Revisiting my review of "Father of the Bride", I was surprised to read this: "We all have moments in our lives when we know a step has just been taken and there is no coming back. It can't be marriage because we can divorce. A birth is different." That was my way of asserting that the central relationship in the film wasn't the marital one but the irresistible bond between Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) and his daughter Kay. Unknowingly, I was also foreshadowing the importance of the next step, when it's the daughter's turn to give birth... to the future scene-stealer, the final nail in the symbolical coffin where Daddy's girl will rest forever.
That's the circle of life, the moment where the father loses his momentum forever with his little girl and can only benefit from a nine-month suspended sentence to reminisce about the good old days where he was still the center of her universe. And if it's of any consolation, even the former bride will get his comeuppance for having stolen his baby's heart and will become a neglected entity as well, which gives more three-dimensionality to the character of Buckley (Don Taylor) who wasn't as interesting in the original film.
And the title is also half appropriate as it conveys the idea that a grandparent gets every benefit of a grandchild without having to assume the burden of being a parent, it's like the pros without the cons. But the birth of the first grandchild IS still a big deal and it's dealt with a honesty and a straightforwardness that makes "Father's Little Dividend" a fine companion piece to its Best Picture nominee predecessor. And it's a fine continuation as well, perhaps one of the earliest example of the genre., the same cast and the same director are embarked for a second exploration of the habits and customs of a typical upper-middle class American family, a film with a a tenderness of its own hidden underneath the practical approach of the wedding.
It was the 50s then and one would expect an immediate expectancy after the wedding but subverting the trope of the nervous perambulating father with hundreds of cigarettes on his beck and bags under his eyes, this time we have the story told once again from the perspective of a father..., played once again by Tracy with that edgy self-consciousness and humorous grumpiness that make him the perfect actor to play the average American father, long before the rise of TV sitcoms. It's always a delight to relate to his outsider's point of view, as soon as Kay announces that she's pregnant, it's like an existential epiphany hitting the poor man's head, he's to become a grandfather. That heavy word resonates like the ominous gong but tactfully, the film doesn't circle around ageist thoughts and only inspires a little interlude where we see Stanley Banks proving he's still got it through gym activities.
After that, the story gets on track again and proves to be an insightful introspection into the state of pregnancy and how two families try to get the lion share of influence on the baby's life, before it has ever started. And it's refreshing to see Banks as the one figure who's always there to support his daughter and offer a few sound advices about the best way to handle motherhood in particular and parenthood in general. Stanley is such a great father that perhaps the little catch is that we never see his fatherhood operating with his sons; as a matter of fact, we never rally see his sons at all, they're so useless to the story that Kay could have been an only child as well, which would have justified how "precious" she was to both her parents.
Well, Kay is precious no matter what and the chemistry between Tracy and Taylor is as convincing as with his usual partner Katharine Hepburn, though his interactions with Joan Bennett who plays the wife aka the surrogate mother, have nothing to envy from the classic duo. By the way, her role had awakened so many painful memories as far as I was concerned, reminding me how toxic a mother-in-law can be, despite the best intentions, when they enjoy the continuity of life without caring much for the in-betweeners.
This is not to make the film sound like some sociological thesis but it does offer a fine look at the way pregnancy wasn't lived as differently in a bourgeois upper class than another background, it's a family occasion with its share of nervousness, false alarms, breakdowns and joy, and ultimately culminating with the delivery. The film is almost seven decades old and it's probable that the daughter of the little baby was flashing her physical assets during a Spring Break party, screaming and dancing while the male members of the same generation were cumulating pints of booze. I'm not sure a bond between Stanley Banks and Kay would be allowed in our narcissistic and ego-driven days when any crisis can defeat a couple and when the epitome of achievement consists on breaking continuities.
