If you are looking to go back in time and visit America of the Victorian years, particularly New York, you don’t need a time machine; just a smart TV, tablet, or simply your smartphone that can play Michael Curtiz’s Life with Father (1947) off YouTube. The comedy of yesteryears is all family, faith, tradition, and of course some chuckles.
In Life with Father, the viewers get to see the life of the Days – namely Clarence Day (William Powell), his wife Vinnie Day (Irene Dunne), and their four young sons – in New York of 1883. The daily life in the Day house comes filled with love, care, little adventures turning into misadventures, and social commentary that defines the worldviews of various characters. One imposition that continues to haunt Clarence is his revelation that he has not been baptized. With Vinnie being a devout Christian, there seems no escape for Clarence from this rope.
Life with Father is your textbook case of a family movie with all the good old humor free of anything that was considered indecency in those times and thus loyally represents the Victorian morals. It takes the viewer back in time not just by its setting but through a measure of the difference on many levels in the way people used to live back then as against we do now. In a film class, this is the kind of comedy an instructor would show the students to demonstrate a change in audience’s taste for humor.
Like in any good family movie, timeless human needs and qualities have ample representation in Life with Father, things like love, loyalty, responsibility, and active involvement in domestic as well as social affairs. With most of the scenes shot indoors at the Days house, the movie has the feel of a traditional sitcom and is likely a better fit for those who either love old-fashioned dramas or any younger folks who want to try something different than today’s comedies for a change.
