Life with Father

In turn-of-the-century New York, Clarence Day believes he is the absolute head of his household. His four sons and his wife move him wherever they like without disturbing that belief. Then his wife raises a demand: the father must be baptised. Persuading him is the problem, and the comedy is the persuading. The source is Clarence Day's own writing about his family. Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse adapted it for the stage, where it ran eight years and 3,447 performances, the longest-running non-musical play in Broadway history. In Michael Curtiz's film, William Powell plays the father and Irene Dunne the mother, with a young Elizabeth Taylor in support. Powell received his third and final Oscar nomination for the role, losing to Ronald Colman for A Double Life. Who it's for: Viewers who like classic Hollywood family comedy and stage-bred dialogue. Who it's not for: The film's assumptions about household authority and the place of its women belong to their era, and the stage-derived pacing is slow.