Blu-ray Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Father's Little Dividend -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

It was a bit of a long pregnancy, but Father's Little Dividend arrived some 40 weeks after Father of the Bride, with essentially the same cast and director - Vincente Minnelli. Since during the studio era, virtually everyone was under long-term contract this would have been an easy task.

The two look very similar since the DP, John Alton, was also attached.

While not quite up to the quality of the original, Dividend has its own pleasures, and in very few words makes an appropriate self-make to its predecessor.

Derived fully from the OCN, the imagery is stable, with a fully functional gray scale, and rich blacks. In short, proper and as expected Warner Archive quality.

It falls into an interesting place in Miss Taylor's career, as at 18-19 she's playing a young adult, after starting as an 9-10 year-old in 1942.

It wasn't long after Dividend that she blossomed into far more mature roles, with films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer following in the same decade.

Father's Little Dividend is a nice studio film, produced just as television was beginning to take foothold.

Image – 5

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Worth your attention - 4

Upgrade from DVD - Yes

Slipcover rating - n/a

Recommended

RAH


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[Thomas T]

It falls into an interesting place in Miss Taylor's career, as at 18-19 she's finally playing a young adult, after starting as an 9-10 year-old in 1942.

RAH

Actually, she first played a young adult some two years earlier in Conspirator (1949) where the 17 year old Elizabeth Taylor played the wife of 38 year old Robert Taylor!

 

[Robert Harris]

Actually, she first played a young adult some two years earlier in Conspirator (1949) where the 17 year old Elizabeth Taylor played the wife of 38 year old Robert Taylor!

Appears unseemly. Not sure we should even be discussing that.

 

[Thomas T]

Appears unseemly. Not sure we should even be discussing that.

Okay, then I won't bring up Daytime Wife (1939) where 16 year old Linda Darnell plays 25 year old Tyrone Power's wife! Unlike today where "mature" actresses tend to play younger than they are, back then young women often played older than they were. I recently watched Any Number Can Play (1949) where 28 year old Alexis Smith plays Clark Gable's wife of 20 years and they have a 17 year old son. Which means Ms. Smith would have been 8 years old when she married Gable and 11 years old when she had their son!

But I digress. Very much looking forward to this blu of Father's Little Dividend.

 

[Robert Harris]

Okay, then I won't bring up Daytime Wife (1939) where 16 year old Linda Darnell plays 25 year old Tyrone Power's wife! Unlike today where "mature" actresses tend to play younger than they are, back then young women often played older than they were. I recently watched Any Number Can Play (1949) where 28 year old Alexis Smith plays Clark Gable's wife of 20 years and they have a 17 year old son. Which means Ms. Smith would have been 8 years old when she married Gable and 11 years old when she had their son!

But I digress. Very much looking forward to this blu of Father's Little Dividend.

If we run out of age differences with a reasonable number of years, the fall-back can always be Cary Grant and Jessie Royce Landis, or Mr. Grant and Miss Temple.

“It’s only a movie,,,”

 

[Mark Booth]

My copy of Father's Little Dividend has shipped and will be here tomorrow. Disappointingly, my copy of 'The Life of Emile Zola' (which I ordered even earlier and was supposed to street date tomorrow too) has NOT shipped and Amazon is estimating Sept 18. Boo!

Mark

 

[filmfreak]

It was a bit of a long pregnancy, but Father's Little Dividend arrived some 40 weeks after Father of the Bride, with essentially the same cast and director - Vincente Minnelli. Since during the studio era, virtually everyone was under long-term contract this would have been an easy task.

The two look very similar since the DP, John Alton, was also attached.

While not quite up to the quality of the original, Dividend has its own pleasures, and in very few words makes an appropriate self-make to its predecessor.

Derived fully from the OCN, the imagery is stable, with a fully functional gray scale, and rich blacks. In short, proper and as expected Warner Archive quality.

It falls into an interesting place in Miss Taylor's career, as at 18-19 she's playing a young adult, after starting as an 9-10 year-old in 1942.

It wasn't long after Dividend that she blossomed into far more mature roles, with films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer following in the same decade.

Father's Little Dividend is a nice studio film, produced just as television was beginning to take foothold.

Image – 5

Audio – 5

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Worth your attention - 4

Upgrade from DVD - Yes

Slipcover rating - n/a

Recommended

RAH


Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. As an Amazon Associate, HTF earns from qualifying purchases. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

See on Amazon

Do you think Raintree County will eventually be released by Warner Archive? They seem to have a renewed interest in Liz having recently released National Velvet, Father of the Bride, FLD, Ivanhoe, Last Time I Saw Paris and Reflections in a Golden Eye.