Belles on Their Toes *** (1952, Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy, Debra Paget) – Classic Movie Review 8810

Director Henry Levin’s 1952 Belles on Their Toes is the too-sentimental but still amusing and appealing sequel to the sharper 1950 family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen.

[Spoiler alert] There is no Clifton Webb this time, alas, because by now his character of daddy has died. But Myrna Loy is back as Mrs Lillian Gilbreth, mother to 12 real-life 1920s children (Jeanne Crain reappears again as the eldest, Ann). Lillian is struggling without her husband’s income.

The sweet story gets a boost from a very good cast, including Edward Arnold as an industrialist called Sam Harper whose desire to take on Lillian (Loy) stops short of wanting to take on the children, and curiously the nostalgic mood is better done than before.

Jeffrey Hunter plays the young doctor Bob Grayson, who takes a shine to Ann (Crain), leading to wedding belles, er bells. Martha (Debra Paget) and even Ernestine (Barbara Bates) find romance too.

The screenplay by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron is taken from the book of memoirs by two of the Gilbreth children, Frank B Gilbreth Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

Also in the cast are Debra Paget, Hoagy Carmichael, Barbara Bates, Robert Arthur, Verna Felton, Roddy McCaskill, Carole Nugent, Tina Thompson, Teddy Driver and Tommy Ivo.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8810

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