Life with Father, 1947

William Powell took on the role of Clarence Day in this film which displays how the father was always the hero or the head of the house in the 1880s. The mother was the beautiful, dutiful child manager. But Powell’s Day was constantly being outwitted by his devoted wife. It’s always interesting when a father (character) sets himself up to be king of the family, but the wife is really the true ruler.

The stage play, which held the record for the longest non-musical run on Broadway with 3,224 performances, was based on Clarence Day’s autobiographical book. Clarence’s widow was on the movie set to give approval to Irene Dunne’s performance. She even provided jewelry from the real Vinnie for the film, which released in theaters the same year the Broadway run ended.

Elizabeth Taylor brought a wonderful performance as Miss Mary Skinner in her seventh film, which came three years after National Velvet.

The second oldest Day son, John, was played by Martin Milner, whom I remember as Officer Pete Malloy from TV’s “Adam-12”.

Irene Dunne, nicknamed the First Lady of Hollywood, played Vinnie Day, the mother who kept the Day household going. She was nominated for an Academy Award five times, but never won. Her only color film was Life with Father. A statement attributed to Irene Dunne, according to imdb.com, is “Trying to build the brotherhood of man without the Fatherhood of God is like having the spokes of a wheel without the hub.”

For his work in this film, William Powell won the Best Actor award from the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 1947. Life with Father won the 1948 Golden Globes award for Best Score in a Motion Picture.

The film was nominated in 1948 for four Academy Awards, winning none. They included William Powell’s Best Actor nomination; the Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color nomination; the Best Cinematography, Color nomination; and the Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

When I remember watching Life with Father, I remember the fifteen dollar ceramic pug dog and the “free” suit. I remember the young boy and his first love. I remember laughing at the boy’s determination when it looked like the relationship had no chance of working out. This fun romance with a young hero and heroine was tucked away in a comedy about a man’s ability to rule his family.