Each sequel is a risky adventure. in this case, it is just a great idea. because it is a charming slice from a lovely period. because the rhytm and the humor and the performances are admirable. and the script remains seductive at whole. it is more than a comedy but...a chronicle. about perspective about a young couple, about birth and about child, about parents and about future. many well known by parents and young couples. and that does it a beautiful eulogy to family institution. so, chronicle of a couple first steps in marriage.

This sequel to 1950's "Father of the Bride" is just as enjoyable.The story really boils down to the effects that his married daughter's pregnancy has on grandfather-to-be Spencer Tracy. The way that the latter rolls with his eyes is memorable.Joan Bennett was absolutely perfect as Tracy's wife, a take charge lady with the birth of their first grandchild.The couple, Don Taylor (who played Susan Hayward's first husband in I'll Cry Tomorrow") and Elizabeth Taylor are so appealing to watch as they go through the routines of child expecting.How Tracy goes from being skeptical about the news to an ardent loving grandfather was an enjoyment to watch.

There's nothing about a sequel that necessarily makes it bad. Sometimes stories are left open-ended so that a follow-up makes sense, or writers may be able to top their previous effort by putting a new spin on the material. There are also some great movie franchises where the same characters can be recycled for numerous stories. However one type of sequel that almost inevitably turns out turkey is the cash-in rehash of a recent hit movie, the hope being that reuniting the same crew and characters will strike the same box office gold without spending too much time, effort or money.In Father's Little Dividend, sequel to Father of the Bride, the "fast buck" motive was even faster than usual. The closeness of release dates indicates it was probably green-lighted while its predecessor was still in its theatrical run. It was shot in just twenty-two days (the kind of schedule a B-movie would usually get), perhaps because star Elizabeth Taylor and director Vincente Minnelli were scheduled to begin work on more important projects, A Place in the Sun and An American in Paris respectively, and the whole thing looks very rushed. The screenplay is riddled with plot holes and underdeveloped patches. Minnelli sticks largely to long, static takes and straightforward shot compositions. Not that there is anything wrong with such simplicity, it's just that Minnelli could usually work such magic with elaborate arrangements and delicate flow, which clearly he didn't have time for here.Father's Little Dividend also drops the device that made Father of the Bride work so well. Although it still retains a Spencer Tracy voice-over narrative and keeps him as the primary character, it is no longer quite so exclusively his story. In Father of the Bride he was a fairly passive character, but the focus was always upon his thoughts and his reactions as all the bustle of the wedding went on in the background. He is now a much more active character, but he is sharing the limelight far more with his co-stars. The result is that this is a far more routine piece of storytelling, without that unique take that elevated Father of the Bride above the average romcom. Taylor has a bigger role, probably to reflect her growing stardom, and in fact her heart-to-heart scenes with Tracy (something writer Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett are very good at) are among the nicest moments in the picture. However the larger parts for comedy players Moroni Olsen and Billie Burke don't work so well as the characters simply aren't funny or engaging enough.This is one of the few major studio productions to be in the public domain. Apparently MGM failed to renew the rights, perhaps due to oversight or simple lack of interest. As such it's available in dozens of shoddy, fuzzy-looking DVD editions, which to be honest pretty much do it justice. There's little point waiting for a nice restoration – the picture itself will always be a disappointment.

Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett reprise their roles from "Father of the Bride" as an upper-middle-class couple whose daughter, Elizabeth Taylor, marries Don Taylor, son of a family of equal social station. In "Father of the Bride," Tracy guided us through his view of the marriage and it was hilarious. Here, in the sequel, Taylor has a baby and although it's not so consistently funny, it's amusing and cute, with much of the humor conveyed by Tracy's wry commentary. (The newly born child "looks as old as Methuselah.") It's the kind of story that might later have been made into a two-part situation comedy special on television. Everything is neat and clean, including the dialog. The child inspires many "awwwww" moments."Father of the Bride," the model, is the sort of movie that is the result of some writers sitting down and brainstorming a funny event, starting from scratch. Every incident flowed smoothly along, each new situation adumbrating later incidents. Familiar scenes are reenacted and given a comic frame. For instance, after the couple are engaged to be married, there must be a fierce argument over nothing, that brings Liz Taylor back home crying that the wedding is off.And "Father of the Bride" had the advantage of being built around a series of sometimes extraordinarily funny ceremonial acts -- the choice of swain, the first meeting of the in-laws, the bridal shower, the practice for the wedding itself, the arrangements for the reception afterward -- one horrifying ritual relentlessly following another."Father's Little Dividend" doesn't have that strict structure. The birth of a child is preceded by few rituals so there's less comic potential in the story. There's the announcement of the pregnancy, the birth itself, and taking the baby for strolls later. The things don't hang together well, so the plot has a cobbled-together feel. (There is some kind of ante-birth party but it's thrown away.) It's as if the writers had been given an assignment rather than a gift from Thalia.If "Father's Little Dividend" isn't as funny as "Father of the Bride", it's not the fault of the performers or the director, all of whom are carried over from the original. By this point in his career, Spencer Tracy had the role of reluctant marginal participant in a rite of passage down pat. He could have done it in his sleep -- and done it superbly. (Cary Grant was equally good as the tormented central figure rather than the observer.) Elizabeth Taylor's beauty would stun a rhinoceros. My God, she's slender, pale, has fluffy hair and striking eyebrows the color of anthracite.I don't want to come down too hard on this film but compared to the original it just doesn't clear the bar. It seems manipulative and stagy. In the original, Liz Taylor storms out of a family discussion and the bewildered Tracy asks, "Well, what's the matter with her?" The naive teenager brother, Russ Tamblyn, remarks, "She's nervous. All women are nervous." That line, a res gestae that's funny as hell, just pops out of Tamblyn, a pimply kid who neither knows nor cares very much about what's going on. There's nothing so spontaneous here.Every ounce of the effort that went into writing this seems to show. The baby occasions too many "cute" moments. And the nonsensical argument, repeated from the original, is lingered over for far too long, clumsily done and not at all funny.Or -- I don't know. I guess that IS a pretty harsh statement. Maybe it's just that I don't like babies. They're not only wrinkled and red faced, they're uncanny. I think they know a lot more than they're letting on. Some kind of witchy quality about them. Perhaps a medical model is apt. Everybody is born with a disease, childhoodosis, causing them to appear small, wizened, stupid, and organized around reflexes. As they mature, the disease spontaneously remits and they grow into sensible, treacherous adults.