Father's Little Dividend
- Spencer Tracy: Stanley Banks
- Joan Bennett: Ellie Banks
- Elizabeth Taylor: Kay Dunstan
- Don Taylor: Buckley Dunstan
- Billie Burke: Doris Dunstan
- Moroni Olsen: Herbert Dunstan
- Marietta Canty: Delilah, housemaid at Banks
A godsend is an American feature film (Family, Comedy ), the director Vincente Minnelli staged in 1951 for MGM. The film is a sequel to the hit film Father of the Bride.
Action
The scene is a city in the U.S., the time the present. Kay Banks has Buckley Dunstan married (see father of the bride) and is now expecting her first baby. While Ellie is in her element, because they may organize the pregnancy and birth of her daughter, gets Kays father, Stanley, to ponder. He has barely come to terms with the love of his daughter's choice, and that he should be grandfather soon, forcing him unexpectedly to a confrontation with one's own aging.
Ellie takes care of setting up the nursery, the baby shower and the search for a name for the child. As a man, Stanley is excluded from all this. His own way to the United paternity he is until he realizes how much Kay needs him. The suffering that is increasingly under the tutelage of her mother and her in-laws that are in everything that has to do with the baby, get involved and you do not separate decisions to admit, while Stanley soon in solidarity with his daughter and her with his quiet way given support she needs at this moment. Is put to the test his loyalty, as Kay is enthusiastic about the unconventional idea of a "modern" woman doctor on the Stanley actually shocked. Because Kay has to rely on his support, he still comes to terms with it. Again it is needed, as Kay and her husband runs away because she believes that he is cheating. It succeeds Stanley elucidate the underlying misunderstanding and to reconcile the couple. Consoling Kay he must also, as the birth draws near and their fear of this event increases.
The child is finally born. Close friendship with the grandson, Stanley does not succeed immediately because the child begins to cry on his arm forever. The ice between grandfather and grandson is only broken when the child Stanley lost comes during a walk, is taken away by the police to the police station and must Stanley begging the police officer about to issue him the child without the women learned of the incident.
The film ends with Kay and Buckley's announcement that their child should have the name " Stanley " in honor of his grandfather.
Form
The plot of the film is told entirely from Stanley's perspective. To this end, he speaks the audience directly.
In some scenes of the film, which otherwise follows the patterns of a comedy, the farce is sticking, such as in the scene in which Stanley because his wife has evicted him from the bedroom, girls stayed in the bed of his daughter approaches. With the abundant ruffles that adorn this bed and furrowed with Tracy's face contrasts bizarrely, he performs in this scene like a fight with a dragon.
Production and reception
Production history
The production crew and the main characters for a gift of heaven were largely the same as for father of the bride. Only the composer has been replaced.
After the father of the bride a gift of heaven was the second film in which Spencer Tracy was seen in the role of compassionate and loyal father of a full-fledged subsidiary. In Theater Fever (1953) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967 ) he developed continue this type of character. The role of one of his female environment repeatedly underestimated and to silence condemned man was Tracy written on the body and gave him ample opportunity to show the best he could as an actor: complex emotions without words, only by the means of his face express.
Theatrical Release
The film premiered in the U.S. on 27 April 1951. While the father of the bride had played at the box office more than 4 million dollars, a gift from the heavens brought it nevertheless still at $ 3.1 million.
In the United States today, the film is in the public domain.
Reviews
" Light played playful comedy near the Schwank sticking shiny and staged. "
"Continuation of, Father of the Bride ', which does not consider the level of its predecessor. The former bride's father can be seen now in the difficult for him falling role of the grandfather. "
Awards
The film's director, Vincente Minnelli was nominated in 1951 for the price of the Directors Guild of America. The award was eventually but to Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Gaston Glass for All About Eve. The screenplay won the 1952 comedy award of the Writers Guild of America.
Remake
- A godsend - Father of the Bride 2 (1995 )