is so much better than the book. The film takes the book and makes sense its chaos. It makes the characters a lot better and likeable.

            There is a reason why Laura is considered the quintessential Film Noir. It has all the qualities of one. It exposes the sinister side of love and jealousy. Like Citizen Kane and Casablanca before, Laura set the bar for all Noir films to come.