Mon père et nous

... that I could watch once a month every month, year in and year out, and of which I would never tire.

The Day family is headed by the authoritarian and often eccentric father, Clarence Day Sr., played brilliantly by William Powell. Powell brings his signature charm and wit to the character, making Clarence Sr. A lovable figure despite his quirks. Irene Dunne portrays his equally strong-willed but supportive wife, Vinnie, with grace and impeccable comedic timing. The chemistry between Powell and Dunne is the film's backbone, with them often being at odds, at least on the surface.

Set in late 19th-century New York City, it captures the charm and idiosyncrasies of this conservative Victorian family in a lighthearted and amusing manner. Clarence Day demands that the family finances be run on a business basis, but his family thwarts him at every turn. However, the main conflict in the film occurs when Vinnie discovers, by Clarence Sr.'s own admission, that he has never been baptized. Being dogmatic about the Protestant religion, she openly fears for his soul, believing that he will not be admitted into heaven without this event occurring, and even wondering if they are really married in the eyes of God. Day finds the whole business ridiculous and refuses to be baptized, since he would feel himself to be a spectacle to be baptized in middle age. Religion is something he tolerates as long as it does not become a bother.

Along the way a haunted suit, a ceramic pug dog, patent medicines prior to the FDA, a revolving door of maids, and the oldest son of the family, Clarence Jr., wondering if Episcopalians and Methodists can peacefully coexist (he wants to court a Methodist girl and he is Episcopalian) create charming situations that make this movie special. Expertly directed by Michael Curtiz who manages to make this play adapted into a movie not appear episodic.

The casting of this film actually turned into a mini "Scarlet O'Hara War" in regards to who would play Mrs. Day. Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Rosemary DeCamp, Jean Arthur, Bette Davis, and Mary Pickford all campaigned for the job but in the end lost out to Irene Dunne. Pickford took the loss especially hard, hoping that this would be her comeback role.

As an adult, Clarence Day Jr. (1874-1935) joined his well-known father on Wall Street--but developed a form of arthritis that left him a semi-invalid. Shortly before his death he published LIFE WITH FATHER, a humorous memoir of his Victorian childhood; sadly, he did not live to see its great success. A best seller, the novel was adapted to the stage in 1939 by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Warner Bro.s bought the film rights, agreeing to wait until the show finished its Broadway run; as it happened the studio had a long wait, for the play went on to become one of Broadway's longest running shows, playing almost eight years.

In acquiring the rights, Warner Bro.s also gave Clarence Day's widow and playwrights Lindsay and Crouse substantial power over the film version. Censorship issues of the day prevented an absolute translation of the script to the screen, but on the whole the script survived the transformation extremely well, and fueled by a host of flawless performances and remarkably fine production values LIFE WITH FATHER became as memorable on screen as it was on stage.

Clarence Day is an eccentric man, absolutely certain that he alone is correct in all decisions, and eternally running afoul of wife Vinnie's scatterbrained logic, his four sons, visiting relatives, and terrified servants. When a conversation reveals that he has never been baptized, Mr. Day laughs the matter off--but Vinnie is determined that he will be baptized whether he likes it or not. Comic battle-lines are drawn, and the result is a hilariously amusing portrait of Victorian manners and attitudes about everything from religion to the place of women in the world.

The performances are superlative. This would prove to be among the last great roles for both William Powell and Irene Dunne, who play Clarence and Vinnie Day, and to describe their work as flawless is actually an understatement: we completely believe in them from start to finish. The same is true of the cast in general, which includes a remarkably beautiful Elizabeth Taylor; legendary comic ZaSu Pitt; and even a very young Martin Milner. The costuming and sets also capture the look and feel of the era in remarkable fashion. The film is perfectly executed from start to finish.

But you might as well throw your money away than buy any of the releases presently available on VHS and DVD. There is not a one of them worth a dime: the color is atrocious, the sound is horrific, and the picture so blurry that the only thing you'll get for your money is a headache--and this has been true of every factory release I've seen to date.

It is a terrible shame that such a fine, indeed such a great film has been so incredibly neglected. Fortunately for all concerned, LIFE WITH FATHER continues to turn up on television fairly often. Until there is a restored release, don't buy a VHS or a DVD: tape it from television instead, for I can almost guarantee that the version you find there will be superior.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I saw this film - once again on the indispensable American Movie Classics Channel - for the first time recently and it has quickly become one of my favorites. It perfectly captures the flavor of Clarence Day's books and draws us completely into the era and into this particular New York brownstone. This was my first viewing of William Powell in what was surely his quintessential role; his work is superb, as is the marvelous chemistry between him and Irene Dunne as his "dear Vinnie". The source of the movie was Clarence Day Jr's three books - "Life With Father", "Life with Mother", and "God and My Father" - which recollect his growing up in late 19th century New York in the well-to-do household of his irascible, catankerous, but ultimately loving father Clarence Sr. As the books are mere strung-together pastiches, it must have been a challenge to assemble them into a coherent whole with a story line. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse succeeded, in the play on which the film is based, and screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart transferred it to celluloid very nicely. A wonderful character study, and a beautiful snapshot of life in late 19th century New York. Viewers who enjoy it are well-advised to find the books on which they are based (the library is your best bet; the books have gone out of print since their best-seller days long ago). At the conclusion, one hates to have the movie end; you want to spend just another day or two in the Day household.

When I first saw this movie, I thought it was fair at best. On the second viewing, I really, really liked it. I'm almost afraid to see it for the third time, as I could almost dislike it again since I seem to flip-flop on this.

THE GOOD: The film has "charm" written all over it. Although Irene Dunne has some Grace Allen-type gag lines, William Powell is the one who provides most of the laughs in this tale of upper-crust family life in the 1880s. However, both Powell and Dunne are excellent and play off each other well. The story revolves around the personal and business life of the Clarence Day family, a true family in the sense of the word it, which is nice to see. Every character is interesting and the supporting cast includes Edmund Gwenn and Zasu Pitts (love that name!). Nice Technicolor, too.

THE BAD: The romance between Jimmy Lydon and a young Elizabeth Taylor gets a little sappy. Powell's constant exclamation "Gad!" is very annoying as a close as screenwriters apparently could get to saying "God" all the time in 1947.

All in all, it's a nice period piece that takes you back life a little over a century ago, and provides us another one of these more-innocent family stories. To my knowledge, there has never been a good print made of this, either on tape or DVD, which doesn't make sense considering the fine cast and good reputation of this movie.

I have been a tremendous fan of this movie for many years. I discovered the movie version after I had seen a local stage production and it was an excellent transfer of the play to the screen. Until recently I had only seen it on TV first in black and white years ago and then in color on TCM. I like it so well I bought two of the DVD versions (I won't mention which) and as other reviewers have said they were horrible with washed out color, grainy images and sound that was not synchronized and barely understandable. I guess this is all you can reasonably expect for a movie that has some how slipped into the public domain and for which there is not much demand. However, while searching on Amazon I discovered a review for a new digitally remastered DVD that supposedly fixed all those problems. I ordered a copy and the review was correct. There is now an excellent DVD available from DigiComTV BarCode # 885444062681.