Copyright 1958 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 20 February 1959. U.S. release: March 1959. U.K. release: 4 January 1959 (sic). Australian release: 26 December 1958 (sic). 7,843 feet. 87 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: This is the story of Horace Pennypacker, Jr, (Clifton Webb), a successful pork-packer of the 1890's who has two families — one in Philadelphia and another in Harrisburg. Together, the families total seventeen children. Since his business has kept him on a strict schedule of one month in one city, the next month in the other for some years, there has never been any confusion or contact between the two families. However, when his daughter, Kate (Jill St John), becomes engaged suddenly to a local minister, Wilbur Fielding (Ron Ely), he leaves his Philadelphia office unexpectedly for Harrisburg. His wife, Ma Pennypacker (Dorothy McGuire), and his Harrisburg family await him at the station, but instead of Pa, one of his Philadelphia sons arrives!
NOTES: Running for a quite satisfactory 221 performances, the play opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre (sic) on 30 December 1953. It was produced by The Producers' Theatre and directed by Alan Schneider. Burgess Meredith, Martha Scott, Thomas Chalmers, Phyllis Love, Michael Wager and Una Merkel created the roles played, respectively, by Webb, McGuire, Coburn, St John, Ely and Stickney.
VIEWER'S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Well, I enjoyed the movie. I know everyone else hates it (even the industry's normally indulgent trade paper, "Variety", gave it a firm thumbs-down), but I thought it was funny. I fail to see how anyone who enjoyed Webb in "Cheaper By the Dozen" and William Powell in "Life With Father" would fail to respond to this variation. A lesser movie, true, but still mighty entertaining. Webb caps his dozen kids in the former picture with seventeen in this one. That doesn't make Pennypacker one and five-twelfths funnier, or even equal, but the players and the writers have a good go at it.
Webb as usual is the master of the put-down, and he gets plenty of opportunities to be prissily caustic here. I thought he was most amusing. Even funnier though is Charles Coburn, having a grand old time as the irascible, outraged Pennypacker Senior. Great support is provided by the likes of Larry Gates, Richard Deacon, Doro Merande. Needless to say the CinemaScope screen is more than adequate to hold seventeen kids, even in sets dripping with Victorian bric-a-brac.
SYNOPSIS: This is the story of Horace Pennypacker, Jr, (Clifton Webb), a successful pork-packer of the 1890's who has two families — one in Philadelphia and another in Harrisburg. Together, the families total seventeen children. Since his business has kept him on a strict schedule of one month in one city, the next month in the other for some years, there has never been any confusion or contact between the two families. However, when his daughter, Kate (Jill St John), becomes engaged suddenly to a local minister, Wilbur Fielding (Ron Ely), he leaves his Philadelphia office unexpectedly for Harrisburg. His wife, Ma Pennypacker (Dorothy McGuire), and his Harrisburg family await him at the station, but instead of Pa, one of his Philadelphia sons arrives!
NOTES: Running for a quite satisfactory 221 performances, the play opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre (sic) on 30 December 1953. It was produced by The Producers' Theatre and directed by Alan Schneider. Burgess Meredith, Martha Scott, Thomas Chalmers, Phyllis Love, Michael Wager and Una Merkel created the roles played, respectively, by Webb, McGuire, Coburn, St John, Ely and Stickney.
VIEWER'S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Well, I enjoyed the movie. I know everyone else hates it (even the industry's normally indulgent trade paper, "Variety", gave it a firm thumbs-down), but I thought it was funny. I fail to see how anyone who enjoyed Webb in "Cheaper By the Dozen" and William Powell in "Life With Father" would fail to respond to this variation. A lesser movie, true, but still mighty entertaining. Webb caps his dozen kids in the former picture with seventeen in this one. That doesn't make Pennypacker one and five-twelfths funnier, or even equal, but the players and the writers have a good go at it.
Webb as usual is the master of the put-down, and he gets plenty of opportunities to be prissily caustic here. I thought he was most amusing. Even funnier though is Charles Coburn, having a grand old time as the irascible, outraged Pennypacker Senior. Great support is provided by the likes of Larry Gates, Richard Deacon, Doro Merande. Needless to say the CinemaScope screen is more than adequate to hold seventeen kids, even in sets dripping with Victorian bric-a-brac.