Cheaper by the Dozen (1950 film)

Cheaper by the Dozen
Directed by	Walter Lang
Produced by	Lamar Trotti
Starring	Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Betty Lynn
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	April 17, 1950 (USA)
Running time	85 min.
Language	English
Followed by	Belles on Their Toes

The 1950 film Cheaper by the Dozen was based upon the 1948 book Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The film and book describe growing up in a family with twelve children.

1 Storyline
2 Sequel
3 Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
4 External links

Storyline

The parents were time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth. The title comes from one of Gilbreth's favorite jokes which played out in the movie that when he and his family were out driving and stopped at a red light, a pedestrian would ask "Hey, Mister! How come you got so many kids?" Gilbreth would pretend to ponder the question carefully, and then, just as the light turned green, would say "Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know," and drive off. In the book Frank Gilbreth died of a heart attack while talking to his wife on the telephone; in the movie when his wife answers the telephone, there is no reply on the other end of the line, although she is told by the operator she is still connected.

Sequel

Based on the success of Cheaper by the Dozen, Gilbreth and Carey wrote a follow-up to their book entitled Belles on Their Toes which was also made into a movie by 20th Century Fox.

Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)

The version of Cheaper by the Dozen made in 2003 is not, in fact, a straight remake of this motion picture. The similarity between that movie and this Cheaper by the Dozen book and film lies in the fact that story features a family of twelve children, but the modern version does not have the melancholy ending of the 1950 release, is centred around a completely different family and course of events, and bears no resemblance at all to the original book.