Spencer Tracy, Taylor and Don Taylor in Father's Little Dividend in 1951 — Everett Collection
Father's Little Dividend (1951)
Not yet 20, Taylor had already been married and then divorced from Nicky Hilton when she costarred in this sequel to Father of the Bride. The original film belonged to Spencer Tracy, lock, stock and wedding cake: Taylor, as his daughter, was in that film little more than a sweet foil for Spence's gruff acquiescence to her nuptial wishes. This time, her character having a baby, Liz seems to find ways to hold her own versus Tracy. And it's charming to see her puttering around a nicely realized newlywed apartment, the folding chairs set up at a card table for a family dinner. Watching Taylor, little more than a kid herself, play house with screen hubby Don Taylor (no relation), you do begin to feel those familiar pangs of sadness over how Hollywood pushed its young stars to early maturity; the film's director, Vincente Minnelli, was then in the throes of divorce from Judy Garland, another former child star whose life was even then spinning out of control.
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