This movie is based on the biographic book written by two of the 12 children of Frank Gilbert, Sr. Frank Gilbert, Sr., was a prominent pioneering efficiency expert. Efficiency experts were hired by manufacturers as consultants on how to increase the productivity of 20th mass production. (An example of the kind of work Gilbert pioneered is in the musical comedy, "The Pajama Game". Eddie Foy, Jr. plays the time-control manager, Hines.) But the movie and book are about his home life. With a huge family and limited bathroom facilities, organization is needed to make the parents' lives manageable and to prevent chaos. Some of his ideas seem good (such as decorating the children's bedrooms with educational material so that they will become familiar to them without studying. But others, such as an industrial scale tonsillectomy on the 12 children makes for a good story. The title of the movie and book come from the father bargaining for quantity discounts.This is a comedy the whole family can enjoy. It gives us an opportunity to view what life was like in an upper middle class family at the dawn of the 1920's jazz age. It hasn't any car chases, pratfalls, and its more of a series of vignettes (individual chapters of the book relate incidents in the family's life) than a story following a plot. I saw this movie when it was first in the theaters and after I had read the book. It remains one of my fondest biographical films, with the other being "Aunty Mame."

I was really forward to this movie. For a number of reasons. First of, I'm a family type of guy and it seemed to be up my street. Then I knew that this movie (and the autobiographic novel behind it) single-handedly created the genre of "large family comedy" (viz The Brady Bunch, etc.) and was eager on seeing the original, which might well have turned out to be the freshest of the fray. Then the plot just seemed promising: a time-and-motion guy having to cope with a chaotic family of thirteen, especially as it was based on a true story. Finally I was looking forward to seeing Myrna Loy, who in this case was promising a strong female lead.OK, well, I was disappointed. This movie was stolid throughout, and the humour pretty lame. Myrna Loy just teletyped her role in, her role consists entirely of looking approvingly at her husband. But worst of all, the movie is often decidedly reactionary. In one scene a birth control advocate is ridiculed for being a birth control advocate. In another, almost breathtakingly un-PC scene that would have made Larry Flint cringe, one of the girls has it explained to her by her heartthrob that he respects her for not putting out because, while he plans to sow as many wild oats as possible before marriage (wink, wink), he will only marry a pure girl. The whore-madonna-complex in living colour.I can see why many people like this movie, it's by no means god-awful, but it was less than I expected.

Okay, by the title you can't guess that this ultimately will be an extremely depressing film. While that IS a spoiler, I thought it only right to point it out right away because some people might be turned off by this and should avoid the film. This is particularly true for people who are ALREADY depressed--this film will no doubt make it worse! Now this ISN'T to say that this is a bad film--it's actually very well made and quite enjoyable. But, since it's based on real people, the studio couldn't exactly give it a happy ending just to please the audience (though they HAVE done this a few times---almost always with disastrous results).Clifton Webb wonderfully plays an efficiency expert who is quite the character. While at times he seems a bit dictatorial and arrogant, he is also quite loving and charming. I have almost always loved seeing Webb in films and since he did so few movies, I made sure to see this one--his performance certainly didn't disappoint. In fact, Mr. Webb IS the film--as he strongly dominates the movie in a positive way. Interestingly enough, he plays the father of a brood of twelve kids, while in real life he was gay--an interesting fact, but not especially important to his performance.His wife is the ever-faithful and patient Myrna Loy. She is a much more down-to-earth person and the perfect counterpoint to Webb's somewhat bombastic performance. Together, they are the parents of 12 kids--kids that are much more normal and believable than the ones you'll see in the recent CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN--a film that bears no relationship with this 1950 version.All in all, this is very entertaining and well-made. And, if you liked this film, there is a follow-up entitled BELLES ON THEIR TOES.

I enjoyed the movie. It is a little corny in places, but damned good, and it is able to show that a better world might exist. Also, the Gilbreth boy who seems to be about twelve years old looks like Michael Eisner, but that name is not in the credits. Comments? Somewhere along the way, the pinhead pushers of rot have taken over our entertainment and made it ugly and political. It seems that in allowing more license that the subtleties of a good story are lost. Good new movies seem to be less and less frequent. Ten lines yet? I noticed that one of the persons commenting thought the whole thing was awful. My guess is that the person is young and is from some big city where the values seen in the movie have been replaced by modern vulgarities, and in fact are made to seem nothing but things imagined by a writer.