I come from a large family, and when I was growing up, Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel, Belles on Their Toes, were a great comfort. They taught that there had been other unusually large families with varying degrees of eccentricity, and that this was not an insurmountable difficulty, and that Irish cooks were excellent targets for caricature.
Being autobiographical, these books treated the various joys and trials of being from an enormous family with maturity and taste. The parents are not comically inept, the children are not a total zoo, and there are no saccharine and inexplicably stupid story lines--Mrs. Gilbreth doesn't go on a book tour for her book about the difficulties of raising a large family and then order extra pillows in her hotel room to represent her children because she misses them so much (What? I know.), because she is busy raising a large family. And is not the worst mother ever.
The books are magical. The trip to Nantucket, the time all the children get sick, when Anne gives herself a bob (!), when Lill gets the roller-skates under her pillow--it's all earnest, sweet gold. If you're going to make an asinine film about Steve Martin and how he has more annoying children than he can handle because he's a moron, please don't sully the Gilbreths' name by calling it Cheaper by the Dozen.
6 comments:
Have you ever seen the versions from the 50's? They're pretty faithful to the books; I think you'd like them.
Don't forget Innside Nantucket!
Ugh. I refuse to see either of the Steve Martin "knockoffs." When I heard about the first one I thought it was going to be a period piece. Instead, all they swiped was the title. I was furious when they reprinted the books with Steve Martin covers. I agree with Julia--find the ones with Myrna Loy as Lillian Gilbreth. The second film adds a mild "love interest" for Lillie--I guess they thought 1950s audiences wouldn't believe a woman who would try to get along without a man!--but it's very subtle and doesn't detract from the storyline.
i thought the author WAS talking about the movies from the 1950s, and so my confusion as to the title of the post.
i was from a family of 3 children, and because i hated my annoying siblings, i also took comfort in movies like this one, and "with six you get eggroll", etc. that is because i saw kids i could be brethern to, not the slop i was born to by losing the genetic lottery.
and i had no idea steve martin stars in a 'knockoff' of "cheaper". i imagine i just ignore his image everywhere i see it.
couldn't agree more about this one too!
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