A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
- Nominated for 4 Oscars
- 2 wins & 4 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBefore 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.
- GoofsClarence Jr. tells Whitney some baseball news about the New York Giants. In 1883, the team was called the New York Gothams, changing to the Giants in 1885.
- Quotes
Vinnie: Is that suit of your father's too tight for you?
Clarence Day: No, it's not too tight.
Vinnie: Well, what is it?
Clarence Day: Mother, very peculiar things have happened since I started to wear this suit. I can't seem to make these clothes do anything Father wouldn't do.
Vinnie: Oh, that's nonsense. And not to kneel in church is a sacrilege.
Clarence Day: Making Father's trousers kneel seemed like more of a sacrilege.
- Crazy creditsAlthough William Powell is listed first and Irene Dunne is listed second in the viewed print on AMC, half of the actual prints listed Dunne first and Powell second. Not only did each version alternate daily in theaters, but so did the advertisements of the movie in newspapers.
- ConnectionsEdited into Your Afternoon Movie: Life with Father (2022)
- SoundtracksSweet Marie
(1893) (uncredited)
Music by Raymon Moore
Lyrics by Cy Warman
Sung by Irene Dunne and William Powell
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.
- bkoganbing
- Jul 2, 2007
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Clarence Day's Life with Father
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $4,700,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 58 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1