Steineded How sad is this?

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Dalbert Pringle Released in 1951 - This somewhat ditzy Chick Flick/Comedy starred the radiant, 19 year-old Elizabeth Taylor whose beauty, alone, wasn't enough to hold its obviously rushed and weak-scripted story together as a whole.Father's Little Dividend, which was a sequel to Father Of The Bride, was, above all else, a Spencer Tracy vehicle. Here Tracy revised his role of Stanley Banks whose daughter, Kay (the eldest of his 3 children) had married Buckley Dunstan, a stuffy, young man whom he didn't (and still doesn't) particularly approve of.In this film, Kay, who has now been happily married to Buckley for a year, excitedly announces, to one and all, that she's pregnant.Instead of joy, this news puts Stanley into a miserable snit because it's now going to make him a grandfather, which is something that he secretly resents.There's lots of unnecessary bickering and confusion going on in this one's story. And there's one really terrible scene (which is supposed to generate the biggest laughs) where (once the baby boy has been born) Stanley takes his infant grandson out in the carriage for a walk and, due to sheer neglect, actually loses him in broad daylight.Father's Little Dividend was a poorly-conceived picture on all counts.Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it was filmed in b&w, with a running time of only 82 minutes.

JLRMovieReviews A companion piece and direct sequel to "Father of the Bride" (1950), this continues the life of Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) and the new developments (and additions) in his family and is just as good as the original. And, this one won a writing award. Joan Bennett, who is very believable as Elizabeth Taylor's mother, is put (and seen) to good use. It's spring, and Tracy is primed and ready for anything. Anything that is, except for the news his daughter's pregnant. There's a fly in there somewhere, and then he's called "Grandpa." That was the fly. While everyone goes kooky over this little baby, he wonders what the big deal is. He defies being an old codger by working out and winds up feeling his age after all. Sit back and enjoy yourself with Spencer Tracy at his best!

cindyjosch I loved this movie and have watched it a bazillion times. I enjoyed the old-fashioned values. I would like to know if anyone can tell me the name of the actor who portrayed the baby. Does anyone know the name of the actor who played the baby?? I can't find the baby's name in the credits anywhere?? Did you know that Don Taylor directed the original "Omen" movie? And now in the year 2006 the newest version of this movie has been made. I wonder what Don Taylor would think of this one?? Tom Irish who plays Ben Banks shows up in the remake called, "Father of the Bride". He is shown at the wedding and later at the reception. It's too bad they couldn't have gotten Russ Tamblyn to come back for the remake, too. No doubt, it would be too expensive to get Elizabeth Taylor to star in it??

laika-lives I'll admit up front that I have serious reservations about some of Minelli's films, beautifully shot though they are. 'Meet Me In St. Louis', possibly the dreariest movie musical ever made and drowning in contrivance and sentiment, is a case in point. I saw 'Father's Little Dividend' without realising he was the director, and although there are obvious parallels - both family comedies set over a number of months -'Father's Little Dividend' lacks Minelli's great strength - the extraordinary beauty of his cinematography. Perhaps colour makes the difference. It also lacks the real saving grace of 'Meet Me In St. Louis', which was an extraordinarily potent central performance from Judy Garland - the scene in which she sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', the one truly worthy song in the film (Don't talk to me about the Trolly Song...), justifies the entire film. Nobody in 'Father's Little Dividend' is really firing on all cylinders in that way.What the film does have is Spencer Tracy's nicely dry performance as Stanley, a man having to adjust to the fact that both he and his daughter are getting older. Joan Bennett, a long way from 'Scarlet Street', is likable in the underwritten role of his wife, and a young Elizabeth Taylor is serviceable as his daughter. No one really shines, although Billie Burke, as the paternal grandmother, keeps threatening to burst out with a real comic performance. Her curtailed screen time prevents her.None of the comic sequences really work, because they never build into anything. Bennett terrifying Tracy with a desperate drive across the city to the hospital (for the birth of their grandchild) comes closest to actually being funny, but there's no capper, no punchline, and Bennett's calmness doesn't seem comically incongruent, but merely inappropriate, as though she doesn't know what sequence they're filming. Only Tracy gets any laughs, and those are few enough (his frozen reaction to learning that he's going to be a grandfather is particularly good).Funnily enough, the most effective sequence springs from the most tedious dramatic device - the apparent break up of Taylor and her husband. When he comes to get her from Stanley's house, she refuses and insists on staying in a room her father will make up for her. Accepting this, he proceeds to reel off to Stanley all the things she needs, both of them growing more and more tearful, until by the end he is helping her to remove her shoes whilst Stanley simply looks on. It's the best played scene in the film, tipping from comedy to genuinely heartfelt emotion (as opposed to Hollywood sentiment), although it's almost spoilt by the reconciliation, when they fall into a typical movie clinch.Nothing else in the film really stays with you - it's pure filler, particularly the last minute he's-lost-the-baby gambit. It's a nice attempt to reflect on common experiences - just as 'Father of the Bride' was - and certainly some of the observations are accurate enough, but ultimately it's just a little bit too nice, too safe, too soft, and it isn't executed well enough to be memorable.