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Baby Boomers were popping out all over the United States in the post-World War Two years. 20th Century Fox pounced on the nationwide population explosion by producing a film about parents who have multiple kids in March 1950's "Cheaper By The Dozen." The comedy was one of the first films to show a large family functioning efficiently-but not without some light-hearted drama. It centers on a married couple who specialize in industrial efficiency and time management, and how the two easily handled twelve kids while conducting revolutionary research in manufacturing productivity. "Cheaper By The Dozen" was based on the real lives of business-flow experts Frank Gilbreth and his wife Lillian in a 1948 account of the same name written by their two adult children, Frank and Ernestine. The movie, ranked fourth at the box office, was followed by a sequel, 'Belles on Their Toes' in 1952. In the original, Clifton Webb stars as Frank Gilbreth and Myrna Loy as his wife, who supports and eventual assumes her husband's business and lecture circuit after he dies. The Fox film covers the family's relocation from Providence, Rhode Island to Montclair, New Jersey as the kids adjust to their new home. The title of both the book and the movie derives from Frank's favorite retort whenever someone asks, "Hey, mister! How come you got so many kids?" The father automatically answers, "Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know." The Gilbreth children range from a toddler to high schooler Ann, played by Jeanne Crain, 24, who in real life already had two kids of her own. Crain's stardom had risen after her Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress in 1949's "Pinky." But her heart sank when she was assigned by her studio the role of a teenager in "Cheaper By The Dozen." She revealed afterward, "After having the best role of my career in 'Pinky,' I was absolutely crushed when they cast me as a teenage ingénue. Well, I accepted the role and the whole thing turned out to be a joyful association." Crain has a memorable dancing scene with her screen father, Webb, who began his acting career as a stage dancer. But off camera, Crain loathed the actor, describing him, as "temperamental, bombastic and dictatorial." She, however, loved Myrna Loy, 45, whose career was now pigeonholed into motherly roles. Crain noticed, "Myrna was the perfect foil for Clifton by letting him fly all over the place while she remained serene and submissive and really in charge of the whole thing. Their surprising chemistry made the picture believable and successful." "Cheaper By The Dozen" was largely centered around Webb. Critics say the actor's on-screen clashed with the real-life personality of Frank Gilbreth, who in the book describes him "like a breath of fresh air when he walked into a room." Readers of the popular novel and those who knew the real Frank in his many industrial films narrating his industrial research were troubled by the two images, let alone Webb's incongruous temperament calmly controlling his twelve kids. Wrote film reviewer Bea Soila, "This film would probably have worked better for me if I had not been looking forward to Clifton Webb once again playing Mr. Belvedere. Here he is positively avuncular." "Cheaper By The Dozen" is also known for two technological milestones. The publication Hollywood Reporter claims this was the first movie to use a magnetic audio track embedded in its filmstrip rather than normal optical waves, producing a cleaner, clearer sound. The German invention of magnetic tape was discovered in the late stages of World War Two, and was refined in the years afterwards, funded in part by actor/singer Bing Crosby. Also, the movie was the first time in years Natalie Kalmus was not the color advisor for Technicolor. The ever-present Kalmus saw her last studio work in 1949's "Samson and Delilah" and in Danny Kaye's "The Inspector General," both released in late 1949. As the wife of Technicolor's owner Herbert Kalmus and co-developer of the company's color film process, she was the on-site consultant for every movie using the technology. She had strong opinions about every aspect of color choices for her complex cameras' films, with directors, cinematographers and set designers either appreciating her assistance or clashing with her demands. Divorced from Herbert for over twenty years but still living together, Natalie unsuccessfully sued him for alimony when he wanted to marry someone else. She left Technicolor in 1949, deferring her production duties to other company consultants. Natalie concentrated on a line of designer television cabinets, which ironically housed just black-and-white TV's. She passed away in November 1965 at 87, and is buried in Centerville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. The theme of extremely large families has endured through generations. The 1950 film was remade in 2003 using the same title "Cheaper By The Dozen" with Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt and Hilary Duff. Its success spurred on Fox studios to produce a sequel in 2005, "Cheaper By The Dozen 2," with the same cast. A generation later, Disney's streaming-plus service produced a mixed-race version in 2022. But because of the return to normalcy after WW2, the original Webb-Loy film especially resonated with the public because of the overwhelming amount of child birthing at the time.

Alfred Hitchcock created quite a controversy with his release of February 1950's "Stage Fright." Opening flashbacks, found especially in film noirs, were usually honest and reliable. They occur in the first scenes of the movie where the primary characters, speaking in the present, recall the crucial event of the plot's past, setting the stage for their story to begin. But Hitchcock didn't abide to the roles of cinema when he introduced what has come to be known as the 'false story flashback' or 'lying flashback.' The director was skewered by critics who felt he misled them and his audience by presenting an untrue opening which relied on a dishonest narrator. There were rare occasions this would be seen in literature-but never in film.