The "father" two-part comedy-drama is an enchanting parenthesis provided by Vincente Minnelli, movies with warmth, humor and a sweet poignancy. Everything is handled with the right balance of comedy and drama, though here and there you can't sense that the pacing is slowed donw and the film resorts to very contrived situations to lead to the obligatory conclusion where Stanley Banks and his grandson finally make peace. The last minute of the film is so emotionally rewarding made that it redeems all the little contrivances.
That's the circle of life, the moment where the father loses his momentum forever with his little girl and can only benefit from a nine-month suspended sentence to reminisce about the good old days where he was still the center of her universe. And if it's of any consolation, even the former bride will get his comeuppance for having stolen his baby's heart and will become a neglected entity as well, which gives more three-dimensionality to the character of Buckley (Don Taylor) who wasn't as interesting in the original film.
And the title is also half appropriate as it conveys the idea that a grandparent gets every benefit of a grandchild without having to assume the burden of being a parent, it's like the pros without the cons. But the birth of the first grandchild IS still a big deal and it's dealt with a honesty and a straightforwardness that makes "Father's Little Dividend" a fine companion piece to its Best Picture nominee predecessor. And it's a fine continuation as well, perhaps one of the earliest example of the genre., the same cast and the same director are embarked for a second exploration of the habits and customs of a typical upper-middle class American family, a film with a a tenderness of its own hidden underneath the practical approach of the wedding.
It was the 50s then and one would expect an immediate expectancy after the wedding but subverting the trope of the nervous perambulating father with hundreds of cigarettes on his beck and bags under his eyes, this time we have the story told once again from the perspective of a father..., played once again by Tracy with that edgy self-consciousness and humorous grumpiness that make him the perfect actor to play the average American father, long before the rise of TV sitcoms. It's always a delight to relate to his outsider's point of view, as soon as Kay announces that she's pregnant, it's like an existential epiphany hitting the poor man's head, he's to become a grandfather. That heavy word resonates like the ominous gong but tactfully, the film doesn't circle around ageist thoughts and only inspires a little interlude where we see Stanley Banks proving he's still got it through gym activities.
After that, the story gets on track again and proves to be an insightful introspection into the state of pregnancy and how two families try to get the lion share of influence on the baby's life, before it has ever started. And it's refreshing to see Banks as the one figure who's always there to support his daughter and offer a few sound advices about the best way to handle motherhood in particular and parenthood in general. Stanley is such a great father that perhaps the little catch is that we never see his fatherhood operating with his sons; as a matter of fact, we never rally see his sons at all, they're so useless to the story that Kay could have been an only child as well, which would have justified how "precious" she was to both her parents.
Well, Kay is precious no matter what and the chemistry between Tracy and Taylor is as convincing as with his usual partner Katharine Hepburn, though his interactions with Joan Bennett who plays the wife aka the surrogate mother, have nothing to envy from the classic duo. By the way, her role had awakened so many painful memories as far as I was concerned, reminding me how toxic a mother-in-law can be, despite the best intentions, when they enjoy the continuity of life without caring much for the in-betweeners.
This is not to make the film sound like some sociological thesis but it does offer a fine look at the way pregnancy wasn't lived as differently in a bourgeois upper class than another background, it's a family occasion with its share of nervousness, false alarms, breakdowns and joy, and ultimately culminating with the delivery. The film is almost seven decades old and it's probable that the daughter of the little baby was flashing her physical assets during a Spring Break party, screaming and dancing while the male members of the same generation were cumulating pints of booze. I'm not sure a bond between Stanley Banks and Kay would be allowed in our narcissistic and ego-driven days when any crisis can defeat a couple and when the epitome of achievement consists on breaking continuities.
The "father" two-part comedy-drama is an enchanting parenthesis provided by Vincente Minnelli, movies with warmth, humor and a sweet poignancy. Everything is handled with the right balance of comedy and drama, though here and there you can't sense that the pacing is slowed donw and the film resorts to very contrived situations to lead to the obligatory conclusion where Stanley Banks and his grandson finally make peace. The last minute of the film is so emotionally rewarding made that it redeems all the little contrivances.