When widower Tom Corbett (Ford) finds himself thrust anew into the dating game, his precocious son Eddie (a very young Ron Howard) works to rig the outcome. Eddie has his heart set on Shirley Jones' nurturing girl-next-door, but father goes for the chic liberation of Dina Merrill's career-minded fashion consultant. Although the candy-colored modern décor of Ford's Manhattan apartment insists on MGM's frothy intentions, Minnelli nevertheless manages to inject a sense of loss and loneliness. Howard in particular gives a wrenching performance—reminiscent of Margaret O'Brien's in Meet Me in St. Louis—as a child facing the stark realities of death and abandonment. The film shows the Hollywood melodrama reaching a crisis as the notion of the career woman shifts from being an oddity or rarity to a common identity.