Movie reviewer Matt Buchholz wrote, "this is a trick played by Hitchcock, where he takes the common, unspoken language of filmmaking (in this case, the agreement that anything the filmmaker shows us onscreen and during a flashback is true), and subverts it." "Stage Fright" opens with Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) carrying the bloodstain dress of his secret lover Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) over to the apartment of his longtime friend Eve Gill (Jane Wyman). He explains to Eve, an aspiring actress, that Charlotte, a highly popular singer and stage actress, went to his place wearing the bloody dress saying she killed her husband. According to Jonathan he went back to Charlotte's house to retrieve another dress when her maid, Nellie Goode (Kay Walsh), spotted him before seeing Mr. Inwood dead on the floor. Nellie went to the police, and now he's begging Eve to help him in the case, feeling Charlotte is innocent. Eve decides to play investigator by pretending to be a news reporter, and bribes Nellie so she can take her place at the Inwood household for a couple of days. Hitchcock adapted the movie based on Selwyn Jepson's 1947 novel 'Man Running' with the help of his wife Alma Reville and scriptwriter Whitfield Cook.

Film reviewer Terrence Brady justifies Hitchcock's use of "Stage Fright's" opening 'lying flashback' by observing, "The film delves into various falsehoods, in almost every scene, from theatrical performances to outright lies. It investigates the deceptions people use to hide the truth about themselves and how this 'act' of lying is taken one step further onto the stage of everyday life." Hitchcock himself was fascinated by Jepson's novel, stating, "the aspect that intrigued me is that it was a story about the theatre. What specifically appealed to me was the idea that the girl who dreams of becoming an actress will be led by circumstances to play a real-life role by posing as someone else in order to smoke out a criminal." "Stage Fright" was the third movie Hitchcock directed for his Transatlantic Pictures. Since his previous two efforts for his film production company performed poorly, he signed with Warner Brothers to finance most of the movie and to distribute it. To get Marlene Dietrich on board, he gave her the freedom to handle all her scenes, including supervising her own lighting on the set. He respected her insights after working under director Josef von Sternberg as well as a few highly regarded cinematographers. Someone asked Hitchcock how the no-nonsense director handled the strong-willed actress. "Everything is fine," he replied. "Miss Dietrich has arranged the whole thing. She has told them exactly where to place the lights and how to photograph her." After filming wrapped, Hitchcock quipped, "Marlene was a professional star. She was also a professional cameraman, art director, editor, costume designer, hairdresser, makeup woman, composer, producer and director." The English production was the first time Hitchcock worked in England since 1939, and slotted only two American movie actresses to play among the all-British cast. One was his daughter Patricia in her film debut, which was one of the main reasons he wanted to film in England because she was attending London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as a drama student. The other was Jane Wyman, the Best Actress Oscar-winner for her role in 1948's "Johnny Belinda." Hitchcock figured her box office appeal would be an asset. Hers was the biggest role in the film, not only as Eve Gill, but as a housemaid replacing Nellie while leading her new friend, Wilfred 'Ordinary' Smith (Michael Wilding), the lead detective on the murder case who's attracted to her, astray. Pretending to be a dour maid in the services of Charlotte proved to be difficult for Wyman. "I ran into great difficulties with Jane," Hitchcock recalled "In her disguise as a lady's maid, she should have been rather unglamorous; after all, she was supposed to be impersonating an unattractive maid. But every time she saw the rushes and how she looked alongside Marlene Dietrich, she would burst into tears. She couldn't accept the idea of her face being in character, while Dietrich looked so glamorous, so she kept improving her appearance every day and that's how she failed to maintain the character." Dietrich didn't harbor a high opinion Wyman. Said Dietrich, "I heard she'd only wanted to do the movie if she were billed above me, and she got her wish. Hitchcock didn't think much of her. She looks too much like a victim to play a heroine, and God knows she couldn't play a woman of mystery, that was my part. Miss Wyman looks like a mystery nobody has bothered to solve." Wyman, however, appreciated Hitchcock's style of directing, stating during the American Film Institute's tribute to him, she learned more from this film than from any other, and was grateful for her experience with the director, saying how much she loves him.

Hitchcock would return to his native England to film only two more times, once briefly to shoot the famous Albert Hall sequence in 1955's "The Man Who Knew Too Much," and the second in 1971 for "Frenzy." Despite all the flack he received from "Stage Fright," the movie did make it acceptable for future scriptwriters to use the 'false story flashback.' Australian film director Richard Franklin praised Hitchcock's innovative opening, saying it was the "cutting edge of mystery filmmaking." Because of its use today modern movie audiences aren't surprise if the story's beginning leads them down a rabbit hole.

