Clarence Day Jr., named after his NYC stockbroker father, was born in 1874. After Yale he joined his father's brokerage firm, but after a short stint in the US Navy he was struck by severe arthritis, which crippled him for the rest of his life - tragic for him, but a boon to American culture and humour, for thereafter he turned to writing. In the 1930's Day produced three best-selling books of humorous memoirs describing daily life in the Day household on Madison Avenue in 1890's New York. The books were adapted for Broadway, and as a play, *Life with Father* was a smash, running right through WWII. The play was, naturally, a hot property when Warner Brothers bought the film rights for this handsome 1947 production.

Excuse the historical introduction, dear readers, but I thought it necessary for a book/play/film which were all famous in their time but are now all but forgotten by everyone except for social historians of 19th-century America!

Warner lavished A-list stars, director (Michael Curtiz), music (Max Steiner, whose score was Oscar-nominated) and even Technicolor (on a film which really doesn't profit much by it) on *Life with Father*, and the film is undeniably well-mounted. The irony is that the film retains most of the play's indoor settings, and, while this if anything emphasizes the fine all-around acting, one might question whether it justified the trouble and expense of Technicolor - beyond establishing the fact that all the males of the Day family are red-headed!

Perhaps this is the place to say that *Life with Father* has been poorly served by both its current VCR and DVD issues; on both not only is the colour very washed-out, but even the audio is poor, which is more serious for a film that depends on snappy, well-timed dialogue. One can only hope that someday Warner will get around to the kind of Technicolor restoration of this film which it so magnificently carried out recently with *The Adventures of Robin Hood*.

*Life with Father* is a period piece, an affectionate look back at life in a 19th-century patrician New York family dominated by its blustering, self-centred but genuinely loving patriarch, Clarence Day Sr. At least, he seems to dominate. As the plot progresses it emerges that wife and mother Lavinia (Vinnie) well knows how to handle Mr. Day, and although life in the Day household could never be called serene, it rests firmly on the parents' deep and sincere love for each other. And you couldn't ask for two more heartwarming portrayals of these essential roles than William Powell and Irene Dunne, both accomplished Hollywood veterans, and both in fact nearing the end of their acting careers; Powell received his third - and last - Oscar nomination for this role (he never won), and Dunne would receive her *fifth* nomination the following year in *I Remember Mama* (she never won either).

Powell's character is a tyrant - not a petty tyrant, because he has a strong moral sense of whatever he does; the problem is, he believes that whatever he does is morally correct! The result is tactlessness so preposterous that we have to laugh, but likewise so intimidating that most of the family are somewhat in awe of Clarence Sr. He complains to Vinnie over breakfast about the new maid, while the maid is actually serving him his bacon and eggs (when the maid dissolves in tears and Vinnie rebukes him, he typically replies, "But Vinnie, I was addressing myself to *you*"); at another point he urges their church minister to stop putting such silly ideas into Vinnie's head as the importance of Christian baptism! "Heaven sounds to me like a pretty unbusinesslike place", he comments; "It would be just like you to try to run things up there," Vinnie retorts. This exchange tells us a lot about mama and papa Day, but above all it shows that Vinnie is really the only member of the household who can shake him by the collar. Indeed, the essence of the plot is how Clair (significantly, only Vinnie can call him by this familiar name) is in the end cornered by Vinnie into agreeing to something he intensely dislikes, in spite of desperate efforts on his part to wriggle out of it.

At the end of her career Irene Dunne said that, of all her major roles, she most disliked this one. It's not hard to see why; Vinnie is, in many ways, an airhead. Her attempts to keep track of household expenditures drive Clair to distraction (here, at least, with some reason), and the plot also pokes very gentle fun at her simple Christian piety. Her efforts to avoid arousing Clair's ready wrath often backfire uproariously. What makes her in many ways an admirable figure, however, is her readiness to face that wrath and stare it down when she has to (which is often). Feminist critics should remember the second-class social position of wives in the 19th century (and even in the 1940's) before they come down on Vinnie too hard. And the sunniness and love which she selflessly dispenses all around her really keep the family afloat, as Clair himself confesses. She may have disliked the role, but Dunne does a wonderful job of creating a character of firm moral purpose on the one hand, and rather lightweight intellectual abilities on the other. And she and Powell have great chemistry together on screen. The experience of both as stage actors served them extremely well here.

Clarence Jr. is portrayed by Jimmy Lydon. Unknown to modern viewers, Lydon was in fact a very familiar face to 1940's moviegoers, thanks to his string of popular *Henry Aldrich* films during WWII. He does a fine job as the eldest son, set to leave for college and trying to emerge from his father's long shadow while at the same time trying to emulate his father's strong character. More familiar to TV buffs is the second son John, played by a delightfully young Martin Milner (*Route 66*, *Adam 12*). Another screen veteran, Zasu Pitts, plays Clare's dotty cousin visiting from upstate New York. As the bemused minister of the Days' church, old pro Edmund Gwenn (*Miracle on 34th Street*'s Kris Kringle in this very year) is his reliable self.

Most modern prints of the film give Elizabeth Taylor third billing (after Powell and Dunne, naturally), but this is more because of her subsequent fame than her importance in the plot. Poised between her child roles (*National Velvet* in 1944) and first adult roles (*Father of the Bride* in 1950), Taylor plays a young girl who gives Clarence Jr. his first taste of romance. Taylor is a pleasure to look at, as always, but her character is so simpering that she must have appeared a caricature even in 1947. Perhaps it's worth noting, though, that Taylor was the only up-and-coming star in a film which otherwise featured distinguished veteran performers (one might compare Callista Flockhart's turn in *A Midsummer Night's Dream* or Reese Witherspoon in *The Importance of Being Earnest* for recent analogies). It's also a reminder that, even for 1947 audiences, this film had a venerable air, based on a very traditional drawing-room play and hearkening back to a way of life rapidly vanishing at the time and light years behind us now.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12