Frank Gilbreth (Clifton Webb) and his wife Lillian (Myrna Loy) are inordinately proud of their large family of eleven and there is no question in the Gilbreth household as to who wears the pants. It is their efficiency-expert father who daily parades his family and inspects them for cleanliness and other virtues consistent with a well-regulated family.
They move to a new house in New Jersey where they experience an outbreak of whooping cough which affects father too.
In typical Gilbrethian fashion, Frank decides that the family tonsils will be removed en masse in their own home and has the operation filmed to “show doctors how to speed things up.”
The next visit from the doctor is to assist at the birth of another child, a boy, making up the round dozen.
The family grows up and gets into the most embarrassing situations, especially, rebellious teenager Ann (Jeanne Crain).
When father dies suddenly, the Gilbreths are broken-hearted, but Lillian pulls them together – not allowing grief to undermine the family spirit – and takes over her husband’s European tour and speeches.
Frank Bunker Gilbreth
Clifton Webb
Ann Gilbreth
Jeanne Crain
Mrs Lillian Gilbreth
Myrna Loy
Deborah Lancaster
Betty Lynn
Dr Burton
Edgar Buchanan
Ernestine Gilbreth
Barbara Bates
Mrs Mebane
Mildred Natwick
Mrs Monahan
Sara Allgood
Mary Gilbreth
Betty Barker
Martha Gilbreth
Patti Brady
Dan Gilbreth
Teddy Driver
William Gilbreth
Jimmy Hunt
Jack Gilbreth
Roddy McCaskill
Lillie Gilbreth
Carol Nugent
Frank Gilbreth Jr.
Norman Ollestad
Fred Gilbreth
Anthony Sydes
Director
Walter Lang