Strangely, for a movie targeting families, Cheaper by the Dozen 2‘s script seems obsessed with cleavage.Mostly that of Jimmy’s young wife, Sarina. The camera stares as she offers an obvious double entendre, spreading her arms wide and inviting the Bakers into her home by saying, “Welcome to the Boulders.”.

Cheaper by the Dozen has been adapted as a musical, dramatized by Christopher Sergel with a score by David Rogers and Mark Bucci. 4 Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), starring comedians Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, have little relationship with the book other than the title and the focus on a family with 12 children.
(# 'I Wish' by Stevie Wonder) They say that starting a family is an act of optimism. Well, Tom and I were clearly very, very, very optimistic. There are always good times and difficult ones along the way. And with 12 kids, you learn a lot of lessons. But the one that you never get used to is that moment when you look your child in the eye and find yourself having to say the most difficult word.
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Cheaper by the Dozen Synopsis: The Bakers, a family of 14, move from small-town Illinois to the big city after Tom Baker gets his dream job to coach his alma mater's football team. Meanwhile, his wife also gets her dream of getting her book published.

Cheaper by the Dozen
Directed by	Walter Lang
Produced by	Lamar Trotti
Screenplay by	Lamar Trotti
Based on	Cheaper by the Dozen 1948 novel by Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr.
Starring	Clifton Webb Myrna Loy Jeanne Crain Betty Lynn
Narrated by	Jeanne Crain
Music by	Cyril J. Mockridge
Cinematography	Leon Shamroy
Edited by	James Watson Webb Jr.
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	March 31, 1950 (New York)^[1]
85 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.7 million^[2]
Box office	$4.425 million^[3]^[4]

Cheaper by the Dozen is a 1950 American familycomedy film based upon the autobiographical book Cheaper by the Dozen (1948) by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The film and book describe growing up in a family with twelve children, in Montclair, New Jersey. The title comes from one of Gilbreth's favorite jokes, which played out in the movie, that when he and his family were out driving and stopped at a red light, a pedestrian would ask: 'Hey, Mister! How come you got so many kids?' Gilbreth would pretend to ponder the question carefully, and then, just as the light turned green, would say: 'Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know', and drive off.

Plot[edit]

The parents are the time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. and psychologistLillian Moller Gilbreth. The film shows typical days in the lives of a family in the 1920s, but here with 12 children and an efficiency engineer as the parent. Frank employs his unorthodox teaching methods on his children, and there are clashes between parents and children. Frank takes every opportunity to study motion and increase efficiency, including filming his children's tonsillectomies to see if there are ways to streamline the operation.

Frank escorts his daughter to her prom but ends up chatting to her female friends.

At the end, Frank goes on a business trip. He phones Lillian from the station but the line goes dead as he has had a heart attack. After Frank's sudden death, the family agree that Lillian will continue with her husband's work; this enables the family to remain in their house, rather than move to their grandmother's in California, although, with a widowed working mother and one income, the children will have to assume much greater responsibilities.

Cast[edit]

Clifton Webb as Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. (father)
Myrna Loy as Mrs. Lillian Gilbreth (mother)
Jeanne Crain as Ann Gilbreth
Barbara Bates as Ernestine Gilbreth
Betty Barker as Mary Gilbreth
Patti Brady as Martha Gilbreth
Norman Ollestad as Frank Gilbreth Jr.
Carol Nugent as Lillie Gilbreth
Jimmy Hunt as William Gilbreth
Anthony Sydes as Fred Gilbreth
Teddy Driver as Dan Gilbreth
Roddy McCaskill as Jack Gilbreth
Walter Baldwin as Jim Bracken
Sara Allgood as Mrs. Monahan
Evelyn Varden as School Principal
Edgar Buchanan as Dr. Burton
Mildred Natwick as Mrs. Mebane
Craig Hill as Tom
Betty Lynn as Deborah Lancaster

Comparison to real life[edit]

The birth order in which Cheaper by the Dozen portrays some of the children is not the same order in which the real Gilbreth children were born. For example, Robert (who was born in 1920) is shown as being born in 1922, as the last child after Jane (who was born in 1922). This is reversed in the movie's sequel.

Topaz jones arcade. In real life, Mary, who was the second child, died in 1912, aged 5. However, in the film Cheaper by the Dozen, Mary is placed as the third child after Ernestine, and has few or no lines.^[5]

Cheaper By The Dozen Script Play

Both Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were important figures in real life. The voice-over at the end of the film informs the audience that Lillian went on to become the world's leading efficiency expert and the TIME magazine Woman of the Year in 1948. Additionally, in 1984, her image was put on a US postal stamp.

Cheaper By The Dozen Script

Reception[edit]

Reviews from critics were mostly positive. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that 'it all adds up to entertainment of a broad, brash and innocent sort.'^[6]Variety called it 'a lot of fun' with 'a lot of humor, and just enough clutching at the heart to please any audience.'^[7]Harrison's Reports called it 'delightfully amusing' with comedy 'that keeps one chuckling throughout and at times reaches hilarious proportions.'^[8] 'Pleasant light entertainment,' reported The Monthly Film Bulletin.^[9]John McCarten of The New Yorker was less enthused, writing that 'since nothing much happens in the way of conflict, there just isn't any drama, and the piece boils down to one of those typical fluffy comedies about home life in America.'^[10]

References[edit]

Cheaper By The Dozen Script Joe Scales

^'Cheaper by the Dozen'. AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
^Lev, Peter (15 March 2013). Twentieth Century-Fox: The Zanuck-Skouras Years, 1935–1965. ISBN9780292744493.
^'All-Time Top Film Grosses' Variety Weekly January 13, 1954
^Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 223