Life with Father **** (1947, William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn, ZaSu Pitts, Martin Milner, Jimmy Lydon, Emma Dunn, Moroni Olsen) – Classic Movie Review 6314

Clarence Day Jr’s autobiographical reminiscences of his family life at the turn of the last century was a Broadway smash, and director Michael Curtiz’s warm and witty 1947 film brings all of its appeal intact to the movies. The clever Donald Ogden Stewart adapts Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s stage play version of Day Jr’s memoir. The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Actor for William Powell, though there were no wins, but Max Steiner won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score.

Irene Dunne and William Powell are superb as mum and dad Clarence and Vinnie Day, and the rest of the cast is almost too good: Edmund Gwenn, ZaSu Pitts, Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Milner (as John Day), Jimmy Lydon (as Clarence Day Jr), Emma Dunn, Moroni Olsen, Elisabeth Risdon, Monte Blue and Queenie Leonard.

It is late 19th-century New York, and the plot revolves around Wall Street broker Clarence (Powell) and his overdue baptism and the script is filled with playful observations of the absurdities of life with an oddball set of relations. Director Curtiz perhaps seems slightly out of his depth with the gently eccentric domesticity, but otherwise this is a lovely film.

Also in the cast are Derek Scott, Johnny Calkins, Heather Wilde, Mary Field, Clara Blandick, Frank Elliott, Creighton Hale, Douglas Kennedy, Philip Van Zandt and Jack Martin.

Running 118 minutes, this Warner Bros film is shot in Technicolor by J Peverell Marley and William V Skall, produced by Robert Buckner, scored by Max Steiner and designed by Robert M Haas, with set decoration by George James Hopkins.

Martin Milner’s father got him an agent at age 15 and he was soon chosen to play his first role of John Day here.

Mary Pickford did several tests as Vinnie, but Curtiz vetoed her.

Powell was Oscar nominated three times as Best Actor, for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936) and Life with Father (1947) but there were no wins.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6314

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