Father's Little Dividend (1951 American Comedy film)

Father's Little Dividend is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie is the sequel to Father of the Bride (1950).

Plot
In this sequel to Father of the Bride, newly married Kay Dunstan (Elizabeth Taylor) announces that she and her husband are going to have a baby, leaving her father, Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy), having to come to grips with becoming a grandfather.

Middle-class family man Stanley Banks reminisces on events of the past year: One afternoon, returning from the office feeling happy and energetic, Stanley's routine is interrupted when his wife Ellie (Joan Bennett) tells him that they are having dinner with their daughter Kay and her husband, Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor), to hear some important news. Although Stanley is certain that it concerns Buckley's business, the newlyweds reveal that Kay is expecting a baby. Buckley's parents, Doris (Billie Burke) and Herbert (Moroni Olsen), are delighted, as is Ellie, but Stanley broods that he is too young and vibrant to be a grandfather.

Cast
Spencer Tracy as Stanley T. Banks
Joan Bennett as Ellie Banks
Elizabeth Taylor as Kay Dunstan
Don Taylor as Buckley Dunstan
Billie Burke as Doris Dunstan
Moroni Olsen as Herbert Dunstan
Richard Rober as Police Sergeant
Marietta Canty as Delilah
Russ Tamblyn as Tommy Banks (credited as Rusty Tamblyn)
Tom Irish as Ben Banks
Hayden Rorke as Dr. Andrew Nordell
Paul Harvey as Reverend Galsworthy
Brent & Brian Tobin as baby Stanley Banks Dunstan

Production
Father of The Bride was such a hit at the box office and with critics, MGM rushed a sequel, Father's Little Dividend into production the following year. The film was remade in 1995 as Father of the Bride Part II, with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton again in Tracy and Bennett's roles.

Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett had made films together at Fox two decades earlier, including Me and My Gal (1932), in which their characters marry, and She Wanted a Millionaire (1932).

According to film critic Leonard Maltin, this film was one of the first examples of a proper modern movie studio sequel.

Reception
The sequel was well received by both audiences and critics and was nearly as financially successful as the first film. According to MGM records, the film earned $3,122,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1.5 million elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $2,025,000.