Doris Day's brief three-year movie career so far consisted of light musicals. But that didn't stop director Michael Curtiz from handing the singer-actress her first serious role in March 1950 "Young Man With A Horn" with Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall. Curtiz felt the character Jo Jordan, a singer in a band, was ideal for Day since her personal background had her singing alongside big bands such as Jimmy James, Bob Crosby and Les Brown. Biographer George Morris wrote, "Jo Jordan (Day) is a celluloid creation not far removed from the real Doris Day when she was just the kid with the vocal chords, traveling from town to town on one-night stands. Although the songs in 'Young Man With a Horn' are subordinated to the drama, Day's renderings are smooth and mellow, perfectly capturing the style and tone of the big band singer she is." Curtiz directed Day in her film debut, 1948's "Romance on the High Sea," which was followed by two similar musical comedies. Although "Young Man With A Horn" contained a few musical interludes, the picture about a trumpet player who felt he was more important than the entire band was largely a study of a tremendous ego, which the cheerful, optimistic Doris had a major part. Adapted from Dorothy Parker's 1938's novel of the same name, the Warner Brother's film-and the book-was based loosely on jazz cornet player Bix Beiderbecke, labeled as one of the most influential soloists in the 1920s who died of pneumonia brought on by alcoholism at age 28. Kirk Douglas plays Rick Martin, a loner dating back to his school days who finds his passion in a trumpet he bought for $9. Juano Hernandez (1949's "Intruder in the Dust" fame) plays jazz trumpeter Art Hazzard, teaching Rick how to perfect his playing, but also warning him of the pitfalls of a musician's life, especially as a soloist. Martin meets Jo Jordan (Day) in his first gig in a big band, accompanied by piano player Willy "Smoke" Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael). It was Carmichael, a friend of Bix Beiderbecke, who gave valuable insights on the late musician to Kirk Douglas and Curtiz. Lauren Bacall plays Jo's friend Amy North, and ends up marrying Martin. But her dark past haunts their relationship, and only Jo can save him. Bacall was developing quite a reputation for rejecting scripts Warner Brothers had thrown her way, feeling most were inferior-but not this one.

Trumpeter Harry James, who's heard while Douglas mimics his playing in "Young Man With A Horn," taught the actor how to convincingly handle the instrument. Once filming began, Day wasn't all that happy to be in the dramatic film, largely because of Douglas' personality, ranking it as one of her least pleasant. "Kirk was civil to me and that's about all," Day later recounted. "But then Kirk never makes much of an effort toward anyone else. He's pretty wrapped up in himself. The production was one of the few joyless experiences I had in films." She sensed he and Bacall were giving her the cold shoulder, noting the two, good friends off the set, had dated before she met Humphrey Bogart. Douglas was equally dismissal of Day in their only movie together. "That face that she shows the world - smiling, only talking good, happy, tuned into God - as far as I'm concerned, that's just a mask," Douglas later said. "I haven't a clue as to what's underneath." But the actor was familiar with Day's manager and film producer Martin Melcher. He had given Kirk same bad financial advice in the past, and he warned Day about her manager. She ignored his warnings, and married Melcher in 1951, lasting until his death in 1968. Soon after, Day discovered he left her in serious debt. Melcher must have had an engaging personality since Douglas, despite their past problems with money, had hired him as president for his company's music publishing subsidiary.

Douglas was rocked by a scandal while in the midst of filming "Young Man With A Horn." Dancer-actress Jean Spangler, 23., had a brief part in the movie when, on October 7, 1949, she mysteriously disappeared. She had left her mother's home in the evening to see her ex-husband about child support. Her purse was found two days later in Los Angeles' Griffin Park with a note stating, "Kirk: Can't wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away." Police interviewed Spangler's mother, who recalled a man named Kirk picked her daughter up twice at the house, but remained in his car. When Douglas read about the note, he immediately called police and denied knowing of any Spangler. Later, when detectives came to his house, he did recollect a short small conversation he had with her on the set, but that was all. He issued a press release stating, "I told Detective Chief Thad Brown that I didn't remember the girl or the name until a friend recalled it was she who worked as an extra in a scene with me in my picture Young Man with a Horn . Then I recalled that she was a tall girl in a green dress. I talked and kidded with her a bit on the set. But I never saw her before or after that and have never been out with her." No suspect ever emerged from her disappearance.

"Young Man With A Horn" offers a glimpse of Doris Day's future as both an entertainer with a pleasant personality along with a dramatic side, giving her an added dimension to her ever-growing popularity as a film star.