Life with Father (1947)
“He ran his home like a business, until love rewrote the ledger.”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
Adapted from the long-running Broadway hit drawn from Clarence Day's memoirs, Life with Father is a warm, gently satirical portrait of an upper-middle-class Manhattan family presided over by the irascible Clarence Day Sr. He barks about household accounts, clashes with maids and tradesmen, and resists every encroachment on his routine, while his wife Vinnie runs rings around him with charm and persistence. The film's central running joke, her campaign to have the never-baptized Clarence christened, threads through episodes of courtship, comic crises and domestic warmth. Shot in lustrous Technicolor with a deep ensemble cast, it is an affectionate period comedy about a tyrant who is mostly bluff.
Cast
About the Director
Michael Curtiz — Michael Curtiz, fresh from a run of Warner Bros. successes, trades his usual urgency for an unhurried, sunlit period style, letting Powell's comic bluster and Dunne's sly warmth carry the family's gentle skirmishes.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
Life with Father is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright was not renewed. Through a lapse in renewal, the film fell out of copyright and entered the public domain in 1975.
Behind the Scenes
Based on the Lindsay and Crouse play that became one of Broadway's longest-running non-musical productions, the film was a major Warner Bros. release in 1947 and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for William Powell. A missed copyright renewal later sent it into the public domain, where it has circulated widely on home video.
Did You Know?
- William Powell received his third and final Academy Award nomination for his performance as Clarence Day Sr.
- A teenaged Elizabeth Taylor plays the visiting Mary, third-billed despite a relatively small role.
- The source play ran on Broadway for more than seven years, one of the longest runs in its era.
Reception & Legacy
Critics and audiences received it warmly as a polished, good-natured family comedy, and it was among the year's notable Technicolor releases, drawing strong reviews for Powell and Dunne's pairing.
The Emperor Jones
Love Affair
Algiers
Penny Serenade