Life with Father (1947)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Clarence Day (memoir)
Howard Lindsay (play) ...

Release Date:

13 September 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Here for all!! All the happiness of the play that ran longer, the laughs that were louder than any known before!

Plot:

A financier from New York rules his numerous family, consisting of his wife and his four sons, with the meticulousity of a bookkeeper.

Plot Keywords:

Businessman | Redhead | Young Love | Family Relationships | Maid

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 wins

Cast

William Powell	...	Clarence Day, Sr.
Irene Dunne	...	Vinnie Day
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Mary Skinner
Edmund Gwenn	...	Rev. Dr. Lloyd
Zasu Pitts	...	Cousin Cora Cartwright
Jimmy Lydon	...	Clarence Day, Jr.
Emma Dunn	...	Margaret - the cook
Moroni Olsen	...	Dr. Humphries
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Mrs. Whitehead - introduces Morley
Derek Scott	...	Harlan Day
Johnny Calkins	...	Whitney Day
Martin Milner	...	John Day
Heather Wilde	...	Annie - 1st maid
Monte Blue	...	The Policeman
Mary Field	...	Nora - 2d maid

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Argentina:Atp | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #11667, General Audience) | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Before filming began, the cast was taken to Perc Westmore's salon on a Sunday morning to have their hair dyed red. When it was time to rinse the dye, the beauticians discovered that the water had been turned off for the entire block because the street was being repaired. Because dyes were so strong then, leaving them on could have caused the cast to lose their hair. Luckily, someone suggested diluting the dye with cold cream.

Goofs:

Continuity: The opening scene shows a carriage block with "Clarence Day" engraved on it. A few seconds later after the police man passes by, the carriage block has no engraving.

Quotes:

Rev. Dr. Lloyd: After considerable thought, we voted that out supporting members should each contribute a sum equal to the cost of their pew.
Father: I paid $5,000 for that pew.
Vinnie: Yes, Clare, that makes out contribution $5,000.
Father: That's robbery. Do you know what that pew is worth today? $3,000. That's what the last one sold for. I've taken a dead loss on that pew of $2,000 already. Frank Bags sold me that pew when the market was at its peak. He knew when to get out. And I'm warning you, Vinnie. If the market ever goes up, I'm going to unload that pew!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "M*A*S*H: Life with Father (#3.8)" (1974)

Soundtrack:

Sweet Genevieve

"I Am The Character Of My House"

In his third and final Oscar nomination, William Powell was nominated for playing the bellowing and lovable 19th century domestic tyrant Clarence Day, Sr. in Life With Father. If he had to lose I'm sure Powell was glad it was to his very good friend in real life Ronald Colman for A Double Life. Still with that strange flaming red hair on top of his familiar features, Powell imprints his own personality on the leading role of the longest running play on Broadway up to that time.

Based on the recollections of Clarence Day, Jr. as played by Jimmy Lydon here, Life With Father ran for eight years on Broadway for 3447 performances. It was brought to the stage by Howard Lindsay and his two partners, writing partner Russell Crouse who adapted Day's work to the stage and life partner Dorothy Stickney who with her husband got their career roles on Broadway. The play ran from 1939 through 1947 taking America right through World War II. The time that it was written and presented to the public may account for its popularity as the public might just have wanted reassurance of American values at that critical point.

As Lindsay and Stickney had no kind of movie box office, Warner Brothers decided to acquire William Powell for the lead and cast Irene Dunne as the wise mother who has learned just the right way to handle her husband and inevitably get what she wants. Powell is a man who thinks when all else has failed, he can bellow his way through any situation. My favorite line in the play is when he tries to hire a maid and that title quote is when he's asked for references.

Warner paid a lot in loan outs for this film. Irene Dunne was not a contract employee of his studio and Elizabeth Taylor was also borrowed from MGM for the small, decorative part of a cousin that gets Jimmy Lydon and Martin Milner's hormones in an uproar. The part that Taylor plays was originated on Broadway by another future film star, Teresa Wright.

Incidentally Martin Milner reminisced many years later about the film and said of all the boys and of course Powell, he was the only natural redhead among the lot.

Edmund Gwenn fresh from an Oscar himself for Miracle on 34th Street plays the Episcopalian minister who is trying to get a large contribution from Powell for a new church. Their discussion is also a highlight of the play and the fact that Powell had never been baptized is also a subject of a lot of humor.

Father still had life well into the Fifties with a television series adapted from the play that starred Leon Ames as dear old dad.

The play, the film still have a lot of character in it.