Life with Father
About Life with Father
In 1880s New York, stockbroker Clarence Day Sr. tries to run the house like his office. His wife Vinnie and their four red-haired sons ignore him until they want a change. Vinnie decides he must be baptized. At Delmonico’s, Mary Skinner, a Methodist, is startled that he never was. He promises the baptism when Vinnie is ill, stalls, and is finally baptized in Audubon Park.
Cast & crew
More about Life with Father
Michael Curtiz directed. Donald Ogden Stewart adapted the 1939 play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, drawn from Clarence Day’s 1935 book. Robert Buckner produced. Warner Bros. released it on 13 September 1947 in Technicolor. Warner’s own figures were $5,057,000 in the United States and $1,398,000 abroad, $6,455,000 against a $4,710,000 cost.
Themes
Making
Max Steiner wrote the score. William V. Skall and J. Peverell Marley photographed the Technicolor house.
Look
William V. Skall and J. Peverell Marley shot the Technicolor interiors, including the Delmonico dinner and the baptism in Audubon Park.
Music
Max Steiner composed the score.
Notes
- William Powell plays Clarence Sr. Irene Dunne plays Vinnie. Jimmy Lydon, Martin Milner, Johnny Calkins, and Derek Scott play the sons. Elizabeth Taylor plays Mary Skinner.
- Edmund Gwenn and ZaSu Pitts are in the supporting cast. George Amy edited.
- It was nominated for Best Actor (Powell), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Robert M. Haas and George James Hopkins), Best Cinematography, Color, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. It did not win.
- The Broadway play opened in 1939 and ran 3,224 performances, still the longest run for a non-musical play on Broadway.
- A CBS series with Leon Ames and Lurene Tuttle ran from November 1953 to July 1955 and was the first live color network show to originate in Hollywood.
Scenes
- Mary Skinner learns at Delmonico’s that Clarence was never baptized.
- Clarence is baptized in Audubon Park.
Influenced by
- Clarence Day’s 1935 book and the 1939 Lindsay-Crouse play
Also available
- Internet Archive (LifeWithFather)
