i will admit up front that i have serious reservation about some of minelli film and beautifully shoot though they be . meet me in st. louis and possibly the dreary movie musical ever make and drown in contrivance and sentiment and be a case in point . i saw father little dividend without realise he be the director and and although there be obvious parallel both family comedy set over a number of month father little dividend lack minelli great strength the extraordinary beauty of his cinematography . perhaps colour make the difference . it also lack the real save grace of meet me in st. louis and which be an extraordinarily potent central performance from judy garland the scene in which she sings have yourself a merry little christmas and the one truly worthy song in the film ( don not talk to me about the trolly song . ) and justify the entire film . nobody in father little dividend be really fire on all cylinder in that way . what the film do have be spencer tracy nicely dry performance a stanley and a man have to adjust to the fact that both he and his daughter be get old . joan bennett and a long way from scarlet street and be likable in the underwritten role of his wife and and a young elizabeth taylor be serviceable a his daughter . no one really shin and although billie burke and a the paternal grandmother and keep threaten to burst out with a real comic performance . her curtailed screen time prevent her . none of the comic sequence really work and because they never build into anything . bennett terrify tracy with a desperate drive across the city to the hospital ( for the birth of their grandchild ) come close to actually be funny and but there no capper and no punchline and and bennett calmness doesn not seem comically incongruent and but merely inappropriate and a though she doesn not know what sequence theyre filming . only tracy get any laugh and and those be few enough ( his frozen reaction to learn that he go to be a grandfather be particularly good ) . funnily enough and the most effective sequence spring from the most tedious dramatic device the apparent break up of taylor and her husband . when he come to get her from stanley house and she refuse and insist on stay in a room her father will make up for her . accept this and he proceed to reel off to stanley all the thing she need and both of them grow more and more tearful and until by the end he be help her to remove her shoe whilst stanley simply look on . it the best played scene in the film and tip from comedy to genuinely heartfelt emotion ( a oppose to hollywood sentiment ) and although it almost spoil by the reconciliation and when they fall into a typical movie clinch . nothing else in the film really stay with you it pure filler and particularly the last minute he lose the baby gambit . it a nice attempt to reflect on common experience just a father of the bride be and certainly some of the observation be accurate enough and but ultimately it just a little bit too nice and too safe and too soft and and it isn not execute well enough to be memorable .