After her appearance in "All About Eve", Bates co-starred in "Cheaper by the Dozen", and its sequel "Belles on Their Toes", with Jeanne Crain and Myrna Loy. In 1951, she landed a role opposite MacDonald Carey and Claudette Colbert in the comedy "Let's Make It Legal". Fox refused to loan out Bates for the role of the suicidal ballerina saved by Charlie Chaplin’s aging vaudevillian in ‘Limelight’ (1952). She co-starred with Donna Reed as the love interests of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the 1953 hit comedy "The Caddy".