Life with Father (1947)

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

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Clarence Day, Donald Ogden Stewart (screen play),

Stars:

William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Powell	...	Father
Irene Dunne	...	Vinnie
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Mary
Edmund Gwenn	...	Rev. Dr. Lloyd
Zasu Pitts	...	Cora
Jimmy Lydon	...	Clarence
Emma Dunn	...	Margaret
Moroni Olsen	...	Dr. Humphries
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Mrs. Whitehead
Derek Scott	...	Harlan
Johnny Calkins	...	Whitney
Martin Milner	...	John
Heather Wilde	...	Annie
Monte Blue	...	The Policeman
Mary Field	...	Nora

Storyline

In late nineteenth century New York a Wall Street broker likes to think his house runs his way, but finds himself constantly bemused at how much of what happens is down to his wife. His children are also stretching their wings, discovering girls and making money out of patent medicine selling. When it comes to light he has never been baptized and everyone starts insisting he must do so, it all starts to get a bit too much.

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Plot Keywords:

new york | children | businessman | episcopalian | forced baptism | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

13 September 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

Vivir con papá

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Apparently, either because the original copyright expired and was not renewed, or because the film was never copyrighted in the first place (it's not listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries), Life with Father's status as a public domain feature resulted in its finding its way into countless VHS and DVD inventories whose dealers do not usually handle copyrighted material, and who rarely have access to original negatives and prints, and these seriously inferior copies have now saturated the market.

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Goofs

In the first five minutes of the film an elaborate clock is seen chiming. The clock has an arm that moves with each ring of the chime. The arm stops moving, but the chiming continues for several more tolls.

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Quotes

Father: I don't go to church to be preached at as though I were some lost sheep.
Vinnie: Clare, you don't seem to understand what the Church is for.
Father: Vinnie, if there's one place the Church should leave alone, it's a man's soul!

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are superimposed on scenes of old New York, viewed as if through an old-fashioned stereopticon.

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Connections

Featured in Precious Images (1986)

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Soundtracks

"Ye Servants of God"
(hymn tune "Hanover") (1708) (uncredited)
Music attributed to William Croft
Lyrics by Charles Wesley
Played on violin by Clarence Jr. and piano by Mary Skinner

User Reviews

"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.