Cheaper by the Dozen

Cheaper by the Dozen, directed by Walter Lang and starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy, is a family comedy based on the real life story of efficiency and time-motion study pioneers Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. and Lillian Moller Gilbreth and their family of twelve children. The source book, a humorous memoir, was published in 1948 by two of their children, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The film follows a father who applies his workplace efficiency methods to family life, and the widow who carries on the family's legacy after his sudden death from a heart attack. The film was the fourth highest grossing film in the US in 1950. Who it's for: anyone curious about the real family whose father applied workplace efficiency methods to raising twelve children, one of 1950's most watched films. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a purely light family comedy, since the film takes on unexpected emotional weight following the father's sudden death.