Review of Father's Little Dividend

In honor of Elizabeth Taylor. This is, of course, the sequel to Father of the Bride, which, in all honesty, I found to be a middling comedy at best (I actually prefer the Steve Martin version from the '90s, though I'll admit that one's nothing special, either). Father's Little Dividend is no better, and it's done no favors by the absolutely putrid public domain copies floating around (including the version on Netflix Instant, which is where I watched this; I've seen bits of it before on TCM and the copy they show is much better). Taylor is really a supporting character in this movie (and the first one). This is undoubtedly a Spencer Tracy vehicle through-and-through. He narrates the picture and is on screen about 90% of the time. And he's charming, of course. As are Taylor and Joan Bennett. But few of the jokes work. The drama actually works a little better. The best scene in the movie is the one where Tracy speaks to Taylor after she decides to leave her husband over a petty argument. It could have been played for laughs, but it's used as a nice father/daughter moment. The part at the end where Tracy loses his grandson is downright scary when watching it today. He left him alone for 30 minutes in a park! It's played for comedy, but today he'd rightly be arrested!