Father's Little Dividend (1951)
The ink barely dry on his daughter Kay's wedding, Stanley Banks is blindsided by the news that he is about to become a grandfather. He sulks through the pregnancy, frets over money and the in-laws, and briefly loses the baby during a walk in the park before making peace with the role.
Vincente Minnelli, Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor reassembled within a year of Father of the Bride (1950) to turn out this quick MGM sequel. Father’s Little Dividend is the lighter, slighter of the pair, and its copyright was not renewed, so it circulates freely while its predecessor stays under protection.
Background
Father’s Little Dividend was directed by Vincente Minnelli and released by MGM in 1951 as a sequel to Father of the Bride (1950). Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett return as the Banks parents, Elizabeth Taylor plays their daughter Kay, and Don Taylor is her husband. The film was made quickly after the first picture and continues its family comedy about a father adjusting to change. Its copyright was not renewed, so it circulates in the public domain. The original Father of the Bride was a successful MGM release, and this sequel follows the same family into the next stage of their lives.
What to watch for
The story turns on Stanley Banks’s reaction to becoming a grandfather, and Tracy plays the comedy of his grumbling with his usual timing. Watch the sequences of his worries about money and the in-laws, which give the family comedy its shape. The film’s most dramatic moment comes when he briefly loses the baby during a walk in the park, which the film plays for both alarm and humor. Minnelli keeps the domestic setting lively, and the warmth of the family dynamic depends on Bennett and Taylor as much as on Tracy. The comedy is built on the everyday details of a household adjusting to a new baby, staying in the family-comedy mode of its predecessor.
